[MassHistPres] Demo by neglect of town owned building in a NRD

[Robert Busch]

Hi Janice

We have a situation like that in Bolton, at the edge of an NRHD. The 
building is a lakefront cottage that was donated to the Town in the 
1990s.  It was originally used by various Town groups as a location for 
meetings but eventually became vacant and sat unused for over a decade, 
with no maintenance and is now (this week) being demolished (fire 
training exercise).

Several years ago a private group was formed to try to preserve it. 
However this was ineffective.  The primary reason is that there is no 
constituent organization in Town that had any use for the building, even 
if restored. Therefore there was no economic rationale for the 
building's restoration.

Had there been an interested civic user group, it might been saved (it 
was not in terrible condition, though it needed some serious foundation 
work), but lacking a beneficial ultimate use (and an advocate), there 
was no hope.

My recommendation is to seriously examine the utility of your building, 
in particular user interest in it if restored.  If you have a civic 
group "champion" then you have a foundation upon which to build a 
strategy, such as starting a private 501 c(3) "Friends of ..." group to 
both stoke popular interest and raise money.

If the civic utility of the restored building isn't there, it's probably 
futile.

Regards,

Bob Busch

Chairman, Bolton Historical Commission

On 3/7/2023 10:25 AM, J FORREST via MassHistPres wrote:
> Good Day,
>
> I am asking if anyone has had experience in trying to save a town 
> owned building, that is being neglected so it can be torn down.  We 
> have a DDB and the building is part of our only NRD.  I realize that 
> the NRD doesn't prevent this.  I looking for a path to fight this, if 
> possible.
>
> Thanks, Janice
>
> Janice Forrest, Secretary/Clerk
> NEWBURY HISTORICAL COMMISSION
> 12 Kent Way
> Byfield, MA 01922
> historicalcomm at townofnewbury.org
>
>
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> MassHistPres at cs.umb.edu
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