by Mona Mahadevan The New Haven independent
Richard Munday: “From your perspective, I can understand that it’s just a whole lot cheaper to knock it down and get some parking back.”
The Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center plans to demolish a dilapidated, 130-year-old building to make room for patient parking on Howard Avenue. Members of the Historic District Commission (HDC) and Hill North Community Management Team are warning that doing so would erase a historic landmark.
The proposal to tear down the red-brick building at 649 Howard Ave. was raised during Wednesday’s HDC meeting at City Hall.
The mini-fortress, built in 1895, falls within the Howard Avenue National Historic District, which means a demolition permit can only be issued after a 90-day delay. The waiting period ends on Jan. 26. Before then, the city’s HDC can advise the Building Department on whether to grant the permit, but they lack the jurisdiction to stop the demolition altogether.
On Wednesday, Michael Taylor, the CEO of Hill Health, said the building has been vacant and deteriorating for almost three decades. “You can’t even walk through the floors without fear of falling through,” he said. At this point, it would be “cost-prohibitive to try to restore” the edifice.
Plus, added Taylor, the building has become “a community hazard,” as “illicit activities” happen regularly “on the front stoop.”
Hill Health, a federally qualified health center, purchased the two-story property from the city in 2021. The building served as the city’s Third Police Precinct for decades and, more recently, housed the nonprofit Hill Development Corporation.
While Hill Health has owned the property for four years, Taylor said they only now have the funds to tear down the building and pave a parking lot. He expects the demolition to create enough room for 12 to 15 parking spaces, all designated for clients of Hill Health’s nearby clinic and substance abuse treatment center.
HDC Commissioner Richard Munday seemed skeptical. “From your perspective, I can understand that it’s just a whole lot cheaper to knock it down and get some parking back,” he said. But “as an architect, looking at that simple form and seeing how it holds the corner,” it seems like a building that could one day serve as a “mini hub” supporting the Hill’s “community or commercial life.”
City Economic Development Advisor Mike Piscitelli sympathized with Munday’s concerns, emphasizing the building’s clear “distinction.” At the same time, he said, the structure has been “vacant forever” and “severely deteriorated,” and the city hasn’t found anyone willing to “give the building another chance.”
He also pointed out that “there’s no fabric for [the building] to contribute to,” as Urban Renewal mangled its corner of the Hill neighborhood.
Miguel Pittman, representing the Hill North Community Management Team, echoed Munday’s concerns, arguing that demolition would inflict a “permanent loss” to the neighborhood’s “architectural and cultural heritage.” Surface parking in particular, he said, would invite “inactivity and isolation,” enabling “disorder and crime.”
In a letter to the HDC, he urged a “preservation-first feasibility review.” He advocated for adaptive reuse, focused on establishing a Hill North Community Center that offers “youth programming, family services, digital literacy, and workforce preparation.”
Later in Wednesday’s meeting, Munday and HDC Commissioner David Valentino questioned the need for more parking.
Munday noted that there’s “almost a sea of parking” near the clinic, so Hill Health doesn’t need “a few additional parking spaces.”
Valentino agreed, suggesting instead that the clinic invest in medical cabs to transport patients.
Taylor responded that the nearby lots are privately owned and therefore not available to Hill Health patients. He also argued that medical cabs can deter those seeking care –especially people with substance use disorders, who might already be hesitant about getting help.
“So we’re putting an emphasis on car-focused demolition of a historic building over [Hill Health] potentially having some agreement with other parking all around,” said Valentino. “I just feel like that’s not enough of a reason to tear down this building.”
HDC Chair Katherine Learned ended the discussion, noting that it’s not within “the commission’s purview to decide if the potential use” of parking is Hill Health’s “only solution.”
She then said the commission needs more information before deciding whether to support the demolition. “This is actually quite a distinguished building,” said Learned, so “before the bulldozers come, we’d like to know why.”
She asked the Hill Health team to return in December with a consultation report from a structural engineer, photographs of the dilapidated interior, and a copy of the building’s historic structures report.
“We’d like to be in partnership with you,” said Learned. “We’d like to have the information that you have.”
Miguel Pittman: Urged a “preservation-first feasibility review” on behalf of the Hill North Management Team.
The red-brick fortress matches a few Romanesque buildings nearby on Howard Avenue.