Today’s WestportNow teardown is 82 Roseville Road. An application for a demolition permit for the house, built in 1900, will come under review at a Westport Historic District Commission meeting April 12. (CLICK TO ENLARGE ) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Today’s Westport Teardown: 18 Burr Farms Road
Postscript to a Teardown: 10 Covlee Drive
This teardown at 10 Covlee Drive in the Saugatuck Shores area was featured on Friday’s WestportNow only hours before it was demolished. On hand for the take down Friday were owners Jackie and Howard Mason (2nd and 3rd l) and their mortgage banker, Henry Weeks, from the Westport National Bank (l)—he said he came because he had never seen a house demolished. Howard Mason lived around the corner at 3 Covlee Drive until 1983. He said he always wanted to return to Saugatuck Shores so he bought the one-story, 1,700-square-foot house in October 2004 for $820,000 and plans to replace it with a 3,400-square-foot Colonial. (CLICK TO ENLARGE ) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
WestportNow Teardown of the Day: 10 Covlee Drive
Today’s Westport Teardown: 11 Twin Falls Lane
Developer Offers $10,000 to Move Bradley House
The battle between developers and preservationists over the Abel Bradley House on the Westport-Fairfield town line shifted to today’s Westport Town Hall brown bag lunch. Developer Mike Horvath said he would pay $10,000 to move the house off the property. Preservationists said such a move would be difficult. Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
WestportNow Teardown of the Day: 100 Beachside Ave
Today’s WestportNow teardown is 100 Beachside Ave. The property, which actually is comprised of two parcels at 100-102 Beachside Ave. totaling just over 4.3 acres, changed hands earlier this month for $14.6 million—the most expensive property ever sold in Westport. A demolition application said only portions of the house would be demolished. Because the request concerns a structure more than 50 years old, it will be automatically considered by the Westport Historic District Commission. View is of the rear of the property facing Long Island Sound. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow contributed reporting for this item. WestportNow.com photo
Westport’s First Teardown of 2005: 60 Clapboard Hill Road
Westport’s first teardown of the 2005 was a house at 60 Clapboard Hill Road. The 1920 house (inset) was featured as WestportNow’s teardown of the day on Oct. 27, 2004. The Historic District Commission approved a delay in September in its destruction, but the permit was finally issued Jan. 6. The property changed hands Jan. 3 for $1,345,000. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Westport Teardowns Jumped 43 Percent in 2004
The number of demolition permits issued in 2004 in Westport jumped 43 percent—to 106 compared to 73 the year before, Building Department figures showed today.
The owner of 4 Smoky Lane demolished a 1951 house last week after building this new home elsewhere on the 1-acre property. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Dave Matlow for WestportNow.com
Local real estate agents said favorable interest rates plus the shortage of buildable land in the community accelerated the demolitions, which have been featured in WestportNow’s “teardown of the day” series since last October.
In 2002, there were 75 demolition permits issued.
The last demolition permit issued in 2004 was on Dec. 29 for 2 Lowlyn Road, which was featured as WestportNow’s teardown on Nov. 16.
A day before, the department issued a permit for demolition of a home at 4 Smoky Lane, off of Hillspoint Road. The 1951 home, featured by WestportNow Nov. 19, was taken down soon afterward. The owner, meanwhile, had built a new house elsewhere on the 1-acre lot and occupied it in October.