110-Year-Old Home Escapes Wrecking Ball Under New Plan

In what both neighbors and developers called a successful use of town authority to save a historical home from demolition, the Brookline Zoning Board of Appeals approved a plan Thursday to move and expand a 110-year-old Coolidge Corner home rather than destroy it.

The building at 70 Sewall Ave. was set for demolition before the town's  Preservation Commission moved to enforce a one-year demolition stay in order to open a dialog between neighbors and the developer to save the architecturally significant structure.

Calling the resolution "just the kind of miracle the demo bylaw was meant to foster," Scott Gladstone, an attorney representing the building's owner presented the revised plans to the board along with architect Peter Quinn.

ZBA members Lisa Serafin, Mark Zuroff and Christoher Hussey voted unanimously in favor of the new plan, which will move the existing building 16 feet forward, leaving it 17 feet from the road. A multi-story addition will be added to the back of the house, creating four more residential units.

"This is a project that we're now very pleased with, very proud of," Gladstone said. "It wasn't easy."

The house was originally built as a single-family home in 1899 before being converted into a two-family. It was then converted into a rooming house and later purchased by Children's Hospital to house the families of patients. Children's sold the building to the current owner who intended to demolish the house until the Preservation Commission's stay was issued.

During the twelve-month stay period, neighbors and the developers worked with a Planning Board design team to create a plan to make saving the house economically feasible.

After a three-to-three tie vote of the Planning Board rejected a second proposal, Gladstone said that neighbors and developers met in the parking lot after the vote to hash out what to do next.

"What we came up with, essentially, is the plan you have before you today," Gladstone said.

To appease neighborhood concerns, the developers agreed to limit the amount of parking spaces to reduce the size of the garage in the rear of the new addition. THe move will increase the amount of open space in the back of the property.

"It takes a village to save a house," said Jean Stringham, the former president of the Brookline Historical Society who was involved with saving the home. Stringham said that over 100 neighbors and other interested parties were involved in the efforts to stop the demolition.

Quinn said that most of the major architectural features of the house will be preserved, including the torrent and porches on the front side. An L-shaped addition that was not part of the original building will be removed. Dormers will be added for additional headroom on the top floor. The original chimney would be impossible to move, Quinn said, so it will be recreated once the move is complete.

A full Planning Board meeting will be held on the new plans before a building permit will be issued.