Wrecking Ball Seems Inevitable For Livingston Street "Haunted House" (Poll)

Wanted -- A new home for a historic, old, dilapitated, formerly haunted house. Price: Free. Terms of Sale: Cash and carry.

The Tewksbury Historical Commission voted Monday night to extend the Demolition Delay order for the historic Deacon Pillsbury House on Livingston Street for just a few more weeks, informing that if they cannot find a new home for the old house by Sept. 1, the commissioners will no longer stand in the way of the town's plans to tear down the nearly 200-year-old structure.

The Deacon Pillsbury House, which sits directly across Livingston Street from the town's recreation center, is best known for serving as the site of "Livingston Street Terror" haunted house and graveyard. The site served as the Rec Department's biggest annual fundraiser for over a decade, as people stood in long lines every October to pay a $20 entrance fee to get scared stiff by a variety of ghouls, goblins and ghosts that often bore a vague resemblance to some of the town's high school students.

The annual Halloween attraction has sat dormant since 2009, when the building was deemed unsafe even for the un-dead, due to structural deficiencies and the lack of a fire protection sprinkler system.

On July 14, the Historical Commission voted to delay the town's demolition plans for the structure for up to 270 days while it investigated the feasibility of restoring the historic home. According to Tewksbury Historical Society researcher Tom King, the house was built around 1825 and historically noted as the home to Deacon George Pillsbury, who was chosen deacon at the in 1867. Deacon Pillsbury served the town as a member of the school committee, the board of selectmen and as town auditor between the 1850s and the 1880s. He died in 1912 at the age of 88.

"The interior of the house looks to be pretty much intact from the period in which it was built," said Historical Commission Chairperson Jay Gaffney. "We think it's worth preserving."

But with the town suffering through one of it's most difficult economic periods in decades, Gaffney and his fellow board members are well aware that the town does not have the funds to restore the property.

"The house is a victim of a combination of circumstances," Gaffney said. "Through a number of circumstances it had been the victim of a number of years of neglect."

That neglect has led to structural deficiencies that have rendered it uninhabitable. At its present location, in the midst of the town's most widely-used recreational area, it looms as a safety hazard to the Tewksbury youth who frequent Livingston Street Park at all hours of the day and night.

Historical commission member Keith Rauseo, who toured the house with the town's building inspector last weekend, characterized the property as an accident waiting for a chance to happen.

"We were in the house for 45 minutes and I did not take a single step when I wasn't worried that I would fall through the floor," Rauseo said. "The structure of the building is just not there."

Rauseo estimated that it would cost "six figures to restore it," and Montuori has indicated that the town neither has the ability to fund the restoration nor the desire to see the structure remain at its present location.

Short of lifting the Demolition Delay order and allowing the town to being razing the building within the next few weeks, Rauseo offered a last-ditch motion that sought help from area media outlets in finding a contractor who would be interested in moving the Deacon Pillsbury home to another location, and restoring it at that site. The motion was unanimously approved.

"Right now, this building is a detriment to the town," said commission member Warren Carey. "The chances of someone getting hurt in there are extremely high. I've heard no realistic answers to what we're going to do with it. The money (from town sources) just isn't there."

So unless a knight in shining armour appears within the next month, the wrecking ball with chase the remaining ghosts out of the Deacon Pillsbury house in early September.

"It's frustrating to lose these buildings because I think part of the town's character is it's colonial history," Gaffney said. "And these older buildings are kind of the physical evidence of the town's history. So when we lose one of them, it is frustrating."

Parties interested in the building can contact Gaffney at (978) 640-0200 to arrange an opportunity to inspect the property.