Is Cohanzie School Historical?

Is the abandoned a historical building?

First Selectman Dan Steward doesn’t think so. Town Planner Tom Wagner, a self-proclaimed supporter of historical preservation, “isn’t so sure.” But that isn’t stopping Waterford’s municipal historian and lover of all things old, Town Clerk Robert Nye.

“For starters, I think it is a very attractive building,” Nye said. “It is a landmark of an earlier time and once it's gone, it is gone forever.”

Nye will meet with the State Historic Preservation Board this morning to try to get Cohanzie School on the state historical register, a move he said will “only be a plus” to potential developers. Meanwhile, Steward has said there is a buyer interested in the property, who will likely knock most or all of the building down to build a housing development. He refused to comment further.

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Cohanzie School was built in 1923, after four one-room schoolhouses merged into one, Nye said. It was considered a “city-worthy” school at the time, as it came equipped with running water and indoor bathrooms, he said.

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But since 2008, after the town merged the students from Cohanzie into the new Quaker Hill Elementary School, it has sat vacant, a burden to the taxpayer. The town has been trying to find a buyer for the property to turn it into housing or professional offices or some mix of both, and now has a potential buyer, Steward said.

Earlier this year, from the state to knock down the building and remediate the state. However, Nye is now looking to get it on the state register, which would make rehabbing the building more plausible.

Nye said if it is put on the register, builders can qualify for tax breaks of up to 30 percent if they choose to keep the building. If they want to knock it down, they are still able to without any restrictions than exist already, according to Wagner.

“It is only a plus,” Nye said. “It doesn’t take any authority away from the town or the developer.”

However, Wagner, who said he was a preservationist, did not think it was a historic building. Steward, who graduated from Cohanzie Elementary School, agreed, saying it was not a building worth saving.

“I don’t see it as historical architecture,” Steward said. “Architecturally, it isn’t anything spectacular.”