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Pawtucket neighbors to Greek church: Save the Read-Ott House, or let us do it – David Sisson
by David Sisson
Our Quality Hill Neighborhood group, in Pawtucket, is rightfully upset about the proposed demolition of the Read-Ott House on Walcott Street. This home is owned by the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church, also in Pawtucket, which have been poor stewards of the property. Their proposal is to demolish the home. Essentially, demolition by neglect. In other words, it’s their own fault that it’s in the poor condition that it is today.
The Church brought their proposal for demolition to the Pawtucket Historic District Commission, which I’m a member of. The HDC has limited powers in demolition cases, but the Pawtucket ordinance rules allow the HDC to institute a six month demolition delay, but when this six months expires, the City may grant a demolition permit.
In this case, the HDC did institute the six month delay, but unfortunately, this time has passed. The six month delay requires that the Church pursue other options (than demolition) and the HDC offered assistance, but the Church did neither.
In my role as an architect, I approached one of my clients about this building, a client that has extensive experience in rehabilitating historic structures and converting them to apartments. I believed that there was a path to save this home, and create something beautiful and useful for both the Church and Pawtucket. I also approached the Church about this proposal.
3 options presented
My client offered the Church $200,000 for the home, but the Church declined the offer, stating that it was worth more than $200K, and that they didn’t want to give up the land, anyway. Subsequently, the Church came to the HDC and proposed the demolition. As part of their proposal, they stated clearly that they thought the building was ugly and in poor condition, and that they didn’t want the land area for parking, but wanted to make it a green space.
In collaboration with Preserve RI, my office also proposed moving the house, but unfortunately we could not find funding for that option.
As a third option, the City of Pawtucket offered the Church $500,000 towards the rehabilitation of the mansion – I do not know what the parameters of this offer were, but I would think that $500,000 would go a long way towards at least stabilizing the structure for future generations, if not getting it to a point where it’d be feasible to raise the money for the rest of the renovation. The Church has declined this generous offer from the City of Pawtucket.
As readers may know from reports published in the Valley Breeze, the Church intends to demolish the home, and they still do not want parking on this space. A few days ago, I heard on very good authority that the wider group of Church members are not in support of demolition of the Read-Ott House, and that, in fact, some have left the church over this issue.
More distressingly, it appears that the Church may intend to create parking on this space, after all, once the house is gone (this information comes from my sources).
It is clear that the demolition of the Read-Ott House will be expensive – I don’t know the figure, but we can assume that it will be at least $100K. It is also clear that this is a mishandling of the Church’s funds. The home is clearly worth at least the $200K that was offered for it, and one could even make the case that it’s also worth the $500K that the City offered. Adding in the $100+K that it will cost to demolish it, it appears that some members of the Church are willing to forgo over $800K in order to remove this house.
I think it should be noted that the Church has stated that “they don’t want others on their property”. I assume they mean that they don’t want to renovate and rent it, but one has to wonder what role the Church plays in our community if they do not want to interact with the community. Could, for example, the Church find a suitable non-profit who’s use of the Read-Ott House meshed with the Church’s use of their portion of the property? Could the Church use the money to stabilize the building, and beautify the exterior – but not the interior – thus preserving the home for future generations? I would think this would be a sound financial use of the funds, and preserve not just the Read-Ott House, but also the equity – for the community, and also for the Church.
I am an architect with extensive experience in the design and building industry, as well as a preservationist, and a resident of Pawtucket (specifically, the Quality Hill neighborhood), and I believe in the value of buildings and how they can affect a community. The Read-Ott House is located on a gateway to downtown Pawtucket (Walcott Street), occupies a very important location in the city, and represents part of our shared history in Pawtucket.
Replacing it with a green space, or a parking lot, would be like a missing tooth. Architectural history is a very important part of our shared experience. When one travels abroad, to perhaps a country like – Greece – we often visit historical buildings to be reminded of our history and marvel at what our ancestors did. Our history in Pawtucket is also important, and members of Quality Hill are horrified that the Greek Orthodox Church plans to demolish this home and deprive our community of our shared heritage.
The options open to the City and the Quality Hill Neighborhood Association are very limited. Members of the community have been working hard and speaking out vocally about this endangered, beautiful home, but now it appears that our options are coming to an end. We all hope that there’s a solution that preserves this home, not just because we like it, and not just because it’s part of our history, but also for the Church itself. They hold a valuable piece of real estate, that is more valuable because of the buildings on it. They should consider how to preserve this value for future generations of Church members, and consider their role in the Pawtucket community.
Editor’s Note: We’ve been informed that the Pawtucket City Council meeting has the Read-Ott Mansion on the agenda. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 7th at 7pm, in the City Council chambers at 137 Roosevelt Avenue. Anyone wishing to speak must register no later than 1 hour earlier with the City Clerk.
David Sisson
David Sisson Architecture PC
East Providence RI
The home should absolutely be saved – it is part of the fabric of the city (with no pun intended). My family has its roots in Pawtucket – for a time my own grandfather worked for Royal Weaving. The Armenians referred to it as “Ott’s factory”. That home should not be demolished for any reason. It should be restored to its former beauty so it can stand proud and be an example of all the great things that are part of the Pawtucket history.
This is an on going battle. For many years I lived in New Bedford, in the Historic downtown area. Back in the 70’s, we were constantly battling to keep historic buildings from demolition. We managed to save the Rotch, Jones, Duff home and the Zeiterion Theater but the Route 18 extension took its toll.
The Read-Ott House should not be demolished!
I attended a lecture about RI architecture that forwarded the premise that one of the beauties of RI is that through our history buildings were not torn down, which means that there continue to be representations of different stages in our history which you don’t find in most cities in the US. (Look at Benefit Street in Providence.)
The Read-Ott House can and should be saved. What is the matter with the Greek church that is not welcoming to the wise idea of allowing another (compatible) non-profit share its space, an idea that is beneficial to the church, the other non-profit, the community, and building sustainability for now and the future, to list just a few good reasons to keep the building.