SWAMPSCOTT — Spectators gathered along Pitman Road on Friday morning to watch as the former home of town founder Samuel Pitman — which has sat on its lot for at least 250 years — was reduced to rubble in less than an hour.
Historical Commission Chair Nancy Schultz, who played a lead role in the effort to preserve the home, watched as a demolition crane took massive chunks out of the historic home, shattering glass windows and prying apart entire walls. Moments before demolition, Schultz asked the work crew to salvage some pieces of the structure, such as the decoratively carved door panels, which she believes are likely original.
“When we had to look into whether someone historic lived here, we discovered it was Samuel Pitman, the town founder, but I don’t think anyone knew that. This has just been a rental for 40 years… this nondescript house,” Schultz said.
The house’s demolition, which will make room for the Elm Place 40B housing structure, took place less than two days after Select Board members turned down a last-minute proposal to fund the house’s proposed move to a storage location.
Two weeks ago, the Zoning Board of Appeals denied the Historical Commission and Affordable Housing Trust’s request for a frontage variance that, if approved, would have allowed the property to be relocated to a lot on Hillside Avenue and redeveloped as affordable housing.
Schultz echoed the prior remarks of Select Board Vice Chair Katie Phelan and member Peter Spellios when she said that in the future, she would like to expand the commission’s process for identifying historically significant properties in town so that they can be preserved and protected.
“We have to change from a reactive to a proactive stance on these houses, we need to do a more thorough inventory and identify houses before we’re into a total time frame,” Schultz said.
Although the Pitman House could not be saved, Schultz said its demolition served as motivation to protect the home of Revolutionary War Gen. John Glover. Currently, a developer, Leggat McCall Properties, plans to demolish the house to build a 4-acre housing development including two buildings with 96 rental units in Swampscott and one building with 44 rental units in Marblehead.
In response, Schultz said the Historical Commission has been trying to negotiate with Leggat McCall to further prolong the house’s demolition so that it can be moved to another site.
“This just further demonstrates the importance of saving the Gen. Glover House,” Schultz said. “This (Pitman House) and the Glover are Swampscott Revolutionary sites, and it’s very worrisome that we’re not going to have the Glover if we can’t really get the developer to work with us about preserving in place and we can’t find a site to move it to.”
