Really Bad News about Worcester

WORCESTER — State officials are seeking approval to demolish the historic Worcester State Hospital Clock Tower building but local preservationists hope a compromise can be brokered to save some of the structure.

The Division of Capital Asset Management and the state Department of Mental Health this month filed paperwork with state environmental officials and the Massachusetts Historical Commission to tear down the five-story, 52,000-square-foot building off Belmont Street after concluding that reusing the structure is “not financially feasible.”

The state's Executive Office of Environmental Affairs will conduct a site visit at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 5 in Room 5C of the Bryan Building, 305 Belmont St. Written comments on the demolition request are due Jan. 10.

The state plans to open a $302 million psychiatric hospital next summer about 115 feet northeast of the Clock Tower on 26 acres of the former Worcester State Hospital grounds. Worcester State Hospital was the first state-owned hospital in the country to treat mental illness.

The state had been working with Preservation Worcester and the Worcester Historical Commission investigating redevelopment efforts but those plans were dealt a blow this year when the National Park Service ruled that the Clock Tower, which was listed in 1980 on the National Register of Historic Places, did not qualify for federal tax credits.

Park Service officials said the Clock Tower, which was damaged in a 1991 fire, no longer retained architectural integrity. Developers sell tax credits to investors to raise equity and capital in their projects.

The building's granite and brick façade, clock tower, turret, colonnades and balustrades made it a prime example of Victorian-Gothic architecture. In recent years, it has been listed on Preservation Worcester's Endangered Structures list.

Deborah S. Packard, executive director of Preservation Worcester, said today she hopes an agreement can be reached to at least preserve the Clock Tower portion of the building. Her organization had hoped to save the entire building but a fitting memorial would also be if the thin, tower portion, which overlooks Lake Quinsigamond, could be saved from the wrecking ball

“It would end up being a long needle,” she said. “It's a separate substructure and could be saved.”

Fixing the tower might cost an extra $1 million to $1.5 million and several organizations have expressed interest, she said. The state plans to spend $3 million to tear down the building, she said.

“We will still fight for the clock tower,” she said today. “We still would love to see the building remain but they've determined it's too expensive.”

It would be unfair — and fiscally unwise — for Worcester officials or local legislators to seek millions of dollars in additional funding to stabilize and preserve the Clock Tower at this time. But neither is there any pressing need for the state to proceed with demolition before Preservation Worcester has had every opportunity to explore ways to save the structure, perhaps through a combination of private, corporate and charitable sources.

DCAM’s plans for the Clock Tower site range from a garden to some kind of monument marking the tower’s location.

This statement just kills me! Anyboby remember the "memorial fountain" they were supposed to put in at the sight or Northampton?
[quote=]DCAM’s plans for the Clock Tower site range from a garden to some kind of monument marking the tower’s location.

Apparently none of them are considering how much it would cost to leave the building alone, where it has been standing just fine for the last 140 years.

Honestly, how much could it possibly cost to throw on a new roof and some good boards? I bet I could find a contractor who would do it for no more than 250k, vs demo which apparently costs millions dollars.

Not sure about what, if anything, was done or promised at Danvers but here is a link about the Northampton story:

http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=8631


Soldat has a good point, I too don't see what the big rush is and how it could hurt to take a longer term approach to rehabilitating the Admin. However I'm guessing the issue is and always has been that the "powers that be" don't want what they consider an eyesore sticking out like a sore thumb right in front of thier nice new $300million hospital!