by Kristina Gabalski
Members of the Old Stone Store Preservation Committee (OSSPC) and the Landmark Society say they plan to ask the Town of Clarendon for a one-year extension of their deadline to find a buyer for the historic old stone store which sits at the busy intersection of Rts. 31A and 237 in the hamlet.
OSSPC leader Erin Anheier says the group is confident the town board will grant the extension at their next meeting July 17. “We’ve made a lot of progress this year,” she says.
The building, constructed of Medina sandstone in 1836, has been vacant since 2007 and is now owned by the town. It was used most recently for apartments and in July of 2011, the town board granted the OSSPC one year to rehabilitate the property and bring it back on the tax rolls. The town had planned to demolish the structure.
The store is “now on the State and National Registers of Historic Places,” Anheier says, meaning that an owner/developer would be eligible for tax credits of up to 40 percent of the rehabilitation costs.
The town board has agreed to sell the store for $1 to the buyer who presents the best plan for redevelopment. Preference will be given to plans providing commercial space or offices on the first floor and the same or storage on the second floor.
Over the past year the OSSPC, under the direction of Anheier and Town Historian Melissa Ierlan, has cleaned-up the building, made immediate necessary repairs and had the property surveyed by Jim Glogowski, who donated his time and services.
Donations paid for the hiring of an architect to prepare a report. “He found that the building is structurally sound,” Anheier says.
She, Ierlan and Caitlin Meives of the Landmark Society say they are optimistic about the building’s future.
“There is one person actively developing a plan and three others who have expressed an interest,” Anheier says.
The three say the community needs to get past what the store has been for the past 20 years – an apartment building – and see what it could be. “Clarendon is more than just a stop sign,” they say.
A potential developer must be a “person who has a vision to visualize something new,” Meives says. She adds that the stone store has been a very important part of the community both visually and culturally.
“Many people have memories of coming here when it was a store. It’s the center of the community,” she says and notes the property is a unique surviving example of an early 19th century commercial building and its rehabilitation has potential economic value to the town.
“It could become a catalyst for development in the hamlet,” she says.
