The recent demolition of the landmark “Pink House” at 739 Ridgebury Road was a last resort, owners Robert and Pat Martinsen said, after three years of trying to save the home by donating it to the town.
Frustrated with lack of communication and progress, they tore down the unoccupied landmark, built around 1717, fearing the liability it posed to them as owners.
Many history-loving Ridgefielders have been concerned since the owners applied for a demolition permit last October but the couple assert they are not insensitive to the history of the ancient farmhouse and upset that their attempts to save it failed.
“My wife and I are as upset as Mr. Marconi appears to be,” Mr. Martinsen said of the first selectman’s comments in last week’s Press story on the razing. “He said ‘shame on anybody involved in the house coming down.’ Well, based on our having to wait three years, assume this liability, pay taxes and not hear from anyone until the day before I’ve scheduled to take it down, I wonder if the shame is in the right place.”
The Martinsens moved into their nearby Ridgebury Road home in 1983, renovating the 1800s house and carriage house. They love Ridgefield’s historical beauty — in the 1980s, they voted to make Ridgebury Road a historic district, but the proposal never passed. They purchased the adjacent Keeler house in 2005, with plans to restore it.
After having restoration experts look at the house, the Martinsens said they realized the project would be far too expensive for them.
Two years before the couple applied for the demolition permit, John Frey, the Realtor who sold the Martinsens the home, arranged for them to contact the Ridgefield Historical Society about saving the home.
“Gary Singer [president of the historical society] came here then and spent about two and a half hours here,” Mr. Martinsen said. “We asked him to please get back to us as soon as possible. Two years later we decided there must be no interest so we went ahead with getting a demolition permit.”
The chimney stack, with patches of wall plaster still adhering to the stone, was the last to go.
Mr. Singer said this week the purpose of the visit was to inform the owners of the history of the home. He had a long discussion with them about the fact that the society did not have the means to protect the house and that town involvement was needed, he said.When First Selectman Rudy Marconi heard of the demolition plans last year, he began efforts to save the structure. In November, the town had discussed an agreement that would move the house to another property.
Mr. Martinsen had his doubts but was happy the house might be saved. “I honestly don’t know how they would have moved it — it was in terrible shape,” he said.
A verbal draft agreement stipulated that the town take out fire and liability insurance on the home. The town would also cease taxing the house and reimburse the owners for the taxes for the last two years, Mr. Martinsen said.
“To this date there has been nothing signed and I’ve received no abatements,” Mr. Martinsen said. “How long were we supposed to hold on to this liability?”
Mr. Martinsen said he put the demolition on hold many times, hoping the town would come through.
He was in contact with Mr. Marconi a few times during the last nine months. Mr. Marconi promised the deal was moving along, Mr. Martinsen said.
What happened?
Mr. Marconi said the town did not “drop the ball” and maintained Mr. Martinsen knew a deal was ready to go but decided to tear the home down anyway.
Perhaps attorneys on both sides were not communicating frequently enough, Mr. Marconi said, but the process was ongoing —many groups were working on the details — and a site had been chosen.
When the town heard the demolition would go forward last week Mr. Marconi said he and town historical organizations worked feverishly on getting the house moved as soon as possible, including contacting cable and electricity companies to move wires in the way.
Last week, Virgil Rollins Restorations estimated the cost of dismantling the home and moving it to be about $50,000. Mr. Marconi found an anonymous donor to reimburse Mr. Martinsen about $10,000 in taxes and asbestos abatement, as stipulated in the drafted agreement, and planned to use $50,000 in private contributions to move the house to another location.
“A lot of people were interested in helping to save the house, for obvious reasons,” Mr. Marconi said.
The drafted agreement, a copy of which Mr. Marconi received from the Martinsens’ attorney, stipulated that once the agreement was signed the town would have a year to raise the money and move the home. Mr. Marconi can’t understand why Mr. Martinsen was so eager to tear it down so suddenly but he said he scrambled to meet every request the Martinsens had in order to save the house.
“The house has been there 300 years, what harm was another 24 hours going to do?” Mr. Marconi asked. “It seemed the closer we got to making the agreement, the more adamant he became about tearing it down.”
Mr. Singer said a settlement signing date was scheduled for what turned out to be the demolition day.
The town’s attorney contacted the owner’s attorney with the details of the agreement the evening before the demolition and the Martinsens’ attorney said he would call the couple immediately, Mr. Marconi said.
“We never heard anything back,” Mr. Marconi said. He was shocked to hear the house came down the next morning.
Mr. Martinsen said he heard about no concrete plan the night before and didn’t want to push demolition off any longer because of an empty promise from the town.
Mr. Singer said he had worked to secure a grant for the Keeler house from the State of Connecticut’s Culture & Tourism Commission that would lead to the eventual listing of the Keeler House on the State and National Register of Historic Places. The house was a strong candidate due largely to the family history of the Keelers, who played a major role in the town’s formation.
“I think we’ve learned a lot from this experience,” Mr. Singer said. “We need to become a bit more pre-emptive and proactive and take the necessary actions to give us more time and secure a better result.”
When Mr. Singer told the State Culture & Tourism Commission about the demolition it was shocked, he said, and interested in making sure a loss like that never occurs again.
Liability and renovations
The Martinsens said their biggest fear was the liability the old house presented. The couple has no plans to erect anything in its place but Ms. Martinsen wants the area to look nice and plans to do some tree work and maintenance.
“Times are really bad — some people are losing their homes and someone could have gone in there, gotten hurt, sued and be living on my property right now,” Ms. Martinsen said.
A video of the house taken by Ms. Martinsen last year shows a dilapidated interior, including a hole in the wall and some rotting of the ancient wood beams. The couple said many fixtures, like the stairs, the windows and even some of the pink siding appear to have been added in the last 20 or 30 years, taking away from the historical significance of the place.
The Martinsens said they offered a company salvaged parts of the house for the price of demolition. “They basically told us nothing was worth saving and they didn’t want it,” Mr. Martinsen said.
Mr. Marconi had another meeting Monday to discuss what went wrong in the attempts to save the house. He is disappointed future generations won’t be able to enjoy the important piece of Ridgefield history.
“Virgil Rollins said the home was damaged but it wasn’t damage that was atypical for a 300-year-old home — it was worth saving,” Mr. Marconi said. “It’s was really no different than the Scott House.”
Mr. Singer disagrees that renovations over the years made the home any less significant. “If you can find me a pristine 300-year-old house without many areas of modernization I’d tell you it was a reconstructed relic,” Mr. Singer said. “This was lived in by seven generations of the same family over the years in the same location. You just don’t find homes like that often.”
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Play or download the Historical Main St.MP3 audio walking tour:
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