BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer
RUMSON — A new application has been brought before the borough Planning Board concerning the historic property commonly known as the Tredwell House.
The owners of the property at 16 Ridge Road, Arthur and Leslie Parent, have applied for approval to demolish the 300-year-old home on the basis that the house is in such disrepair that an attempt at renovation would, in the end, be a complete rebuild.
Robert Gorski, of Gorski Waldron Architects, East River Road, testified on behalf of the applicants, giving his professional opinion as whether the home is salvageable.
Richard Driver, of Wolfe, Block, Brock and Eichler, Roseland, examined the expert witness on behalf of the applicants.
According to Gorski, who said he visited the house several times over the past four years, the house is in such poor condition — including warped and collapsing floors, drafty windows, deteriorating pipes, boiler and chimney stack, and collapsed or broken beams — that trying to salvage the home would be a waste of time and money.
It would cost more to try to restore and renovate the house than it would to tear it down and build a new one of the same square footage, he testified.
Gorski also read a report written by structural engineer Joseph A. Rizzo that stated the house, “is not fit for reuse.”
Gorski said the roof would need replacement, as well as the floorboards and siding.
“By the time all the work was done, all that you would have left would be a few sticks of wood,” said Gorski.
Gorski said that only parts of the wood frame of the house would be reusable and that the house would no longer be of any historic value.
The house is listed in the Historic Preservation Element of the 1980 master plan of the borough. The list was compiled as part of the Monmouth County Inventory.
The site is listed as significant because it is one of the oldest buildings still standing in the borough and is an example of Georgian-style architecture with Colonial Revival alterations, according to the Historic Element.
It is listed along with four other sites that are among the oldest buildings in Rumson.
Although Gorski said he has worked on more than 100 renovations within the borough, including work on the historic Spy House in Belford, some members of the board were not convinced that he could accurately determine what might be considered historically significant.
Bernard Vaughn, board member and liaison to the recently founded Rumson Historic Preservation Commission, said he believes the borough should hire an architect who is certified by the state as an “historical architect” — a certification that Gorski does not hold.
Vaughn said he was hoping to have heard more from Gorski concerning the actual costs of renovating the home, versus demolishing it, so that it would be possible to determine if the Parents qualify for the “undue hardship” clause in the board’s ordinances that would allow for the building to be demolished.
Arthur Parent said that if approval is granted, he does not know what he will do with his property. He said he will not attempt another subdivision, which he and his wife applied for four years ago.
The previous application filed by the Parents proposed to develop the 6-acre parcel and was opposed by Preservation Rumson, a group that was the forerunner of the borough’s Preservation Commission.
At that time, the Parents sought approval to subdivide the property, and planned to move the house to another location on the site.
In the current application, the Parents are claiming that it would not be cost-effective to move the house and they have applied for permission to demolish it.
The subdivision approval was granted on Dec. 18, 2000, with the condition that the Tredwell House not be demolished. The Parents let the application lapse.
The board decided to carry the public hearing on the application until its next meeting on Nov. 1 at 7:30 p.m.