Sunday, February 7, 2010

Tearing down a historic building to build a history museum

And so Fall River continues to allow the destruction of our history. The utter foolishness of tearing down a beautiful church on the historic register to replace it with a, no doubt vinyl and cement, history museum, is ridiculous beyond words. Does Espirito even have any kind of realistic plan for building a new structure after they tear the church down?

On 11/4/2003, the Roman Catholic Diocese granted 440 Bradford Avenue to Espirito Santo Museum Foundation Inc., c/o Fernando Garcia, for $1.00.

The deed to the property contains a reverter clause that transfers the property back to the Diocese "if the premises cease to be used as a museum within five years from the date hereof (2003), title of the premises shall revert to the grantor" OR "if the premises ceased to be used as a museum at any time, title to the premises shall revert to the grantor." Clearly 5 years have passed and there is no museum on the site.

On 3/24/2009, Bishop Coleman gave his approval to Espirito to raze the church and that is a shame. His approval was premised on the belief that Espirito had a study done which determined the church was unsuitable to house a museum. There was no mention anywhere of the building being structurally unsound in 2003 when Espirito was granted the property. Did Espirito let the church fall into a state of disrepair so that they may now tear down the historic building?

Of further curiosity is the fact that Espirito Santo Museum Foundation didn't have enough money to pay taxes on the church property: How is it that an organization which recently had a city lien placed on the property for owing nearly $11,000 in 2008 taxes, is economically capable of building a new structure? I doubt they can.

In the end I am afraid the city will have an empty lot where a beautiful, historic building once stood.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

"...your friend in the business!"

johnybfallriver said...

I am from Espirito Santo Church and this is exaclty the kind of stuff that gives portagees a bad name, we need a museum like we need another dukin dounuts, come of if you want to do something do something that creates a real jobs, this is a flat our waste of anything put into it.

Anonymous said...

Hey johnybfallriver knock it off with the derogatory reference to the
Portuguese people. You've been called on this before. First of all this has nothing to do with Espirito Santo Church it is being done by the people that run the Great Feast of the Holy Ghost of New England the event that draws more crowds to this city than any other. Why does establishing a cultural museum give the Portuguese a bad name? Are you that ashamed of your background?

Scout said...

Anonymous 13:39, you're right ... there's no room in this discussion for disrespect of any ethnic group. In fact, the ethnic identity of the museum organization is a red herring.

There are really only two core questions here: 1) should there be a Portuguese heritage museum? and 2) should a historically significant church be sacrificed to build it?

The answer to #1 is yes; Portuguese culture is a big part of FR and should be celebrated. The answer to #2 is no; FR needs to protect its architectural heritage.

There's a discussion re: this issue on Lefty's blog, where someone posted a link to an O Jornal article that states that the museum folks spent 8 years and $200K on maintenance of the church. From the outside, it's hard to know what transpired and how the church went from a property worthy of purchase in 2003 to a structure unfit for habitation in 2010.

The bottom line is that someone (or some group) needs to own the treasures of FR's historical architecture, in terms of monitoring use of buildings and stepping in when an organization gets overextended/overwhelmed and can't afford to keep its historic property from falling into ruin. Otherwise, this demolition will continue. And FR's past will be effectively erased. (And erased with it will be the memory of previous waves of immigrants, like the ones who built St. Louis Church. We should show some respect for their labor and sacrifice.)

I would suggest that part of the city's future will also be erased if this destruction continues. FR's only hope of attracting new industry or becoming a viable alternative as a bedroom community for Boston (assuming other challenges can be addressed) is sustaining what's left of its historic and aesthetic character.

In that sense, preservation is about economic development as well as respect for history.

Anonymous said...

Wasn't there some recent animosity between the portuguese and st. anne's (predominantly french) church? I remember reading something in OJornal. Could this be payback?

Scout said...

Anonymous 14:13: how so? (Not familiar with the O Jornal piece you reference.) I could be wrong ... it's been a while ... but I don't remember St. Louis having a French heritage ... wasn't it mostly Irish and Portuguese?

Anonymous said...

I don't see a connection

http://www.ojornal.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=20334019&BRD=2677&PAG=461&dept_id=543384&rfi=8

Anonymous said...

WoW!!
What an eye opener...

Anonymous said...

Jimmy "Jimmy V." Mathes told the standard times he is thinking about running for mayor of N.B....well, maybe the Sterile News will do its first endorsing for mayor of New Beige

Anonymous said...

I am afraid if the diocese and all of us in the city do not find a way to support and develop urgent collaborative good faith efforts to come up with a responsible plan to save and develop this structure, we will witness a sad preview of the next heartbreaking failure--the demolition of St. Anne's church.

Anonymous said...

So how does the framingham paper have ths story and the Herald News does not?
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/state/x1610518824/2002-act-prohibits-gaming-at-proposed-Fall-River-casino-site

Anonymous said...

Well, how about that! Thanks to the anonymous post at 22:10, it's now clear who the troll obsessed with the HN is. Unbelievable! Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!