The Most Important Threatened Historic Places – Updates Grumman-St. John house, Norwalk (2006).

The Norwalk Preservation Trust and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal have gone back to court in an attempt to preserve the Grumman-St. John house. Chris Handrinos bought the house in 2001 planning to raze it for expansion of the Norwalk Inn, of which he also is part owner. Because the house is listed on the National Register, the Norwalk Preservation Trust sued to prevent demolition under Connecticut’s Environmental Protection Act, claiming that the house could be rehabbed as an addition to the Inn.

In February, 2008, Judge Thomas Nadeau issued a decision in favor of the preservationists (see CPN, March/April 2008) and a temporary injunction against demolishing the house. Since then, the house has continued visibly to deteriorate. Broken windows let the elements in, and several porch posts have collapsed. The Norwalk Trust and the state claim that Handrinos is deliberately allowing the structure to crumble and they asked the court to order immediate measures to prevent further decay, and to find the owners in contempt of court.

During testimony in November, Tod Bryant, of the Norwalk Preservation Trust, testified that the house appeared to have been vandalized, that broken windows sat open for a long time, and that the property is only partly fenced in. Structural engineer James Grant, who inspected the house in 2006 and found no structural problems, said that several porch columns appeared to have been knocked out. “In my opinion, the only thing that could have caused movements like that is some sort of deliberate action,” he said. Bryant emphasizes that this is not a case of demolition by neglect, but rather deliberate tactic on Handrinos’ part.

The brief submitted by Norwalk Trust and the State spells this out: “The testimony shows that his inaction was an action and a knowing encouragement for vandals to destroy the historic building, so as to render it no longer viable for restoration, and that he had reason to know that this was in violation of the Court’s orders.” The plaintiffs asked the court to order Handrinos to take immediate measures to protect the building: shore up the collapsing porch roof, board up broken windows and doors, place a tarp over the holes in the roof, and completely fence in the property. This case is important as a potential precedent for future cases. The preservationists’ brief concludes, “The defendants up to now have won by simply ignoring the intent of the court’s decision. If this is allowed to happen, this case will clearly illustrate that the Connecticut Environmental Protection Act has no teeth…The next building owner who wants to demolish a National Register property won’t even bother to go to court if he knows that the court’s decision on a temporary injunction against demolition can’t or won’t be enforced.”

As CPN goes to press, final arguments are scheduled for December 19. We don’t know how long it will take the court to reach a decision.