I received the following message from Nancy Cataldi - President - Richmond Hill Historical Society:
This is untrue. the building is being GUTTED and the exterior is being preserved..we have followed this interior demo since the minute it started..the DOB, LPC<>office have been on site....what is being done is proper..the building lay unoccupied with no care for 25 years..the walls, floors and roof were waterlogged, collapsed and there was nothing left. the interior was gutted..the exterior (looks at the permits) is being preserved..I have been in the building a few times and the demo person is more than cooperative...altho he was not happy by all the agency visits, and also saved us anything historical.. please do not jump the gun... I have diligently worked on this building for 10 years.. making sure it was boarded up..doing the LPC report with Carl Ballenas and Ivan Mrakovcic....I attended EVERY court date for the last 5 years..and believe me...there were many..and cried at the last one where it was auctioned off...I go by there everyday....and am watching that building and believe me..it will look like it originally did..exactly 100 years ago....
I apologize for any inconvenience or angst my post caused to anyone and I stand corrected...To be honest had I not received the photos so late in the evening and given it more thought I was aware that there was an agreement to gut the interior of the building...I'm sorry for jumping the gun, I immediately reacted to the situation thinking someone was pulling a fast one on the public...I should have given it more thought and regret my haste...David
Original Post:
The following photos show the Richmond Hill Republican Club being razed this morning, Monday June 2, 2008, despite having Landmark status...It's a sad day losing another piece of our historical past to be presumably replaced by another unwanted over-sized monstrosity...I'm counting the days until this development crazed Bloomberg Administration leaves office...How can we as a community continue to allow allow the real estate interests to rule our neighborhoods to the detriment of ordinary folks...
Click on photos to enlarge - Photos by MannyFrom Richmond Hill Historical Society website:
On December 17th, 2002 the Richmond Hill Republican Club was officially designated a Landmark and it is now safe from being demolished...the Richmond Hill Republican Club will be protected by its new Landmark designation.
The Richmond Hill Republican Club building looks virtually the same as it did at the turn of the century. Plate glass double doors still admit visitors to the oak columned interior with its leather-cushioned booths. Oak pews originally used for seating in the main meeting room have been replaced by, more modern, moveable chairs. An elaborate tin ceiling soars to about 25 feet above a solitary mission podium table. Other examples of the old mission furniture are around the clubhouse or in the section of the building where the post office used to be. Oak sliding doors span about 18 feet of the main meeting room. They are in four sections and operate on two tracks. The lower part of the building was used as a club bowling alley but it is now a public archery range. Much of the original oak paneling remains, and lincrusta-walton lines the Club's bar. An old Western Electric phone booth has been converted to a closet, but the whole building, especially with its signed photographs of Coolidge, Harding and Teddy Roosevelt, evokes images of the heyday of Republican politics in New York. According to one older resident, in those days, everyone was a Republican.From NYC Landmark Preservation website:
Designation Report
Richmond Hill Republican Club...12 page pdf report...
Summary
An integral part of downtown Richmond Hill, the Richmond Hill Republican Club served as an important political club and a cornerstone of the Richmond Hill neighborhood where parades, public lectures, picnics, dances, and dinners were held. Built in 1908 to the designs of Henry E. Haugaard, a prolific local architect and builder, the building was constructed of Roman brick and wood in the Colonial Revival style. Original stylistic features of the building include an elaborate entryway with classical pediment, a denticulated and bracketed cornice, and a roof-line balustrade. The building was constructed as a political club and post office.However during World War I, it took on a larger community function when it became a social gathering place for local citizens and an entertainment center and retreat for the armed forces. As late as 1980, a presidential candidate delivered a campaign speech there. Vacant since the mid 1980s, the Richmond Hill Republican Club is an intact example of a clubhouse designed to serve the social, political and recreational needs of a local community and an excellent prototype of small-scale Colonial Revival style civic architecture.
Read entire report of the Landmark Preservation Commission...with additional photos...
