New Caanan To Demolish 1901 Standard Oil Building
By Gwendolyn Purdom | Online Only | Dec. 8, 2010
In New Canaan, Conn., despite opposition from local preservation groups, the city's Historic Review Commission has approved plans to demolish a 1901 brick building to create open space for an adjacent park.
The 800-square-foot structure on the edge of Mead Park, referred to as either a barn, carriage house, or garage, depending on different groups, once served as an oil-tank depot for the Standard Oil Company of New York and today is used for storage and garage space. According to city officials, the community approves of the demolition, which has been in the works for decades.
But Robin Beckett, a member of the newly formed group Friends of the Mead Park Brick Barn and founding member of the New Canaan Preservation Alliance, says she and other preservationists have uncovered valuable history at the site, and the building could be put to good use housing a nonprofit or community organization.
"In the preservation community, everybody had an eye on this building," Beckett says. "We knew there was something interesting about it, but we didn't know the story."
After the Friends group's request to delay demolition was denied by the Historic Review Commission, Beckett worked with preservation architects and engineers to document the site's history. Evidence consistent with rows of horse stalls, a second-story hayloft, and a possible cupola on top of the building convinced the group to submit the structure for consideration on the State Register of Historic Places, Beckett says. Although the structure was named to the register in November, designation cannot prevent its demolition.
Mike Farrell, chairman of New Canaan's Historic Review Commission, says he and other city officials were surprised to learn of the listing, especially because the city, as the building's owner since 1933, was not informed an application had been filed. Local historians and the New Canaan Historical Society's executive director, Janet Lindstrom, say they've found little evidence in town records to support the building's historical significance, and that the town already has a collection of historic carriage houses and other industrial structures representative of this style and time period.
"It's been kind of a remarkable thing because the farther you get from the building, the more attractive it seems to become," Farrell says. "Those who live in the area, those who are closer to town, those from residential New Canaan, like to walk in the park and see the park, and they are almost without question in support of the demolition and cleaning up the park."
Beckett, however, says she and her group have gathered almost 500 signatures on a petition to halt demolition that's been distributed both online and at local markets. Farrell argues the petition and other preservation efforts have been misleading.
"That petition was labeled 'Save the Mead Park Carriage Barn,'" Farrell says. "It's neither a carriage house nor a barn, but if you're going to circulate a petition at the local farmers' market, the title 'Let's Save Standard Oil Company of New York's Utility Building' doesn't get quite the same reaction."
The commission voted unanimously for demolition on Sept. 10, 2010. So far no demolition date has been set, as bids are being revaluated to reflect the cost of removing hazardous materials like lead paint from the site, but the Friends of Mead Park Brick Barn hope the delay is long enough to get their message out to the community.
"There are very few buildings in town that really speak to the industrial heritage of the town," says Friends member Rose Rothbart. "Things have either been lost or they've been transformed."
For Beckett, the attention the issue has sparked, both positive and negative, is a step in the right direction for local preservation efforts, that she says previously have been too narrow or overlooked altogether.
"It is a hot potato. There are people who are passionate about demolishing it, but without a good reason," Beckett says. "Residents have seen this structure occupied by the town, who has behaved as a poor steward, making it into an eyesore. … But if it were invested in and made into an attraction, or a use that's widely appealing, I think it would immediately flip to the other [side] and become a loved structure in town."
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Comments
Submitted by bill at: December 14, 2010
Another group of uninformed individuals who think by razing a building it will improve the area. There are many examples of structures similar to this that can be reused and not only improve the apperance of the park but add to the vitallity of the area.