NAP- Neighborhood Alliance of Pawtucket

Fine houses march up Walcott Street in Pawtucket’s Quality Hill neighborhood. Turn the corner at Walnut and you find the Darius Goff House, known to most as Weeden Manor. A nursing home for 105 of its 120 years, the building’s long history might, alas, soon be over, and its demolition could devastate Pawtucket’s future.

Down to five residents, the home closed Feb. 2. The building’s owner, Pawtucket Congregational Church, which recently merged with Sayles Memorial Congregational Church, in Lincoln, hopes to sell the building. The asking price is $585,000, via Olympus Real Estate. But if a buyer does not turn up, it might be torn down.

Nearby, the Read-Ott Mansion, on Walcott Street, owned by the adjoining Assumption of the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church, is also at risk. It, too, has become a burden for an institution under financial stress.

The fate of underused historic treasures grows shakier in hard times. And last year, the Rhode Island General Assembly killed its very successful historic-preservation tax credit.

Buildings on the Providence Preservation Society’s list of endangered properties have been at risk for similar reasons, and many have been rescued by new owners who put them to new uses. Unlike Providence, however, Pawtucket is not a state capital, and it lost much of its historic downtown during the heyday of urban renewal in the last century. In spite of much commendable preservation work, the city has never fully recovered.

Perhaps the Preservation Society of Pawtucket can try what worked for Providence when its preservationists brainstormed potential uses for the imposing but dilapidated Masonic Temple next to the Rhode Island State House. The classical temple sat unused for 75 years, but it dodged demolition and was recently renovated as a hotel. We’re still amazed that it has survived!

The visible symbols of a city’s civic prosperity can be found in neighborhoods like Quality Hill. Pawtucket finds itself sitting on a precipice.

If Weeden Manor and the Read-Ott Mansion are lost, Pawtucket’s ability to recuperate from the recession, and from a half-century of mistakes, might be undermined. We hope Pawtucket can find new owners and uses for the two properties, and thus avoid the tipping point where the erosion of civic spirit more than offsets the pride and creative energy required for recovery.