Beechwood Relocation Delayed

The story of Beechwood House isn’t over yet as more delays to its relocation have stalled plans to redesign the town’s beachfront.

Last month, the town was issued a cease-and-desist order from the Coastal Resource Management Council after demolition of the house’s annex building began before the CRMC application was approved. According to CRMC, they received anonymous complaints about the demolition, which prompted the cease and desist. Now, the backhoes and other heavy machinery sit dormant as everyone awaits a decision.

CRMC has halted the process and put out a public notice for an application to demolish the annex portion of the building. The move is due to an “abundance of caution” following the fervor associated with the first Beechwood application CRMC saw which looked to demolish the entire building.

“Because of the original application and the number of objections we saw to that, we decided to put this out to public notice in an abundance of caution,” said Laura Ricketson-Dwyer of CRMC. (The public has until March 18 to file any complaints or objections to the application with CRMC.)

CRMC is also currently waiting on approval from the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission on the demolition of a second house on Cold Spring Lane, which would be replaced by Beechwood.

For one man in particular, that go-ahead could not come sooner.

“We were actually hoping to have [Beechwood] moved by last month,” said Andrew McClatchy, the new owner of Beechwood House. “I think we were really on target to do that, but that didn’t come to pass.”

In November, the to give McClatchy the 137-year-old house in addition to $123,000 to remove it from the property overlooking the beach. Originally, McClatchy says he planned to have the house moved to its future location across the parking lot at his property on Cold Spring Lane. Now, the move may not happen until later summer, according to Town Manager Michael Embury.

“The spring thaw is the worst time to be doing it either way,” said McClatchy. “The ideal time was January and February when the ground was hard.”

Despite this, McClatchy says he’s going to attempt to battle the spring thaw and move the house before the summer begins.

“I just feel bad for the regular people in town,” said McClatchy. “These people are going to come out this spring and summer and going to want to enjoy the park. They’ve been promised a bandstand and I feel very badly about that. We may be trying to move it in the mud [to move the house in time for the summer.] I don’t know, but we’re going to try to do everything possible.”

Embury added during a Town Council meeting that, once relocation was finished on the Beechwood site, construction could begin on the long-awaited Lafayette Bandstand.

In January, the for the town beach, courtesy of Donald Leighton. The new plan would move the bandstand, originally slated for the northend of the beach campus, to the southend and place open green space in the area currently occupied by Beechwood House. The open space would be able to accommodate up to 1,400 people.

The bandstand was disassembled in 2008 to make way for the new Beechwood Senior Center. Since then, the band has performed on temporary risers in the shadow of the old Beechwood House.

“Acoustically, it’s not the same,” said John Smith, president of the Lafayette Band’s board of directors. “You can’t hear the full range of the sounds of the band. It isn’t a pleasant setting for the audience and eats into the size and experience of the audience.”

For Smith, the process has gone on too long and has been “unduly and unnecessarily delayed.” Smith added that he believes construction of the bandstand and the removal of Beechwood can be concurrent.

“The longer this is delayed, the more that can happen to get in the way,” he said. “I say just do it.”