Allan Appel Photos
392 Quinnipiac, built by Lorenzo Button around 1850.
Learned: “You have disrespected this commission.”
The owner described crumbling foundations, collapsed chimney, widespread termite infestation eating all the extant beams, a structure ready to fall down with the next strong wind gust.
Neighbors urged commissioners to save the rare 19th century Greek Revival survivor to preserve the Quinnipiac River Historic District’s character.
The two sides made those pitches about the fate of 392 Quinnipiac Ave. Wednesday night at a Historic District Commission meeting at City Hall.
The building was likely built around 1850 and is in the Quinnipiac River Historic District. Owner Gregory Bodytko is seeking a “certificate of appropriateness” required to tear the building down.
The commissioners Wednesday night voted not to approve or disapprove the request. They voted unanimously to keep the issue open until their April meeting and to require Bodytko to present at that time results of an examination of the building by an impartial structural engineer.
No one disagreed that the structure, abandoned and exposed to the elements for at least 20 years, with both its floors fallen through, is in precarious shape.
Retired city Building Official Andy Rizzo, now acting as a consultant to Bodytko, testified that the building was the subject of two tear-down orders, one in 1996 and one in 2012, signed by him, but not followed up on by his successors.
The issue at hand: Is there a pressing danger to public safety requiring a tear-down? Or should the commission order a structural examination to see if the owner’s claims of terminal dilapidation are accurate, and, if not, to consider how the structure might be saved and re-purposed?
Owner Bodytko said he purchased the building about six months ago when his company, Abcon Abatement and Demoliton, was sent by the city to tear it down. Abcon is on the city’s list of approved demolition contractors.
Owner Bodytko and consultant Rizzo.
He said the building, on a small lot facing Elm City Montessori School across Quinnipiac Avenue and bounded by Unlimited Towing and Buckeye Pipeline, could not be taken down safely due to the proximity of the neighbors.
He needed an office for his business, he said, so he decided to purchase it from the owner with the idea of gutting and renovation.
He described removing $3,000 to $5,000 worth of Dumpster loads of rotting wood and other materials. Then, when a large portion of the chimney crashed through the upper floor, he realized the building is “unfixable.”
“That’s when I took out a permit to demo,” said the demolition man.
“We want to knock this building down before it does on its own and hurts someone,” Rizzo added.
Neighbors complained about the unauthorized fencing and barbed wire.
Commission Chair Tina Learned absorbed the description of the dire condition, and queried Rizzo about what happened to his 2012 order and the last five years.
“It slipped through the cracks,” he responded.
“I find the reasoning odd,” Learned said of Bodytko — a demolition man himself — not recognizing the structure’s true condition from the outset.
Bodytko said he didn’t know how bad it was until he got into it.
Learned reminded him that serious as the structural issue might be, “the purpose of the Historic District Commission is to preserve the historic fabric [of a community]. This building contributes to it.”
Two neighbors and area activists then stepped up to the commission’s microphone to expand on that point.
“I was always hopeful someone would turn this into a gem,” said Chris Ozyck, who has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years. He said he once considered buying and renovating the building.
“Taking this building away renders [the neighborhood] more industrial, less historic,” he argued.
NHPT’s Herzan, Christmann at hearing.
He noted that the property is highly exposed, visible from all directions.
Ozyck also said he was troubled to notice that Bodytco or the previous owner had removed some detail from the window framing and had thrown up a fence, with barbed wire, all without coming before the commission.
Another neighbor, Ian Christmann, called that chain link fencing, all done without the HDC’s permission, “troubling.”
“I’d hope the new owners would have made it nice for the neighbors” who, like himself, walk with their children by the building. “Make it look like a place historically cherished,” he urged the commission.
Ozyck questioned Bodytko’s efforts to adapt the building rather than raze it. He mentioned historic details from the windows that were removed and also noted holes poked in the roof. “My sense is that they were poking around in order to make it come down. It’s been there [for a long time] and still could be waiting for a savior.”
When Rizzo and Bodytko returned to face the commissioners, they sought to parry Ozyck and Christmann’s concerns. Rizzo suggested the holes in the roof were made by firemen.
When Learned said there was no evidence of fire in the building, Rizzo countered that it was his experience that when a building is so dilapidated, sometimes the fire department gets permission to allow fireman to practice poking holes in the roof to let smoke out. He suggested that was the case with 392 Quinnipiac.
Fair Haven Heights Alder Rose Santana rose to support the community-building work of neighbors like Ozyck and Christmann. She said if the building must come down, whatever replaces it must add to the historic spirit of the community.
The final public testifier was the New Haven Preservation Trust’s John Herzan. He pronounced the dilemma “very sad.” He read from his organization’s 1982 historic resources inventory, which called the house “an unusually well preserved example of a type of small Greek Revival style house found throughout the Quinnipiac Avenue/Lenox Street area.”
While he was careful not to take a position, he emphasized how the building contributes to the historic fabric. “Before one says goodbye to it, it’s key you follow up with an evaluation of its physical condition. I’m not voting one way or the other,” Herzan said. “I’m asking you to be diligent.”
Learned said that the commission could vote the request up or down. Or it can reference Herzan’s suggestion and the recommendation of fellow commissioner Doug Royalty, and ask for a formal and impartial report on the building’s condition by a professional engineer, or than rely on the informal report of Bodytko’s builder colleagues — all of whom, he had testified, called the building unfixable.
Oil painting by Leopold Schierholz, 1860, New Haven Museum.
Historic view from the Heights, including 392 Quinnipiac, the little white house at the center near water.
Learned emphasized the HDC’s obligation to deal with structures visible from the right of way and noted that 392 Quinnipiac is one of the rare buildings visible not only from both sides and across the street but also from the river itself.
“A demolition plan without a clear sense of what’s to come is very dangerous,” she said. Rizzo and Bodytko had not presented any ideas of replacement buildings.
Learned said she is upset that the fence was put up without permission, in violation of the commission’s rules.
Bodytko said he hadn’t known he needed permission. He said a partial fence was already there when he purchased the property and he extended it “for safety. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“I’m sorry,” Learned replied. “You have already disrespected the commission.”
Bodytko and partner Bob Sergi promised to put up whatever kind of fence the commission required.
However, they were equally urgent in communicating their fear that the building could fall down at any moment. Bodytko said he has been unable to find any company to insure the structure.
Learned said the application has to be considered incomplete without a document from an engineer to corroborate their claims about the dire condition of the building.
City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg added, “Let the engineer evaluating have a background in preservation.”
“I just pray to God nothing happens in the meantime,” Bodytko responded.