Politics & Government
VIDEO: Demolish or Preserve? Is it Even Worth Preserving?
Municipal Properties Director Dean Charter is looking for your input on whether the unoccupied deteriorating home in the parking lot of the Acton Memorial Library is worth preserving.
NOTE: I decided to re-feature this story because it had generated some great conversation and the public meeting is coming this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Faulkner Room of the Acton Town Hall.
the Acton Patch interview with previous owner of the "Asa Parlin House," Molly (Vaillancourt) Lyttle.
the blog post about the "Asa Parlin House," by , publisher of the
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Visions for Vacancy:
According to an aged plaque covered in cobwebs, the Massachusetts Historic Commission deemed 17 Woodbury Lane "worthy of preservation" back in 1966. The house is eerie on the outside and decrepit on the inside. No one has been living there for many years and the Town of Acton purchased the property back in the 1990's in order to properly create parking for the Acton Memorial Library/Town Hall complex.
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, Acton's Municipal Properties Director did a study in the late 1990's to get a ballpark idea of what it would cost to restore the building and determined that the amount of deterioration made it economically infeasible. A new study is being done and the Town hired architecture firm Menders, Torry & Spencer, Inc. to take another look at it. Town officials are meeting with the firm Wednesday night in the Faulkner Room of the .
Charter insisted if the building was to be demolished, all the green space would not be bulldozed into a 'Kmart parking lot.'
Charter and the Town also wants input from you. What would you like to see there if the building is demolished? Well, lets X-out the playground idea since Goawrd Playground is yards away (in the same complex) and may be soon experiencing a . It may be suitable for a nice picnic area with a few additional parking spaces squeezed in there but your input is valuable to this process and can be heard at a public forum on June 13, at 7:30 p.m. in the Faulkner Room of the .
Take our poll just for fun.
Do you think it should be preserved in some way or do you think it should be brought down for a future vision?
Start a conversation here on Patch in the comments section.