The Atwater mansion, better known recently as the former rectory of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish, is set to be razed to make way for a new Westfield police station.
Reminder Publishing file photo
WESTFIELD — The city’s Historical Commission isn’t trying to stop the demolition of the Atwater mansion, but it is trying to save some historically significant items in the 1896 house.
The house at the corner of North Elm and Union streets, which served for decades as the rectory for Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish, was recently purchased by the city and is expected to be razed to make way for a new Police Department headquarters.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
At a Sept. 23 public hearing, commission Chair Kathleen Palmer said city ordinances allow her board to place a 180-day delay on the planned demolition of any historically significant structure. The Historical Commission can use that time to negotiate with the property owner — in this case, the city itself — on alternatives to preserve the building or to salvage parts of it.
She made it clear, however, that in this case she doesn’t expect the whole building to be saved. At the public hearing, two people asked how the cost of demolition — which includes mitigation efforts for hazardous building materials like lead and asbestos — compares to the cost of renovating the building.
“The city does not have a quote” on the cost to rehabilitate the building, Palmer said, adding, “The bottom line is that they’re going to demolish it.”
Building Commissioner Carissa Lissee said she had inspected the Atwater mansion and found it to be structurally deteriorated due to water damage and mold, especially in the basement and third floor; it has asbestos that is flaking off pipes in the basement and elsewhere; and it has missing and damaged structural supports.
She also said it can’t be reused as a police station or part of a police station. It would have to be gutted, the electrical service updated, remediated for mold, and structural pieces replaced. It would also need a code-compliant elevator.
Joseph Shibley, one of the people who had asked about the cost of renovation, said it would be a shame to lose a historical home.
“I spent the last 20 years restoring two historical buildings down the street. I didn’t know it was going to be demolished until I went to the open house,” said Shibley, co-owner with Donna Shibley of the 1899 Bismarck Hotel, which houses Pilgrim Candle and other businesses.
Shibley said one of the problems with the Atwater house, which was listed for sale for years, was that it was priced out of the market at $5 million.
“I believe it was just overpriced,” he said, adding that he had never been inside the building before a July 20-21 open house hosted by the parish before it sold the property, where he “fell in love with it.”
Shibley said all of the windows and the band around the Bismarck Hotel are made out of the same marble as in several fixtures in the Atwater house. He added that he knew attending the public hearing wouldn’t change anything, but he came “out of respect.”
Ruth Aborjaily said she owns 95 N. Elm St., right next door to the Atwater mansion. She said the area is very “Italianate Victorian. It’s sad you can’t work with it. Hopefully, the police station they build will be in keeping” with the neighborhood.
Aborjaily also asked how demolition workers would keep the asbestos contained, which Palmer said would be a question for the building commissioner, who had left the room by that point in the hearing.
In addition to its history with the Catholic parish — which moved to new buildings on Holyoke Road about 20 years ago, and has used the former rectory only sporadically since then — the Atwater mansion is also significant for its original owner, Dr. James Atwater, a prominent Westfield physician who was descended from a family on the Mayflower.
Historical commissioners Carlene Bannish and Cindy Gaylord asked what it would take to remove the large wooden carving over the marble fireplace in the main dining room, and also the marble fireplace itself. The carving features a ship which is purportedly the Mayflower. The name of Atwater is listed on the Mayflower’s passenger list, Palmer said. The carving is one of the pieces of interest in the house.
City Councilor James Adams said he has been speaking to Raymond Anton, who owns the two marble quarries that supplied the marble in the fireplaces. He said Anton is very interested in saving those pieces for the police station, and is willing to help pay for it, which Adams said could be tricky because the city owns the building.
“This marble has national importance. It is a very rare marble … very unique,” said Westfield resident Bruce Cortis, who attended the hearing. “I don’t think there’s local recognition of what this marble means,” he added.
The two quarries owned by Anton are the Atwater serpentine quarries in Westfield and Russell, initially owned by a relative of Dr. Atwater. The quarries produced the dark green serpentine and tourmaline marble that can be found in many famous buildings, including the Empire State Building in New York and Lincoln’s Tomb in Springfield, Illinois, according to local historical sources.
City Purchasing Director Tammy Tefft said city officials have discussed incorporating some of the pieces into the police station. Lissee and Tefft said the Historical Commission will have an opportunity to indicate which items should be salvaged from the house.
Due to the condition of the building, the city has not allowed historical commissioners to enter the building since it took possession in early August, but Lissee brought to the hearing photos she took of the building and its contents.
Lissee said sometime after the July open house and before the city took possession, the brass fixtures and chandeliers were removed, and the city is trying to find out by whom. A video, “A Look Inside the Atwater Mansion,” taken Ken Stomski for Westfield Community Television at the open house, shows the brass fixtures and lighting intact.
Lissee said due to wires that have been left hanging, the electricity to the building is turned off, and the doors are now screwed shut.
