In its heyday, the Abbott House was filled with life and was much bigger than what remains today.
The 259-year-old homestead on N. State Street where one of Concord’s oldest families once lived was built up over time to include additional floors and wings. Now, only the main building is left – a Federalist clapboard square with a Cape wing, broken windows, sagging blinds and ripped curtains.
But after years of neglect by developers who were supposed to restore it, the old homestead is in danger of being torn down.
Abbott Village developer Jason Garland will ask the Planning Board in April for permission to tear down the Abbott House, saying a survey of the property has shown the building – left exposed to the elements since the Abbott Village project first began in 2005 under a different developer – is unsalvageable.
If the Planning Board approves Garland’s proposal, it wouldn’t be the first time Concord has lost a historic building because it was neglected into demolition.
A 209-year-old tavern on 205 N. Main St., where the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen used to be headquartered, was torn down by the SEA around 2012 despite an eleventh-hour effort to save it by Hopkinton resident Robert Wilson. A grassy lot sits there now.
Readers might also remember the 170-year-old Greek Revival property at 23-25 Green Street that was a home of Concord’s First Baptist Church (now CenterPoint Church) pastor Rev. Ebenezer Cummings, who served the church from 1832 to 1850.
That building came down around 2010 and was rebuilt into the headquarters for Concord Housing Authority. The building had been left vacant for months when the Authority asked the Planning Board for permission to raze it – and rehabbing it would have been too costly, according to Monitor archives.
Other buildings have been saved through community efforts. People rallied around the Rolfe Barn in Penacook, and two farmhouses on Clinton Street harken back to the city’s roots.
Though the gasholder building in the South End has an uncertain future, there is no plan to demolish it for now. But there may hope on the horizon, as the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources has taken interest in the structure and is willing to work with Liberty Utilities to find a solution, according to city documents.
“Finding the right developer who is familiar with rehabilitation and reuse of historic industrial properties and unique structures will be critical for the Gasholder’s preservation,” a January letter from Elizabeth Muzzey, preservation officer for Historical Resources, reads.
Restoring the Abbott House has always been tied to the development of Abbott Village.
In fact, original condo developer Yves Tanguay couldn’t get the go-ahead from the planning board in 2005 without promising to restore the homestead. Those conditions carried over when Garland bought the property out of bankruptcy in 2011.
Some of the more significant parts of the damage include a fallen-in roof and the second floor collapsing into the floor below, Garland said.
“The building didn’t get in that condition in the five years that we’ve owned it,” Garland said in a March Planning Board meeting.
In a 2017 report to Garland, Bruce MacLeod, president of MacLeod Structural Engineers said, “severe deterioration due to water intrusion” through the roof in various parts of the building has caused rotting in the framing and floorboards, making several areas unsafe to walk on.
“The Abbott house has deteriorated beyond repair and it is not a suitable candidate for renovation,” MacLeod wrote. “Most of the major structural elements, roof sheathing, floors and ceilings would need to be replaced. …The cost of such work would far exceed any possible financial return for the property.”
But Planning Board members seemed frustrated that no one had thought to even throw a tarp over the structure at a recent meeting.
“The Planning Board in 2005 would not have made (restoring the property) a condition had the city not considered this building to be of importance,” said At-Large Councilor Byron Champlin, the city council representative on the board. “Anyone who bought this in bankruptcy should have preserved the building the best they could.”
Champlin went on to describe Concord as “a city of tombstones” where historic structures have been torn down because no one bothered to try and save them. Instead, buildings have been rebuilt with small plaques commemorating former historic locations, he said.
“When we lose structures like this, the whole community loses,” he said.
Garland said financial difficulties have hampered the project’s timeline. In March, he went before the Planning Board to ask to continue to Phase 5 of the condo project, which would bring its total amount of units to 28 when finished. Abbott Village was originally planned to have 80 units.
Garland said he planned to use the building for condos or possibly commercial space. MacLeod’s assessment showed that wasn’t possible, he said.
The Planning Board ultimately allowed Garland to start Phase 5 of Abbott Village. However, part of the original conditions stated the certificates of occupancy for those condos won’t be granted until the Abbott House is restored.
Whether holding Garland to that promise will constitute a financial burden will be taken up next Planning Board meeting.