Newark Museum officials request Polhemus House be torn down

Newark- The community saved it once before, and then the Newark Museum featured it in its plans for a major expansion. But the historic Polhemus House could not withstand its own structural problems. It is crumbling from the inside, museum officials say, and it needs to be torn down.
Museum officials appeared before the city and state historic-preservation committees this week, seeking permission to demolish the historic home because it does not have the $2 million it would need to stabilize it, never mind an additional $5 million to fully restore it for use.
Citing its fragile financial picture, director Mary Sue Sweeney Price said the museum could not justify the expense. "I am a preservationist," Price told members of the state Historic Sites Council, which met Thursday in Trenton. "I do not take this lightly. It is not demolition by neglect. It is demolition with enormous sadness and regret." Both committees agreed to the request, though many members voiced their sadness about the loss of the pre-Civil War structure.
"I am really unhappy, but yes," said council member Mary-Anna Holden, voting for the resolution to demolish. "This shows before you plan to expand, you should take care of the things you already own." The state council voted 9-1 on a resolution allowing the museum to demolish Polhemus if it followed seven conditions, including the development of an educational program about the house and its history, and some reference to the structure in the landscape design that will replace it. The museum is not allowed to replace the building with a parking lot. Price said that was not its intention. Robert Preston cast the only dissenting vote. "Other members were not happy," he said. "I wanted to voice my disagreement. It should not have gotten to this point." The museum’s experts told the committee the house was in such disrepair it presented a hazard to the public. Extensive testing showed the mortar in the brick walls had turned to sand. Bricks could be pulled out of the exterior walls by hand.The museum estimated demolition would cost $161,000. The building would be replaced with landscaping until a new expansion design is created. The widow of Abraham Polhemus, an abolitionist and pastor of the North Reformed Church, built the four-story brownstone on Washington Street between 1859 and 1961. It is a "contributing building" to the James Street Commons Historic District, which was an affluent residential neighborhood. The museum’s Ballantine House, also located on Washington Street, is the only other structure that dates to that time. Owned by Newark but leased to the museum since 1980, the building housed museum offices until 2004, when it was deemed unsafe. In 2005, it was listed as one of the state’s "10 Most Endangered Historic Sites" by Preservation New Jersey, a Trenton-based nonprofit historic-preservation organization. Newark preservationists at the time feared the museum was going to demolish the house as part of a major expansion, according to Douglas Eldridge, executive director of the Newark Preservation and Landmarks Committee, who spoke Thursday and at a Wednesday night hearing in Newark City Hall. Swayed by public reaction, museum officials had a change of heart and included the Polhemus House in their Signature Project, a $235 million expansion designed by Princeton architect Michael Graves. Those plans are now on hold. "I felt like I was listening to an autopsy," Eldridge said at the end of the museum’s 90 minute presentation detailing the problems with the house. "I’m distraught." Newark’s preservation commission will vote on the museum’s request next month, although chairman David Abramson reminded the museum of the committee’s policy to withhold approval of a demolition without specific plans of what would replace it on the property.

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