By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Opponents might bring 15 or more people tonight, Thursday, to tell the Historic Preservation Commission why the former home of heiress Doris Duke should be preserved.
They will be fighting to save what they say was what the principal home for one of the country’s most well-known members of the privileged class in the mid-1900s.
The meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m., could be long and contentious. Township officials said they planned to hold the meeting in the township courtroom, per normal, but might pipe audio into the multi-purpose room across the hall, if necessary.
By Duke Farms’ accounts, the home is well deteriorated after having been mothballed and closed off from the public for more than 20 years.
Opponents claim the obsolescence amounts to demolition by neglect, and Duke Farms is using the restoration price tag of $10 million to $20 million as an argument to allow the razing.
Duke Farms said it wants to open that area of the 2,500-acre property to the public, and instead use its money to restore the Coach Barn off Duke’s Parkway West as a conference and workshop center.
Doris Duke, renowned as a philanthropist, art lover and wildlife preservationist, died in 1993. She lived in the home that was expanded and renovated many times after her father, tobacco businessman James Buchannan Duke, bought the former Veghte farmhouse in the 1890s.
The home has become a 65,000-square-foot building that is 600 feet long and divided into “teeny tiny rooms,” each with its own style, as one renovation undid the last, said Michael Catania, executive director of Duke Farms.
Mr. Catania said his side has no more witnesses. Duke Farms has made its case, he said, and will respond to public questions and at the end of the hearing.
The foundation’s position remains unchanged. He said it’s been a 10-year period of studying and planning what to do with the estate, resulting in the renovation of the Farm Barn into a visitor center and foundation offices, and the opening of the estate to the public for passive recreation, a community garden, “incubator” farms and other examples of sustainable environmental practices.
Mr. Catania said the foundation has previously looked at the ideas — like a B&B, community college satellite and conference center — that the opponents of demolition have brought forward.
“We’re not interested to bring vehicles into the park, which is an incredible place of tranquility and wildlife,” he said.
Work goes on this week to put a new slate roof on the Coach Barn, which is planned to be restored and opened for workshops and programs.
Mr. Catania said the first phase of asbestos removal on the Duke home has been finished, and some residual cleanup work remains, he said.
He hopes Duke Farms can gain approval Thursday to demolish, and proceed as quickly as possible.
“We remain committed to preserving Doris Duke’s memory,” he said. “That does not mean every building is worth saving.”
Opponents expect to call a lengthy roster of people with objections and viewpoints.
David Brook, a member of the opposition group that goes by the acronym DORIS (for Demolition of Residence is Senseless), said the group will present an expert witness as well as 15 to 20 people to testify and bring a number of exhibits “in as concise a fashion as possible.”
The goal is for Mary Delaney Krugman, an attorney with a graduate degree in historical preservation from Columbia University, to rebut testimony from Duke Farms witness Emily Cooperman that there was little distinctive and unique about the home or the events that happened there.
Dr. Cooperman said in July that the home is a “pastiche …
WHAT DID SHE SAY?
Township Attorney William Willard said the board wanted people to speak openly and freely, but said he will encourage speakers to stay relevant and stick to the criteria to justify a demolition.
The township code lists seven criteria that should be considered. They include the structural condition and economic feasibility of alternatives, but it also include how much the retention would “promote the general welfare by maintaining and increasing the real estate values, generating business, creating new jobs (and) attracting tourists, students, writers, historians, artists and artisans. . .”
Mr. Brook said he believed the biggest hurdle DORIS has to overcome is the belief that “Duke Farms “can do no wrong.”
“For the most part, Duke Farms has done a lot of good things, but, in this case, Duke Farms is wrong,” he said.
He said his group wanted “everybody to keep an open mind” as he and allies try to explain why the commercial value of the residence is greater than the teardown.
Mr. Brook said he felt there was a misperception that the estate is private property and the town shouldn’t intrude on that. He called the Duke Farms is a non-profit and the property is “quasi-public” because of its stated purpose and attraction of tens of thousands of visitors a year.
He said DORIS will bring the case it hopes to compel the commission to vote against demolition and for preservation.
“You don’t demolish unless you establish a compelling rationale,” he said. He said he was hopeful the town and foundation would think creatively about adaptive reuses.
