Adding Insult to Injury

In June 2019, the restoration of 260 Warren Street was finally complete. At that point, the building had been owned by one or another Galvan entity for about fifteen years and during that time had been left boarded up and vacant. 

Finally, in early 2018, after many reviews by the Historic Preservation Commission and several certificates of appropriateness granted and allowed to expire, a plan for the building's restoration, informed by a photograph found by Gossips in the Evelyn & Robert Monthie Slide Collection at the Columbia County Historical Society, was approved by the HPC, and the work was actually carried out. 

Photo courtesy CCHS, Evelyn & Robert Monthie Slide Collection

There was just one problem. The plans presented to the HPC in 2018 included the proposal that the marble plinths, lintels, and sills, original to the building, would be "cleaned, protected, and sealed." Kate Johns, who at the time was the architect member of the HPC, specifically requested that the marble not be sealed because of the damaging effect such action can have on marble. Nevertheless, some white substance was applied to the marble plinths and lintels. 

In September 2019, when Galvan came back to the HPC seeking permission to install an awning on the building, Phil Forman, chair of the HPC, brought up the "white coating" that had been applied to the marble. Unfortunately, it was opined by the city attorney at the time, Andy Howard, that Galvan could not be required to remove the "white gunk" from the marble because the directive not to apply a sealant to the marble had not been included in the language of the certificate of appropriateness. Removing the substance would have to be done voluntarily by the owner of the building--the same person who ten years earlier wanted to replace the marble because, according to his factotum, "He doesn't like old things." Needless to say, the white substance was never removed.

Everything that happened five years ago seems to have been forgotten. In 2021, Galvan sold the building for $1,225,501. In January of this year, Lawrence Park, which opened in the summer of 2019, closed. In preparation for a new tenant, the historic marble and the reproduction doors have gotten a fresh coat of white paint and some delightful little botanical flourishes. Another example of historic architecture as canvas for whimsy.

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