I don't have any answers to this situation. This is one of the last of the old-time storefronts in town. It would be great to save it, but I understand the current owner's dilemma.
From the KC Times --
Friday, 19 September 2008
Jessica Selby
COVENTRY — Local residents who make a habit of looking through the building permits listed in the newspaper might recently have noticed another Coventry building slated for demolition.
Read Commons, according to the list, had received a permit for demolition of a building at 700-706 Washington St. Some who read the list might not have recognized the name Read Commons. They might have recognized another name for the site — the Byron Read building.
The one and a half story mansard roofed commercial building with store fronts across the façade of the first floor was constructed in 1882. It is identified in the “Historic and Architectural Resources of Coventry, Rhode Island; a Preliminary Report,” created by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, as the largest store in the Town of Coventry at the turn-of-the-century. It is said to have sold furniture and hardware items. An undertaking business was also located in the building.
The building has ties to the funeral home located across the street, now the Gorton-Menard Funeral Home. The Gorton-Menard Funeral Home occupies the three-story late Victorian house that was built as a home for Byron Read, proprietor of the store and the town’s undertaker.
Today the building at 700-706 Washington St. is mostly vacant. The exception is a single small business, The Wood Floor Store. The building shows signs of age and vandalism.
The current owner of the Byron Read Building visited Coventry Town Hall earlier this month and requested a demolition permit, according to interim Town Manager Paul Sprague. He was entitled to that permit, Sprague said; there was nothing the town could do legally to refuse the request.
Despite the uproar when the historic building that formerly housed Coventry Seafood was torn down, another landmark in Coventry, just up the street from the first, is now slated for demolition.The difference, according to Sprague, is that the Byron Read Building still has a chance of surviving.
The building’s current owners are willing to give it that chance, he said.The town has scheduled a meeting with the current owners of the building and a prospective buyer who might be willing to salvage the building, Sprague said. “The owner of the property came in and spoke to me about the building so I called the Rhode Island Historic Commission to see if there was anything that they could do to help us, but, unfortunately, they told me that there is currently no money to assist us if we wanted to purchase it. But, right now, I am going back and forth with him [the current owner of the building] trying to see if there is something that we can do to save the building,” Sprague said.
“The owner is entitled to the demolition permit; he owns the building and he is getting taxed on a building. That is not helping his cause — to be taxed on it — you have to understand his situation, but we are talking with another right now about the possibility of another public entity that may have an interest in it.”
Sprague said the three parties have a meeting scheduled to discuss the matter on Oct. 2. The current owner said he was willing to wait until after that meeting to make plans for demolition. Sprague said.“He doesn’t want to see the building come down, but nothing has been decided yet,” he said. “Whoever takes over the building would have to do some renovations so, right now, the issue is of finding money and what source of money it can come from to do anything here,” Sprague said. “I guess we will just have to see what happens at the meeting.”
