A landmarked Richmond Hill building riddled with uncertainty since 2001 will have a new future, but this hasn’t eased the worries of those trying to preserve it.
What remains of the Richmond Hill Republican Club House, a 100-year-old structure that sits on Lefferts Boulevard facing the Richmond Hill Library, are four walls.
The building’s new owner began a $2 million renovation on the Colonial Revival-style building earlier this month by demolishing its interior. He has left its outer walls untouched, as required by the city Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Alex Yusupov, who placed a $740,000 winning bid on the building at an April 2007 auction, said he’s considering several ideas for the building’s use, but has not yet decided what it will become. One possibility for this building, which was abandoned for 27 years and in severe disrepair, is as a party or catering hall.
This is disappointing for Nancy Cataldi, president of the Richmond Hill Historical Society. She hoped that after nearly a decade of fighting to preserve the club house, it would be saved, repaired and turned into a community center.
“He’s got a good heart,” she said of Yusupov, but he’s a businessman looking to make a profit, which a community center would likely fail to generate. But Cataldi and other preservationists are glad the building is being refurbished because it was “a sore thumb in the neighborhood” for many years.
A leaking roof caused flooding inside the club house, which once served as a post office, and destroyed many relics that told of its past. The space was used as a dormitory for soldiers on leave during World Wars I and II. Later, Ronald Reagan’s local presidential campaigns operated out of the building, the basement of which had at one point contained a bowling alley. Banquets, parades, public lectures, picnics and dances were held inside the building, whose 18-foot oak pocket doors enhanced its grandiose stature.
“We have to keep alive the souls of the people that lived before us,” Cataldi said. And the historical society tried desperately to do so, but funding was limited and the group could not afford to pay tax liens on the building.
Salvation was close in March 2007, when a club supporter offered to hand over a $100,000 deposit to keep the building off the auction block. James Ortenzio, the former chairman of the New York Republican County Committee, had expressed a legitimate interest in saving the building and to preservationists he “seemed to be the dream,” Cataldi said. The dream died when Ortenzio was unable to gather funds in time and Yusupov’s bid was finalized by a Queens judge.
A conclusion to the saga of the club house’s problems is near, but Cataldi worries that more troubles will arise as a result. If the building is to become a catering hall, it will likely cause traffic congestion and parking issues in the neighborhood, she said.
After a stop-work order was placed on the demolition on Friday, alarm bells went off for several community residents, who feared the new owner would try to underhandedly demolish the building.
Construction taking place next door to the club house, formerly the Simonson Funeral Home, caused the old building to shake — likely a result of the contractor’s failure to properly shore up the foundation. Some community members speculated that this was done intentionally, at the request of the landmarked building’s new owner, so that the structure would come down and the property’s value would go up.
Yusupov denied this and said he plans to move forward with renovation work as soon as permitted.
