Relocation of Beechwood House To Restart Soon

After a three-month stall, the process to move Beechwood House is expected to be rekindled soon. Coastal Resource Management Council announced this week that no complaints had been filed against the partial demolition of the annex buildings as of the March 18 deadline and that the two permits to demolish those structures and to temporarily relocate it would be processed and issued "within the next few weeks."

"It's nice things are moving again," said Andrew McClatchy, will moving the 137-year-old house to his property on Cold Spring Lane. "I think it'll lift people's spirits once the process starts up again."

Once the permits are approved, Beechwood House will be relocated to McClatchy's property at 70 Cold Spring Ln, replacing another home on the property. Last December, the North Kingstown Town Council unanimously voted to give McClatchy $123,000 to move Beechwood to his property across the parking lot.

As part of the permit process, CRMC instated a stipulation at the behest of the Rhode Island Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission to give parties interested in obtaining the home located at 70 Cold Spring Ln. until April 1 to claim the building. According to McClatchy, the home is estimated to be nearly 300 years old and built in the early 1700s. McClatchy said that two people have shown interest in taking and relocating the Cold Spring house

"If someone wants it, that'd be wonderful," said McClatchy. "I would bend over backwards to help them and would cooperate."

The impending permits will be issued just in time for the spring thaw which, according to McClatchy, is the worst time of year to move the house. Originally, the house was supposed to have been moved by the end of February. Despite the setback, McClatchy is determined to move the house in time for the summer so the town can commence its plans to redesign the beachfront and construct the much-anticipated Lafayette bandstand.

"We put a man on the moon, we can certainly move Beechwood House during torrential downpours if we have to," McClatchy said.