[MassHistPres] Demolition of Old Store in Historic Registration District

[Ralph Slate]

If Federal (CDBG, brownfield) funds are ‎being used in this project, wouldn't a Section 106 review be required? If so, that could make the town use local funds to do the work, making the work less palatable. 

Beyond that, your only power is that of persuasion. That can be political persuasion or trying to capture the public sentiment. Raise awareness and maybe someone will step up and purchase the building from the town. Convince the town to throw in the money they would have spent on demolishing the property to keep it as a tax-producing property. 

Ralph Slate
Springfield Historical Commission


Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
  Original Message  
From: Cathy Roth
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2015 9:44 AM
To: masshistpres at cs.umb.edu
Subject: [MassHistPres] Demolition of Old Store in Historic Registration	District


Hello fellow Historical Preservationists,

We have a building in our National Historic Registration District
that was previously the Town of Middlefield’s General Store. It is
about 100 years old. It has been abandoned for about a decade
and has had brownfield remediation undertaken by DEP during the last 
2-3 years to address soil contamination from gas pumps removed from 
the site 20 years ago or more. The building abuts a residential home which 
is from the same historic era and was abandoned at the same time by the owner.

The Town is in the process of taking the property for upwards of $200,000
in back taxes. While not public yet, the Selectboard is moving towards demolition
of the store and possibly re-use of the residence. An engineer brought in by the 
S.B. and the building inspector have indicated that the store building is not worth saving.
The Middlefield Heritage Society is interested in having the town repair and re-use the 
building. 


I understand that being under the National Register designation does not prevent
demolition. Have any of you suggestions for how we might proceed to keep this historic
building from being torn down?
Many thanks,
Cathy Roth, 
Previous President, Middlefield Heritage Society 

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