It was heartening to see the many responses to the Monitor’s question of which historic buildings in our community are worth saving (Monitor Forum, Jan. 17). This question is easily answered when your community possesses a historic, engineering and architectural treasure like the gasholder, a unique, one-of-a-kind landmark, existing nowhere else in the United States, or perhaps the world.
What is required to save this landmark is leadership, and especially leadership from the public entities charged with protecting and enhancing the valuable resources of the city – the city council and the Concord Heritage Commission.
Where is the focus and initiative of the city council? Some years ago the council was willing to seize the Rolfe Barn in Penacook, another rare historic resource, by eminent domain, for the benefit of the public. Their willingness was made easier by the fact that private money was raised to compensate the current owner of the barn, but the council’s action was bold, nonetheless.
The heritage commission has only the power of persuasion. The city’s demolition review ordinance, enacted some years ago, has proven useless as a tool for saving historic properties. The heritage commission does have the authority to accept donations, with council approval, including property. Is there an opportunity here?
When the gasholder was owned by the Concord Gas Company, and under the leadership of Cedric Dustin, Dustin’s business and personal concern for the property resulted in its maintenance and care. Once ownership moved to the national corporate level, demolition by neglect was underway.
As New Hampshire’s largest natural gas utility, with a huge customer base in Concord, one would think a positive deal could be made with Liberty Utilities to save the gasholder and provide for its maintenance and upkeep. With their need for the best possible public image as they try to sell the citizens of New Hampshire on the Granite Bridge project, surely doing their part to save the gasholder would be to their advantage.
Who is negotiating with Liberty Utilities, the owner of the gasholder, currently responsible for its maintenance, but sadly failing? This 2.74 acre property, assessed at $293,600, has little economic value for the company. At the current tax rate, it pays about $8,000 a year in property taxes, hardly an incentive for any proactive effort to enhance the property, or even dispose of it. Yet it would seem an opportune time to reach out to the corporate owners and managers.
The gasholder tells an important story in the progress of the city, and because it is an actual piece of that history it can tell that story in a way no amount of documents, exhibits, displays, historical markers or photographs can. Perhaps the gasholder may never be more than a historic monument on the city’s landscape. But even that makes it worth saving.
(James McConaha is a former chair of the Concord Heritage Commission and a former director of the State Historic Preservation Office.)