Demolition Of Old Nantucket Electric Company Building Approved By Historic District Commission

A historic brick building in downtown Nantucket - one of the last vestiges of an era when the island generated its own electricity along the waterfront - will soon be torn down.

The Historic District Commission (HDC) voted 3-2 on Tuesday to allow the utility company National Grid to demolish the former Nantucket Electric Company building located on New Whale Street, following a motion to block the demolition that failed on a tied 2-2 vote in early June.

HDC Chair Stephen Welch, Vice Chair Ray Pohl, and Commissioner Val Oliver voted in favor of the motion to allow the demolition, while Commissioners Angus MacLeod and Abby Camp voted against it. Pohl previously abstained from the tied vote in June, at which point the application was held for almost a month as the HDC waited for an official opinion from town counsel on how to proceed.

“At what point is a building no longer able to be rehabilitated? When it's literally lying on the ground, a pile of bricks? Is that the point when we decide, absolutely, there's no way this could be rehabilitated? Oh, but a pile of bricks could actually be reassembled to create the same building that it came from. My point is, there's no definite line,” Pohl said. “The rehabilitation of this building might, in an abstract way, be possible but…I don't see that this building is in any way able to be practically restored.”

Commissioners opposed to allowing the demolition cited concerns about the possibility that the case represented an instance of demolition by neglect, in which property owners allow structures to deteriorate in order to obtain permits to demolish them, and suggested it could still be possible to at least partially restore the building. A town bylaw adopted in 2004 requires the owners of contributing historic structures to take "at least the minimum steps necessary to prevent the deterioration" of foundations, exterior walls, roofs, chimneys, and support structures.

“Why couldn't this be restored to a minimum and just left there like a ruin?” Camp asked. “Athens, Rome, they have ruins, and this is part of our history. Why wouldn't we want to save at least part of it and make it as preserved as possible, and just keep it there?”

Built in 1927, the brick building had served as the processing plant for the coal gasification conducted at the site by the former Nantucket Electric Company. After the power plant was closed in 1996 following the completion of the first undersea cable from Nantucket to the mainland, the brick building at 10 New Whale Street was gutted of its structural steel to house equipment associated with the remediation effort for contaminated soil at the site. That included pumping and filtering groundwater in the area for 12 years. Now empty and unused by National Grid, the building has fallen into disrepair with large cracks through its bricks, holes in its roof, and broken windows.

National Grid submitted multiple reports from engineers suggesting that rehabilitation was impractical due to factors such as the significant deterioration of the building and the high cost of any repair efforts, including a second opinion requested by the HDC, which was first reviewed at the early June meeting, where a motion to block the demolition failed.

“In consideration of the vast extent of serious structural damage that has occurred over many years along with the failure and/or loss of so much of the original construction, it is my opinion that it would be an extremely invasive, expensive, and impractical endeavour to try to rehabilitate this structure, given the small percentage of the original fabric that would ultimately remain,” the report from Structures North Consulting Engineers read in part.

But several local preservationists, including the Nantucket Preservation Trust, the chair of the Historic Structures Advisory Board, and the town’s own preservation planner, previously expressed opposition to National Grid’s demolition request, citing the structure’s significant historical value.

They were joined Tuesday by preservationist and former director of restoration for the Nantucket Historical Association Glenn Boornazian, who filed a letter with the HDC disagreeing with National Grid’s conclusions and arguing that the building could still be saved. Boornazian’s letter left the HDC considering whether to extend the hearing yet again to weigh the new evidence, a proposition National Grid attorneys strongly opposed, saying that the HDC had previously agreed to accept the second engineering report commissioned by National Grid and contending that Boornazian’s letter was filed after the deadline and should not be accepted as part of the record.

“We have demonstrated the public danger that exists from keeping [the building], and we have presented extensive materials documenting the building and keeping it for the record in terms of future activity that may take place on that site,” attorney Arthur Reade said.

The vote represents a sharp reversal for Pohl, who had previously stated that he would never vote to allow the demolition.

“It's a blue-collar version of one of the Three Bricks,” Pohl said at an HDC meeting in October of 2024. “So I could never, never vote in favor of a demolition of this building. I know there are a lot of practical considerations, but I'm not wearing my practical hat right now. I'm wearing my HDC hat. As somebody who lives here and drives past that building multiple times per week and always loved to look at it, I can't in good conscience accept a demolition on this.”

Welch also voiced strong misgivings with the demolition at the same meeting.

“I understand it's not cheap, and I understand it's not convenient, but there are some things where cheap and convenient can't rule the day, and I think this is one of them,” he said at the time.

Much of Tuesday’s discussion turned on how long the building has been neglected, with Welch suggesting it had been in disrepair for the better part of 40 years.

The building at 10 New Whale Street is part of a wider area along the waterfront that the town, along with other property owners, including National Grid and Steve Karp's Nantucket Island Resorts, previously targeted for potential redevelopment, including the possibility of a parking garage. The former Harbor Fuel tank farm located nearby was demolished and removed in 2022.

While those ambitious plans have since fizzled and gone quiet in recent years, the town and National Grid have utilized a portion of the former Nantucket Electric Company property for the valet parking program operated by Valet Park of America.