A 4-1 vote Thursday by the Vermont Advisory Council on Historic Preservation likely means a development planned for the property will be reevaluated, according to an architect on the project. Owner Jeff Mongeon wants to demolish the circa 1803 building to make way for a 75-unit apartment building.
About 20 people attended the meeting in Montpelier, almost all of whom urged the council to keep the Main Street house listed on the register.
“Please don’t be the ones to sign this old building’s death warrant,” said Winooski resident and attorney Joe Gamache. “Please don’t do that.”
“This is a residential dwelling of incomparable historical value to the town,” said Joe Perron, president of the Winooski Historical Society.
“There are only a few historical buildings remaining in Winooski and the mansion house is one of them,’’ said George Cross, former superintendent of Winooski schools and former state legislator. “There really is no good reason to delist it.”
After the vote, the champions of the building shook hands, smiled and celebrated. Although listing does not prohibit demolition, it likely will require more review and permitting at the local and regional level.
Mongeon quickly left the room after the vote and declined comment when Seven Days approached him in the hallway. “Not in the mood,” Mongeon said as he headed to the elevators.
The lead architect on the project, David Roy, had urged the council to stick with its earlier finding. After the decision, Roy said the vote presents a “major hurdle.” He continued: “We’ll have to sit down and assess and reevaluate the development potential of the site. “
Mongeon sought delisting last year. The council voted 4-0 in December to delist the property on the grounds that alterations had erased its architectural significance.
But members of the public became aware of the delisting and demolition proposal in April. They further learned that the December meeting and a prior one in November had not been noticed properly. Mailings that should have been sent to the mayor of Winooski and several other officials weren’t, according to Devin Colman, state architectural historian.
As a result, the delisting was rescinded. The mansion was technically still on the state register at the start of Thursday’s meeting. The council then took a new vote on a motion to delist, and this time the majority voted no.
Members Blaine Cliver, Joseph Luneau, David Donath and Paul Wyncoop voted against delisting. Only chair Ed Clark voted in favor of delisting.
The council considered the matter for more than an hour, listening to public comment and then a presentation from Colman going over his reasons for recommending delisting.
But several members of the council were swayed by arguments that, while architectural details of the structure had been altered, it retains historical importance because of its prominence in the city and because of who has lived there. Francis Childs, who was a close colleague of the nation’s founding fathers, including Benjamin Franklin, lived there, as did F.C. Kennedy, general agent for Burlington Woolen Company, which acquired the house in 1862.
The property “has a lot to say” about Winooski’s mill period,” said Luneau. He suggested that had the council heard as much testimony on the delisting at last year’s meetings, it might have made a different determination.
Meanwhile Perron, of the Winooski Historical Society, said he was heartened to see a “groundswell” of support for the mansion. But he suggested the work to protect it might not be done. “It still hangs in the balance.”
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While I do like the design of this building and understand it has historic value I am very concerned about the precedent this sets. A minor procedural error and a small vocal group of activists just derailed a much needed housing development.
Growth/development have been good for Winooski. If we don’t build housing we will price out young people, workers and people of color. At least we’ll still have historic mansions.
This story is about NIMBYism, nothing else…a small group using their remaining influence to circumvent the publicly-approved zoning district AND the historical delisting a house that is objectively a waste of downtown space.
Why? Because a small group of people on one street don’t want to deal with the inconvenience of temporary construction on their block, nothing else. Construction sucks, but any and everyone who lives in Chittenden County has been inconvenienced by development. More quality downtown Winooski housing? Not in my back yard.
Nobody cared about the supposed historical value of this house when the previous owners put aluminum siding on the house and redeveloped the interior, ruining whatever historical character may have existed. But now that there’s the possibility of the inconvenience of construction, all of a sudden now there’s an emergency historical ‘save this house’ campaign and people care about the fact someone significant lived on that physical space two hundred years ago?
Disclaimer: I’m a tenant in a property next door who’s actually being directly displaced and impacted by this development and I support the development wholeheartedly.
Good. The first vote was done on the sly. Glad for the reconsideration and public input.
The developer should now consider the public’s view and incorporate the mansion in his plans or sell it to someone who will do something with it.
—SWL
Just because a building is old and people feel nostalgic about it does not mean that it meets the criteria for a historic building. Historic preservation should not be about a show of hands – the Advisory Council should be applying standards consistently instead of doing what the majority of people who show up want them to do.
This historically significant house dates from 1802- 1803 & was home of Francis Childs, a late 18th-century NYC publisher who was a close colleague of the nation’s founding fathers Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. In his will, Childs bequeathed the house, upon the death of his wife, to Henry Oakely, a colored young man, who has been brought up with my family, and has conducted with kindness and fidelity towards myself and my wife”. Winooski Historical Society President Joseph Perron wrote “the house survives as a truly rare reminder of early African American history in the State of Vermont. “Additional research into what became of Oakely might yield insights into Vermonts early race relations.” Birth records show Henry Oakley was born in Burlington in 1803. Census records from 1810 in Colchester reveal that the Childs household consisted of Francis & his wife, as well as 4 Free Colored persons. There was another household consisting of Free Colored persons at the time in Colchester- the family of Squire Morehouse (Morehouse Brook). Winooski was an integrated community basically from it’s inception, a fact Winooskians & all Vermonters should be made aware of and be proud of.
Nothing so eloquently bespeaks Winooski’s cultural poverty than calling this utterly nondescript house a mansion and claiming it has architectural significance. Historical value? Perhaps. History definitely has value and reminders are worth preserving; whether this ramshackle apartment house reminds anyone of anything at any time except when trying to whip up public opinion against development is debatable. Its architectural value, though, is nil.
Its great to see the community come together to take note and action to preserve the historic moments in the place they call home! The mansion is a beautiful building and we should take what ever steps we can to preserve history.
The proposed development is absurd! 72 units on that plot of land will be extraordinarily disruptive. The people proposing developments in Winooski need to get their head on straight. First the hotel next to the Champlain Mill building now this?! I mean do we really need another building filled with overpriced one-bedrooms and commercial units no one will be able to rent?
The next steps is for the Winooski historical society is to refurbish or look into restoring the mansion, they need to now take action to keep the mansion a permanent installation of the towns History!