Lost: Staten Island's 1909 Butler Manor
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Sept. 23, 2010
Butler Manor, built in 1909 by boat manufacturer Elmer Butler, was summarily demolished earlier this month. Designed by Lamb & Rich (which also designed Theodore Roosevelt's Oyster Bay retreat) the three-story Italianate residence once dominated a 65-acre estate on the southeastern shore of Staten Island. It was later used as a seaman's retirement facility, and later as home to the Staten Island Montessori School.
In March 2005, Butler LLC, owned by Anthony and Elaine Adamo, bought the property for $650,000 and sold off part of the land as a home site. In January of this year the Adamos applied for a demolition permit, which was issued by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in August. The Adamos then sold the property to Brooklyn-based developer Joe Vitacco for $1.2 million.
Vitacco, who declined to comment, ordered the building's demolition, which began Sept. 2.
"The saddest part of this experience is not having any of the owners be willing to speak to us about alternative plans that would have succeeded for this building," says Merike Kammar-Kerner, president of the Butler Manor Civic Association, an organization founded in 1948 that fought to save Butler Manor. "It breaks my heart. I've lived here for 30 years … There's so little left."
Other local preservation organizations fought to save the building, including the Staten Island-based Tottenville Historical Society. "It's such a great loss from so many different angles, not only to the community but to the parents who had to scramble looking for a place to register their child for school this semester," says Linda Hauck, president of the Tottenville Historical Society.
"Here we have a home, a Lamb & Rich, with a good use for the community, and here it just goes up in smoke," Kammar-Kerner says. "That's what rolled out onto Highland Boulevard when they demolished it: a big cloud of smoke."
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Comments
Submitted by Justin at: September 28, 2010
The name of Hylan Boulevard is misspelled in the article - not that that would save this house!
Submitted by Barker at: September 28, 2010
Adamos and Vitaccos should be shunned by everyone. This story makes me angry. We need extreme socialistic laws to protect our historic patrimony from such GREEDY PREDATORS. A pox on both their houses. I do not wish these HUNS well !!
Submitted by NTHP member at: September 25, 2010
It was technically designed by C.A. Rich - same firm, different name (Lamb & Rich split in 1899).