The half-acre lot at the intersection of Masonic Ave. and Dukes County Ave. in Oak Bluffs, also known as Bradley Square, is the site of the long-vacant, dilapidated “Denniston House,” one of the first black churches on Martha’s Vineyard, built in 1895. The former church has been the subject of years of contention between those who consider it an historic building that should be preserved and those who consider it an eyesore that should be demolished.
Recently, a number of large trees were cut down on the property. Appearances to the contrary, the tree work did not represent new life for the moribund property.
Owner Matt Viaggio, a builder from Oak Bluffs, said the trees were toppled because they were diseased and rotting and a potential legal liability. He said he views the Denniston House the same way, but he said he has been stymied in his efforts to develop the prime, B-1 zoned lot by bureaucratic red tape from the Oak Bluffs Historical Commission (OBHC) and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC), who have designated the demolition as a Development of Regional Impact (DRI).
A house divided
The current stalemate began when Mr. Viaggio applied for a demolition permit in December 2014. Since the building is over 100 years old, the matter was automatically sent to the OBHC. In a February meeting, the OBHC voted unanimously to designate Denniston House as a “preferably preserved property,” sparing the building from the wrecking ball for six months. The permit application also triggered MVC review.
MVC chairman Fred Hancock of Oak Bluffs said the Island’s powerful regional planning and permitting agency added a DRI trigger for the demolition of any building over 100 years during its last review of the DRI checklist. “There was a prevailing feeling on the MVC that too many of our historical buildings were being lost,” Mr. Hancock said.
The DRI process is rooted in the MVC’s enabling legislation (Chapter 831 of the Acts of 1977, as amended) which authorizes the commission “to review developments that are either so large or have such significant impacts on their surroundings that they would affect more than one town,” according to the MVC web site.
Mr. Viaggio believes this is a case of OBHC and MVC overreach. “A few years ago that property was on the town warrant to be designated as historic, and it got defeated,” he said, referring to a town meeting vote in 2011 when voters rejected the creation of an historic district in the Bradley Square area with a standing vote of 33 for and 53 against. “In my mind it was a done deal, the voters of the town had spoken. I went to [OBHC] and said it was too much work to save it, and I had a letter from the NAACP saying they didn’t believe it was historically significant, a plaque would be fine, but some members on the OBHC kept insisting the building needed to be saved. They didn’t think that the town vote had any significance.”
“The town meeting vote has nothing to do with the DRI checklist items,” Mr. Hancock said. “The MVC supersedes any town regulation.”
Mr. Viaggio said he met with the MVC twice in March and former MVC director Mark London referred the matter to the Massachusetts Historic Commission (MHC), saying a ruling would take about a month. The ruling took five months.
In an August 19 letter to the MVC, the Historic Commission concluded “The MHC has no jurisdiction or review role in MVC’s DRI decisions,” thus leaving the final decision entirely with the MVC.
Extortion and ridiculous
Oak Bluffs planning board chairman Brian Packish and selectman Walter Vail concurred, in no uncertain terms, that Mr. Viaggio is being unjustly restricted by the MVC.
“I think a DRI for this is outright extortion,” Mr. Packish said. “This is the exact reason why we have less housing in our community. The process creates a burden on the applicant that deters them. There’s potential housing, jobs, and money for the tax base. Everything about the [MVC] holding up this project hurts our community. I believe OB can serve OB best.”
Mr. Packish also questioned the capriciousness of the DRI process. “I don’t believe that the tearing down that building is a DRI. I don’t think the bowling alley should have been a DRI. Our new fire station will be the Island command center during a disaster, which is clearly regional, but it was never seen by the [MVC]. Depending on scope of the new project it may be a real DRI but not the demolition.”
Mr. Packish also questioned the motives of the opponents of the demolition. “There really is no historic significance on 8 Masonic Ave. We have the NAACP documented that it’s not interested.” he said. “This is more about people hanging on to bitter feelings of past projects.”
Selectman Walter Vail was also sharply critical of the MVC. “I don’t understand why they need to weigh in on this,” he said. “These delays cost a lot of money, and this has been going on way too long. The building needs to come down, it’s an eyesore. Whatever goes up there will have to go before the planning board so the town will have plenty of say about what goes there.”
Mr. Vail also questioned the support for preserving the building. “We went to the African-American community and got no interest,” he said.
Oak Bluffs resident Pat Tankard endorsed that view. “I am African American,” she told The Times. “I don’t remember that building ever being used since my family moved here in 1961. I don’t understand what this whole war is about. That building has never meant anything to anyone of color.”
Ms. Tankard thinks the church represents a dark period in the Island’s history, and should be torn down. “Why was it necessary to establish a black church if there wasn’t discrimination? I happen to be Catholic. I don’t need to worship with people of my color, I worship with people of my faith. That building will commemorate a time that is better left forgotten. I think people are being ridiculous.”
Troubled history
Preservation of the Denniston building was once the cornerstone of an ambitious project for the two parcels known as Bradley Square. In 2007, the now defunct Island Affordable Housing Fund bought the two parcels of land for $905,000 and proposed to create affordable housing, low-cost retail space, and preserve the historic building. The ambitious restoration and affordable housing project won approval from the MVC and town regulatory boards after more than a year of bitter neighborhood opposition, but failed when the housing fund was unable to raise $1.3 in private donations to complete the project.
In 2010, in an attempt to make the property more attractive to a buyer the IAHF applied for a permit to demolish the Denniston building. The asking price for the one-half acre lot was $975,000. The housing fund had already invested $1.2 million in the development and faced a monthly mortgage payment of about $6,000. Mr. Viaggio bought the property in 2011 at a public auction for $500,000, after it had been on the market for over a year.
“I had my eye on this building since I came to the Island in 1974,” he said, taking The Times on a tour through the warren of rooms inside the Denniston house.
Floorboards frequently sagged underfoot. Large chunks of plaster ceiling sat on a water-stained floors. The was an eclectic assortment of dust-covered furnishings, including an old wooden rowboat, two upright pianos, and a small church organ, next to which sat a copy of the New York Times from 1944. Other than some slapdash drywalling done by squatters, every wall showed 100-plus years of decay.
“I’ll salvage everything I can from it, the doorknobs, the lock mechanisms, wide planks that aren’t rotting,” he said. “But if someone offered me the job of restoring this place, I wouldn’t do it. It would cost a fortune. Framing alone will cost half a million and I doubt I could get anyone to insure me.”
Mr. Viaggio showed The Times a letter dated April 13 from civil engineer Kent Healy which states “the building is in poor condition and to make it habitable would require a new foundation, reconstruction of first and second floor framing, a new roof, complete replacement of the plumbing, heating and electrical systems and the septic system.”
Mr. Healy said he didn’t not think the building was in imminent danger of collapse, but “there is very little of that building that could be used in reconstruction.”
All roads lead to the MVC
“People keep asking me what I’m going to do with the lot, they want to see plans. I’m not sinking a dime into planning or permitting until I get a clear slate,” Mr. Viaggio said. “I’m not anti-MVC. I think our town and every other town on the Island should ask them when they need their assistance. I just don’t think we need their assistance on this one.”
Asked to blue sky about what he’d like to see on the property, Mr. Viaggio said he’s thought about some mixed use buildings with top-of-the-shop housing. “I grew up in Brooklyn, where every place you got a slice of pizza had apartments over it,” he said. “I think some stores, maybe a nice bistro, with apartments above them, would be nice in this area.”
Mr. Hancock suggested that Mr. Viaggio spend more energy addressing the DRI application and less time courting public opinion. “Matt has never submitted an application, he voted not to participate in this process,” he said. “He can jawbone all he want, but he still has to come to us. We’ll have a concurrence review and then we’ll decide whether or not to hold a public hearing.”
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