West Lebanon
He remembers the multifamily building in better times, before its windows were cracked, its lawn was left to grow and animals and vandals invaded. In fact, he can recall a time when the home was one of the most respected in the neighborhood.
“When I was growing up here as a kid, this was a single-family home, and actually it was a very nice home,” McNamara said while standing outside the property last week. “They had a little horse barn down back and they had horses in there.”
“Now, granted, when I grew up, we did have automobiles, but there were still horses in downtown West Lebanon,” he added with a laugh.
McNamara now hopes the roughly 5,360-square-foot building, which was taken by the city for unpaid taxes in 2010, can be restored to a semblance of its former self. He and the city’s administration are proposing a project that would renovate the building and allow Lebanon’s Recreation and Parks Department to move in.
“It would be really nice to have some city services over here in West Lebanon as opposed to having everything focused in City Hall, and the rec department immediately comes to mind,” McNamara said.
The roughly half-acre plot of land is located across the street from the Dana House, Lebanon’s oldest building, and close to city-owned playing fields at Civic Memorial Park, he said. Moving the department’s five full-time and two part-time employees also would free up space at City Hall, which is becoming cramped, McNamara added.
Renovating the 1830s-era building likely would cost Lebanon $465,000, according to an estimate provided by the City Manager’s Office. That price tag likely would be reduced using contributions from a city-operated West Lebanon fund, which now has about $165,000 earmarked for neighborhood improvements.
Construction, which could be budgeted for 2019, would include tearing down the structure’s garage and a small addition, to be replaced by a driveway leading slightly downhill to a new parking lot, McNamara said. The remaining interior would be gutted, and new insulation, a heating system and windows would be installed to create office space on the first floor, he said.
There also are plans to restore some of the building’s historical features, with city officials hoping to save the original clapboard siding. The home is one of the few remaining Lebanon structures designed using a Greek Revival style, which sought to incorporate Hellenic columns and other features found in ancient temples into 19th-century buildings.
“I’ve always thought that architecturally, it’s very distinct from anything else in this area,” McNamara said.
While the Recreation and Parks Department hopes to someday move into a community center akin to the Seminary Hill School, which now is being used as school district offices, the proposed move is welcomed by its staff, according to Paul Coats, who leads the department.
He said the move would place recreation staff close to Civic Memorial Park and John Bryar Field and provide additional space, both for his employees and those left in City Hall. The renovation would leave the department with about 1,700 square feet of usable office space, more than double the roughly 700 square feet it now uses downtown.
“We think this space can work pretty well for us,” Coats said on Tuesday.
And when Recreation and Parks does someday move out, he said, the renovation will allow the city to quickly sell the property, adding it back to the tax rolls.
The property now is assessed at $118,300 and considered in “very poor” condition, according to city records. Improving the building could see that valuation rise, and in turn increase its commercial tax value, McNamara said.
This isn’t the first time that officials have discussed the property’s future and its place in downtown West Lebanon.
The City Council debated razing the building in 2013. In its place, they proposed building a park that could be tied into the Mascoma River Greenway, a 4-mile rail trail that is slated to run through neighboring Elm Street West.
At the time, City Councilor Erling Heistad argued the park would add needed green space to the neighborhood and help pedestrians and cyclists up the steep Seminary Hill slope. However, councilors instead decided to try selling the parcel.
If the city fails to renovate the building, Heistad hopes officials again will consider creating a park.
“I think that West Lebanon deserves to have as many niceties as we can possibly fit over there,” he said on Tuesday. “We should do whatever we can to facilitate a greener and more aesthetically pleasing environment in West Lebanon.”
But the renovation project already has cleared an initial hurdle toward becoming a reality. The city’s Planning Board on Monday voted unanimously to include it on Lebanon’s capital improvements program.
The program, which is updated annually by planners, attempts to plot the city’s upcoming large expenses and purchases. And both the city manager and City Council consider the document when drafting Lebanon’s yearly budget, which normally is approved in late December.
While the Planning Board questioned whether the building would be as accessible to residents as City Hall, they applauded efforts to expand the city’s footprint to neighborhoods outside of downtown.
“I think it’s a great way to have a presence in West Lebanon because recreation is basically for all ages and families,” Planning Board member Joan Monroe said, according to an audio recording of the meeting. “I think that it will be a great place to focus the recreation by that corner.”
City councilors representing West Lebanon also endorsed the idea on Tuesday.
“It helps West Lebanon by turning a dilapidated building in a prominent location into a useful and certainly more attractive property,” Ward 1 Councilor Jim Winny said in an email.
The project likely will cost taxpayers to complete, he added, but that investment would add value to the property, if it ever is sold.
“It also helps improve West Lebanon and shows developers and residents that we are invested there and working to improve our downtown,” Winny said. “There is value to that as well, though it is harder to quantify.”
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com.