Fate uncertain
City reviewing request to raze deteriorating 151-year-old building
Troy’s planning commissioner is reviewing a request to raze deteriorating church.
The deteriorating 151-year-old St. Jean Baptiste Church building, a previous cornerstone for the French and French-canadian community, appears headed for demolition 50 years after it shut down.
The city planning commission is reviewing an application by James Kennedy of Greenpoint in Brooklyn, a real estate developer, to raze the former church at 230 Second St. that was dedicated in 1869.
“I don’t want to demolish it. I tried everything to save the building,” Kennedy said Wednesday.
Kennedy has been working with city code enforcement and engineering on the building. The demolition application to the city states, “Most recently there was a concern for public safety which has led to the owner proceeding with demolition.”
The planning commission will consider Kennedy’s application
when it meets Thursday.
Uses for the building that were explored included a fitness center and an ag-tech operation to turn the structure into a grow facility, said Kennedy about alternatives that were considered after he purchased the property from the city.
Prior to the $125,000 purchase, Kennedy’s firm Murphy Kennedy Group proposed replacing the church with a $2.045 million office building on the 0.29-acre site, according to a proposal submitted to the city in 2017. This plan never developed. Kennedy said he is not certain what he will do with the lot once the church is knocked down at an estimated cost of $100,000.
The previous owner proposed in 2010 to transform the church into an indoor marketplace for food and clothing vendors. That plan didn’t move forward.
Kennedy said the church structure would be too expensive to repair and renovate. Bricks are falling off the building, which is boarded up and fenced off. The fire department has placarded the building indicating it’s too dangerous structurally for firefighters to enter in case of a fire.
St. Jean was one of the first Roman Catholic churches to close in the Capital Region when the final Mass was said there in December 1970. The congregation dates back to 1852 when its first baptisms and marriages were recorded. The parish moved around the city before the church building was erected on Second Street just south of Washington Park.
St. Jean served as a parish for French and
French-canadian residents in the area especially from neighboring Cohoes, said Kathy Sheehan, historian for the city of Troy and Rensselaer County based at the Hart Cluett Museum.
“It was not as obvious as Little Italy,” Sheehan said about the French presence in the city when it was economically booming during the 19th century.
Kennedy said he has been seeking to dispose of the slate roof and a few stained glass windows that were not removed, possibly as donations, before the building is demolished. Kennedy said, “I’m still bullish on Troy.”