Historical Commission OKs Demolition Request for North and Center Town Halls

The Historical Commission Tuesday night approved a demolition reuqest for North and Old Town Halls so renovations can continue.

Patrick Maloney, the Chairman of the Permanent Building Committee, presented renovation plans to the commission for both buildings.

Both buildings are under a preservation restriction--meaning that the Historical Commission must approve any anticipated demolition.

Jack Glassman introduced the demolition plans to the board. Glassman specializes in historic preservation at Bargmann Hendrie and Archetype, Inc.  and is the lead architect on the project.

"Both projects are partial demolitions, they're selected demolitions, and this is all part of the process of renovating," Glassman said to the commission.

The goal of the renovation and demolition project is to complete some much needed aesthetic and structural upgrades.  Both buildings must also meet Americans with Disabilities Act and building code requirements. Glassman said the goal was to make this upgrades while keeping both buildings as original as possible.

"Both of them are significant buildings with historical and architectural character contributing to the cultural history…of the town," Glassman said.

The planned demolition will include the 1939 addition to the Center Town Hall, also known as , as well as a gabled access to North Town Hall's basement, and stairs leading to a back entrance. The demolition is targeting code violations and addressing accessibility concerns, Glassman said.

The commission made requests for the renovations to use period-piece materials as much as possible, including brick recovered in the demolition, and natural stone for the stairs at North Town Hall. Maloney invited the commission to attend the Permanent Building Committee's next meeting, where the paint colors for the North Town Hall would be proposed.

Along with concerns about details of the renovations, there were some issues with the compatibility of the plans that the commission had received and the plans being presented before the board.

"It makes it a little difficult," said George Merrill, the commission chairman. "I'm trying to study this and then you come in with something new."

Maloney assured the board that there had been no changes to the areas requesting to be demolished.

"We've been making changes to the plans going forward, but the demolition is what we're here for this evening," said Maloney. Maloney also told the commission he wasn't aware that they wanted to approve anything other than the demolition requests.

"We're happy to come back and update this board once we get a little further down the road, we're just trying to make sure that the demolition is acceptable to this board," he said.

The project is on the fast track because of the timetable of the renovations, he said.

"We've been trying to progress along so that we can get the bid out in a timely manner and take advantage of certain economies," said Maloney.

Before the commission voted, Richard McNamee, a member of the commission, informed Maloney that he had the wrong forms for the demolition request.

"For your information, it's an invalid request," McNamee said to Maloney. "You were told wrong, but you did the right thing by following what you were told."

The problem was the form was nothing more than an application, and not a valid approval for demolition. The commission decided to go through with the vote despite this fact, and voted unanimously to support the demolition.

Members of the commission decided to speak with the building inspector so that the procedural wrinkles could be ironed out. The commission will eventually sign off on the demolition permit, as supplied by the building inspector, and the portions of the town halls will be officially approved to be demolished.