Spring Town Meeting Rejects Sale of Old Town Hall
Needing a two-thirds majority to pass, the 78-54 vote held at the Spring Town Meeting on May 1st fell 9 votes shy of authorizing the Select Board to sell or lease the “Old Town Hall” property in downtown Walpole. This issue was put to a vote after an unsuccessful attempt to lease the building in accordance with a 2019 Request for Proposal, subsequent to the final report of the Town Hall Re-Use Committee. The committee was formed following the Walpole Police Department relocation from the now-vacant building to the new facility on South Street.
Background
Built in 1881 and currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the U.S. National Park Service, the building is the prominent landmark of Walpole’s downtown district and has served as an enduring symbol of the community for many generations. Destination Downtown works to support the vitality of the downtown district, and view the building as a cornerstone of its character. At a minimum, we would like to ensure that the magnificent aesthetics of the building be preserved. Ambitiously, we’d like to see it restored for public use by the community.
As a vacant property, the town incurs annual expenses for its maintenance. The vote at Town Meeting to authorize its sale essentially had the effect of advancing the ultimate disposition of the property to the forefront. If the property were to be sold, its deed does impose a number of restrictions on a potential buyer, such that its sale would likely require a substantial financial investment by that purchaser and/or the town to make a transaction economically viable. The deed restrictions also provide some limitations on future modifications to the building, but a sale would nevertheless have relinquished full control of the property and perhaps allowed an alteration of its current classic visual appearance.
As a community organization, Destination Downtown feels that there is substantial public support for ensuring that the building continues to serve as an outstanding landmark of our downtown district and the community, but the organization had concerns that this would be jeopardized by a potential sale of the property. The Board recognizes that protecting the property from a sale comes with a financial commitment. This commitment comes in the form of either perpetual annual maintenance to keep the building from falling into irreversible disrepair, or a structured plan to restore the property sufficiently to allow public use.
Our organization’s primary position is to ensure preservation of the building’s classic visual character (free of signage, advertisement, commercialization, etc.). We recommend that the town develop a long-term multi-phase approach toward restoring the building to public use, so as to distribute restoration costs over many years, perhaps more than a decade. Its early stages may simply address basic structural requirements such as foundational integrity, exterior masonry, roofing, heating, etc., with later phases aimed at functionality. This approach will take many years to be fruitful in terms of allowing public utility of the building, but it will prevent the town from relinquishing control of this important property and hopefully distribute costs over a long enough time frame so as to not impose an unmanageable burden on taxpayers.
Board of Directors
Destination Downtown Walpole
