Sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin.
It hasn’t been a good month for historical preservation in Southborough. Earlier this year, the Historical Commission was notified that the Fay School, which owns the 1840s home at 42 Main Street, wants to tear it down to build “an appropriately historical structure.” The school is claiming that the building is unsound even though it was continually inhabited until a few years back, when Fay purchased it for roughly 350K.
Personally, I and others will go picket at the Fay entrance if they try to tear down this historic gem. (I already have my placard picked out: Teach History! Don’t Destroy It!) This house was home to the town’s physician, Dr. Stone, for decades and has served a number of other important roles over the years. With its rambling structure and attached barn it is an amazing example of the Greek Revival farmhouse style, and occupies a crucial plot of land directly across from the Town House.
If the Fay school no longer wishes to preserve the property, it should simply put it back on the market, sell it for a healthy profit, and let some young couple rehabilitate the structure and make it a thriving home again.
Unfortunately, I will have to follow the demolition permit process from afar, as last week the Board of Selectman forced me to resign from the Southborough Historical Commission after 21 years of service. It’s a long sordid story which you can read here in MySouthborough, but essentially the BOS got tired of my harassing them about their abject mishandling of the St. Mark’s Triangle project, and invented an excuse to get rid of me. However, as you read the article, I think you will agree the matter is far from closed. As a final volley before I was forced off the decks, the Commission did send a letter to St. Mark’s School, essentially reminding them that as the owner of the St. Mark’s Triangle, it was their responsibility, or rather their duty, to ensure that there were no burials within the proposed construction sites before another spade of dirt is lifted—that is if we wish to continue to believe their claims of valuing diversity and Native American cultural heritage.
Finally, we received back the long awaited architects’ report on the Museum building funded through CPC monies. The story is bleak: the building requires 180K in essential repairs, mostly in long deferred maintenance.
To quote a favorite line from the Philadelphia Story, “this is one of those days that the pages of history teach us are best spent lying in bed.”
Would that the anti-preservation forces felt the same!
(On a personal note, I know all our hearts go out to the valiant, heroic, courageous people of Ukraine. Their horrific struggles set our first-world problems in true context, and we wish them godspeed in their valiant quest to save their homeland. Slava Ukraini!)
Fay can use the exterior and update the interior of the Dr. Stone house. Perhaps if fay works with an elite developer they will get what they want and too bad for the citizens. Pay to play
That house to my eye is absolutely the the most attractive structure in the entire downtown area. It says to passersby, “old New England.” We can be grateful to Fay for keeping the exterior maintained.
“An appropriate historical structure” is that house and if Fay is unwilling to continue caring for it would be a wretched mistake to murder it. Some else will surely be delighted to keep it alive.
Start a go fund me if possible. So sad this town doesn’t embrace History. Seems most other towns do a much better job. Pave paradise put up a parking lot. So much for being green ♻️