Lebanon
The authority is asking for $68,000 from the New Hampshire Land and Community Heritage Investment Program to restore the building’s four Ionic columns, upper porch, balcony and cornices. A matching $68,000 will be provided by the authority’s capital fund program.
Rogers House, the brick building facing Colburn Park, was originally constructed in 1911, according to a National Register of Historic Places nomination. Woolen industrialist George Rogers contributed $25,000 toward the construction, while the then-town of Lebanon put forward $70,000.
Hotel Rogers closed in the 1960s, and the authority took ownership in the following decade. It now houses low-income seniors and people with disabilities ages 55 and over.
A similar proposal for historic restorations was put forward in September, when housing officials sought City Council support for $300,000 in LCHIP grants.
“Unfortunately, the LCHIP grant was not awarded, we believe in part due to the expansive scale of the exterior rehab project,” Ditha Alonso, the authority’s executive director, said in a May 20 letter to the City Council. “LCHIP’s decision to fund multiple projects across the state versus just one very large project in Lebanon was understandable.”
Alonso said the initial proposal included “expensive custom window replacements” matching the original 1911 windows on both the front and side of Rogers House. The replacements are not included in the authority’s new application.
Although work on the building’s facade will have to wait until LCHIP announces recipients in December, Rogers House is slated to see energy improvements and entrance upgrades soon.
Using a $500,000 community development block grant, the authority is planning to add solar panels on the roof and make entrances more accessible.
Nearly 190 photovoltaic solar panels will be installed on the roof, architect Jerry Wuebbolt told the Heritage Commission in April. Each will lie flat, so they cannot be visible from the street.
A new ramp will allow people to exit to the side of the building’s first floor, and ramps and new steps will be installed at the front entrance. Wuebbolt said the steps will be placed closer together and will be accompanied by handrails for safety.
The authority also intends to use its block grant money to renovate the lighting in the Rogers House lobby.
The upgrades drew support from Councilor Clifton Below, who praised the solar panel project before the commission.
“You don’t really even notice (the array) because the roof angles are so low, (people) will just see the edge of them,” he said, according to an audio recording of the meeting “It just looks like part of the roof structure to a casual eye.”
The council, however, was hesitant to support the most recent LCHIP application on Wednesday. The Lebanon Housing Authority failed to send a representative to discuss the proposed project, which some councilors took as a sign of deteriorating relations between the two bodies.
The authority also failed to discuss plans in April to develop an apartment building on the site of Roy’s Auto Service on corner of North Park and Campbell streets. At the time, Alonso said meetings with the Heritage Commission and Planning Board were ways of communicating. The project later was cancelled.
“This is not a surprise agenda item. This is their agenda item,” Councilor Karen Liot Hill said. “To say that there is some kind of a disconnect is understating. There is an issue.”
The council voted 7-2 to support the project. Alonso did not respond to a phone message requesting comment on the project.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.