Franklin St. house set for demolition in New London
Efforts to save it have failed to bear any fruit
New London — A dilapidated 19th-century building at the corner of Hempstead and Franklin streets is slated for demolition again, the result of its deteriorating condition and failed efforts by preservationists to save the structure.
The demolition is not being challenged.
Shiloh Baptist Church, which has owned the 5,000-square-foot Italianate home at 66 Franklin St. since 2006, applied for a demolition permit last month in response to the latest in a series of condemnation orders from the city that classify the building as a “public nuisance.”
The home, built in 1866, has been a well-known eyesore for neighbors and has been ordered demolished by the city multiple times since 2011, the latest order coming on March 15, city records show.
A representative from Shiloh did not return calls seeking comment on the plans for the property or a timeline for the demolition. The demoli-
tion permit application shows the immediate plans are to remove the structure, at an estimated cost of $15,000, and plant grass.
On July 11 the city’s Historic District Commission and Design Review Board voted not to impose a 180-day delay on the demolition. The same commission in 2011 had imposed what was then a 90-day delay to help explore ways to preserve the building because of its historic or cultural significance. The structure is listed as part of the Hempstead Street Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places, “an architecturally cohesive neighborhood,” that includes 142 structures.
The effort to save the home started in 2008 when Shiloh had agreed to let former New London Landmarks executive director Sandra Chalk market the home for a $1 with the caveat the home be moved off the property by the buyer. The home gained some notoriety in 2008 when Landmarks helped get the home into This Old House magazine, which had a regular feature on old homes that needed to be moved.
Those efforts have continued through the years without success. The home has continued to garner interest, said New London Landmarks Executive Director Laura Natusch. A potential buyer traveled from Tulsa, Okla., to look at it in April, but as with past interested buyers, realized the building has deteriorated too much to make saving it feasible.
Landmarks, which has vehemently fought against demolition of two buildings on Bank Street owned by Bill Cornish, decided not to challenge the demolition.
“We’ve decided it would be unfair to neighborhood residents and to Shiloh Baptist Church to fight this demolition,” Natusch said in a statement.
“We have put Shiloh in touch with a deconstruction company so that its materials can perhaps be reused rather than end up in a landfill, but at this point that is probably the best possible fate for what was once a lovely building,” Natusch said.
Tom Bombria, the city Office of Planning and Development liaison to the Historic District Commission, said the commission had come to the conclusion the building “is too far gone to be salvageable.”
“It was a beautiful home and it definitely should not have happened, but the former owner didn’t have the capacity to maintain it,” Bombria said.
Records show the home was sold by Charles Hinton to Erlinda Vega in 2004 for $115,000. Vega, who initially had plans to start renovations, turned around and sold it to Shiloh for $170,000 in 2006.
No measures to physically preserve the building have occurred in recent memory.
Natusch said she hoped the city could learn from this and “develop a method — perhaps a demolition by neglect ordinance or an amendment to our blight ordinance — to prevent vacant historic buildings from reaching the point of no return.”