Historic shoreline sites making way for new park
After more than two decades of uncertainty and political wrangling over the fate of historic sanatorium and other buildings that make up Connecticut’s Seaside State Park, the state announced this week that it would move forward with a plan to tear the buildings down.
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection announced this week its plan to use $7.1 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to develop a “passive park” design at Seaside, which it said will involve the removal of the “deteriorating” buildings to make way for a series of walking trails, picnic areas, parking facilities and restrooms accessible to future visitors to of the park
The state’s plans will also include shoreline improvements to protect the 32-acre acre site, which abuts Long Island Sound and is susceptible to coastal flooding.
More ambitious proposals to save the aging buildings at Seaside had repeatedly failed to come to fruition in recent years amid squabbles with developers and a lack of funding from the state.
At one point, DEEP proposed transforming the site into a “destination” park complete with a 100room guest lodge and boardwalk, though the project’s potential $63 million dollar price tag proved unpopular, according to a survey conducted by the agency.
The “passive” plan of demolishing the buildings and allowing the park to return to a more natural landscape of lawns, beaches and small groves of trees was the cheapest of three concepts outlined by DEEP in 2016, and required the fewest long-term maintenance costs.
“We know there is a significant history at the site that needs to be acknowledged and captured,” DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes
said in a statement announcing the agency’s decision. “We look forward to including local officials, the Friends of Seaside State Park, historic preservation advocates, and other interested stakeholders, to identify the best way to honor the memory of these historic buildings in the design of the park.”
The agency did not say when work would begin to demolish the buildings on the site. A DEEP spokesman said Thursday that the agency would begin planning its next steps over the next several weeks and months.
Originally developed by Connecticut in the 1930s as a sanatorium for children with tuberculosis, the park is home to four Tudor Revival-style buildings designed by famed American architect Cass Gilbert, whose other works include the U.S. Supreme Court Building and New York City’s Woolworth Building.
The site was later used as a home for people with developmental disabilities and in 1995, the sanatorium and its surroundings were added to the National Register of Historic Places. A year later, the hospital was closed and its patients moved elsewhere.
Since then, the brick-and-granite buildings designed by Gilbert have slowly deteriorated to the point that the local officials began to grow concerned about the safety of the structures, and the state installed fences to keep trespassers and vandals out.
Waterford’s First Selectman, Robert Brule, did not return a request for comment on Thursday. In a statement provided by DEEP, he said the town was appreciative of state moving forward with a plan to develop the park, and “allow the citizens of Connecticut to once again safely enjoy this great coastal asset,”
Gilbert’s great-granddaughter, Helen Post Curry, lives in New Canaan and has led efforts to preserve the buildings as president of the Friends of Seaside State Park. In an interview with CT Insider last year, Curry lamented that time was running out to save the buildings given the escalating costs involved with restoring them to habitability.
After DEEP announced its plan to demolish the buildings this week, Curry said she accepted the decision and looked forward to working with the state to preseve the “memory” of the parks architecture and history.