The Most Important Threatened Historic Places – Updates

The Seaside, Waterford (1994). 

            In her State of the State address on February 6, Governor M. Jodi Rell announced plans to halt the ten-year-old process of selling off the historic waterfront property.

            Opened in 1934 as a tuberculosis sanitorium for children, Seaside eventually became a facility for mentally retarded before it closed in 1995. The complex, largely designed by Cass Gilbert, architect of the U. S. Supreme Court building and a resident of Ridgefield, is listed on the National Register.

            Once Seaside was declared surplus, the town of Waterford had first chance into buy it, but the town twice declined the offer. As recently as last summer, the state was negotiating with a potential buyer, the Farmington-based Healthcare Consulting Corporation. The proposed sales agreement required that:

• the site be used for age restricted housing;
• the four principal buildings included in the National Register be reused;
• five acres, including the entire waterfront, be set aside for public use; and
• the buyer provide a public park and parking at the site, keep the beach clean, and maintain the seawall, all at its own expense.

             The agreement set a price of $7.1 million, which would go to the Department of Developmental Services for its group home program.

             In November the House Government Administration and Elections Committee rejected the sale on a procedural basis, but Healthcare remained confident that it could come to an agreement with the state.

            In announcing her decision, Rell cited the state’s interest in responsible growth: “Sometimes the responsible thing is to not grow, to not develop. For that reason I will ask our state Department of Public Works not to sell the Seaside property in Waterford. Thirty-six acres of beautiful land, fronting along the coast, with the ocean as a neighbor. A beautiful, scenic parcel that would be lost to development forever.”            

            A matter of concern is the state of the buildings, which have been vacant for over a decade now. The site is out of public view, and it is uncertain how much care the buildings have received, but they are sure to be suffering. In her speech, Governor Rell announced that “I have included monies in the budget to secure the property and to mothball the handful of historic structures that are stunning in their artistry.” They should have been secured and mothballed all along. The condition of Seaside and other surplus state properties that are in the process of being sold off has long been of concern to preservationists, who have watched sites such as Norwich State Hospital in Preston/Norwich visibly crumbling as the disposition process has drawn on much longer than anticipated.          

           Even more troubling was a comment that the Governor made during a visit to Seaside in December. According the The Day of New London, Rell speculated that the state might ask the National Park Service to remove the principal building from the National Register, to clear the way for its demolition. The Day reported that the governor’s chief spokesman later said that no decision had been made about razing any buildings and that Rell’s comment had merely been one option.