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12/16/13 Demolition pending for two Westport barns, but one may be saved - Connecticut Post
www.ctpost.com/default/article/Demolition-pending-for-two-Westport-barns-but-5061337.php#photo-5590598 1/5
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Demolition pending for two Westport barns, but one may
be savedMeg Barone
Published 7:03 am, Friday, December 13, 2013
VIEW: LARGER |
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The barn on the Geiger's Garden Center property, 1135 Post Road East, which faced demolition
under a plan filed by a prospective new owner, now may be incorporated into redevelopment
plans for the site. Photo: Meg Barone
The influence of the Historic District
Commission may save the last historic
barn along the Post Road, but a second
structure harkening to the town's
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12/16/13 Demolition pending for two Westport barns, but one may be saved - Connecticut Post
www.ctpost.com/default/article/Demolition-pending-for-two-Westport-barns-but-5061337.php#photo-5590598 2/5
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HDC members learned at their Tuesday
meeting of the change of heart by the
prospective buyer of property at 1135 Post
Road East, which is the site of Geiger's
Garden Center. They also learned that
their efforts will probably not be enough
to save a 20th century barn at 49
Whitney St.
Both historic barns are included in the
Connecticut Trust Barn Survey.
Mel Barr, a planning consultant for the
prospective buyer of the Post Road barn,
told HDC members the developer's initial
idea of razing the structure changed after
learning about its historic significance
from Todd Levine, an architectural
historian for the Connecticut Trust for
Historic Preservation and the state of
Connecticut. Levine, some HDC members
and interested members of the general
public toured the barn as snow fell on the
morning of the meeting.
"Their original intent was in tearing down
the barn, but now they're stepping back
and taking a second look at it," Barr said.
Providing the HDC with an update of
proposed plans for mixed-use
development there, Barr said the
developer is considering ways to
incorporate the core portion of the barn
into the site plan. The project would have commercial use in the front of
the property and multi-family housing in the back.
"We're in the on-going assessment stage," Barr said.
HDC Chairman Francis "Randy" Henkels said Levine confirmed the barn
is of a certain vintage and built with heavy timber using some hand-hewn
and some sawn timbers. What wasn't clear to Levine is whether the barn
was built there or moved to the spot and reassembled. Levine also
apparently doubted the historical significance of the barn's "appendages,"
which may have been later additions.
Westport resident Wendy Crowther, who went on the barn tour Tuesday
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12/16/13 Demolition pending for two Westport barns, but one may be saved - Connecticut Post
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morning and attended the HDC meeting that night, said the best possible
outcome would be for the barn to remain in place. Even if the barn is
spared and worked into the site plan she thinks it would be detrimental to
relocate it on the property.
"Leave it where it sits now. By moving it you're compromising its historic
placement; and it's built on a bank. You'd have to move the bank to have
it make sense," she said. "It's the last barn still standing on Westport's
Post Road," Crowther said.
While that barn may remain on the Westport landscape, the other barn
discussed by the commission seems poised for demolition when the
balance of the delay period for a demolition permit application expires
next spring. The Whitney Street structure is likely to be spared, board
members indicated, only if an interested individual or developer steps
forward to purchase the property with the intent of saving it. Perhaps that
barn could be renovated and used as a legal rental under certain zoning
regulations involving historic preservation, some HDC
members suggested.
Robert Grant, the Westport lawyer who represents Judy Mack and her son
Christopher Mack, owners of 49 Whitney St., said Levine did not assign
the same historical significance to their post-and-beam barn, which was
built in the 20th century, as the barn on the Geiger site.
"It's not, by virtue of its construction, historical ... It's not going to be
saved. I'm sorry," Grant said.
However, Levine indicated barns in Westport should be cherished,
regardless of their historical significance or year of construction, because
so few are left. HDC members agreed. They voted unanimously to deny a
request to waive the balance of the delay period for a demolition permit
application for the Whitney barn.
"This is the most amazing barn inside ... That was a working barn for a
very long time ... It's a very prominent part of the streetscape," Betsy
Wacker said, adding that it "speaks for itself as part of the story of
Westport." Grayson Braun said it's notable that a 20th century barn was
built in Westport after the town's agrarian economy eroded. Braun said
she thinks the barn should not be torn down, but instead worked into site
plans there.
But Grant said the owners have already lost a potential buyer because of
the demolition delay and, he added, "Builders are not interested in this. If
that buyer comes along we will embrace that buyer."
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12/16/13 Demolition pending for two Westport barns, but one may be saved - Connecticut Post
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12/16/13 Demolition pending for two Westport barns, but one may be saved - Connecticut Post
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