putnam county preservationists take on NYC to save historic Belden House
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By Marc Ferris | Published on January 18, 2024
Unless the Friends of Belden House can find a few million dollars in the next six months or a private developer swoops in, the circa 1760 Gothic house in Putnam County has a date with the wrecking ball.
New York City, which took possession of the home in 1896 and built a dam and reservoir in the backyard, wants to tear down the historic house, citing the unjustifiable cost burden of maintaining it. In a last-ditch effort to save the structure, the advocacy group filed a lawsuit in September.
“Ever since they came here, we’ve been treated like fleas on their lapel,” said Ann Fanizzi, who spearheads the Friends’ efforts. “First they took our land, then they took our water, now they’re taking our history.”
New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection, which delivers drinking water to parts of the lower Hudson Valley and most of the five boroughs, owns nearly 2,000 square miles in eight upstate counties, where it holds reservoirs and the watersheds that feed into them. That includes 5.6 percent of Putnam County. In 1997, the DEP began implementing a comprehensive watershed protection program and called for the removal of unwanted structures. The agency has taken down five historic homes on its property east of the Hudson River. Belden House is the last one standing.
In an affidavit responding to the Friends’ lawsuit, David Warne, assistant commissioner for the DEP’s Bureau of Water Supply, affirmed that tearing down Belden House would “reduce associated operational costs, save on maintenance (and) reduce real estate taxes.”
While the house is not currently listed on the state or national historic registers, it is eligible, according to the Preservation League of New York State.
In November — without notice, according to several local officials — the DEP razed the caretaker house at Boyd Corners Reservoir in the town of Kent, located 3 miles from Belden House.
“The work on the exterior of that house represented the finest old-world craftsmanship,” said Richard Othmer, the town’s highway superintendent and a stonemason by trade.
The DEP used to have crews that maintained the historic homes on its property. “But now look,” said Fred Swanson, a retired 39-year DEP veteran and Belden friend, as he surveyed the fresh destruction site recently.
The DEP is exempt from local building codes and exerts regulatory power over proposed construction that might impact the watershed and erosion control zones. That stifles development and creates a tax burden for residents and businesses, said Greg Ellner, who represents the town of Carmel in the Putnam County Legislature.
“Carmel residents have paid the DEP about $26 million for water from spring-fed Lake Gleneida since 1997,” Ellner said. “They’re pumping 1.7 billion gallons per day. How many public agencies have a guaranteed income like that? If they raised rates by one one-thousandth of a cent, they could pay for Belden House.”
Regarding the demolished historic structures, DEP spokesman John Milgrim said that “New York City is in the midst of extraordinary financial pressures and saddling water ratepayers throughout the Hudson Valley and the city with a multimillion-dollar expense for assets that serve no purpose for the water supply system is an unjustifiable burden.”
David v. Goliath
The relationship between puny Putnam County (population 97,936) and New York City became contentious during the construction of a dam to create Boyd Corners Reservoir, which began in 1866.
As the city’s population exploded, so did its upstate water infrastructure. The DEP gobbled up territory to create the reservoirs. Beneath them lie the remains of farms, villages and buildings. Residents removed bodies from cemeteries as the city’s quest for a reliable water source upended lives.
To this day, some locals liken the DEP to an occupying colonial power. In the 2022 book “Nineteen Reservoirs,” Lucy Sante wrote that the city “condemned properties for seizure without asking residents’ permission, found all sorts of legal subterfuges denying the value of the fields and homesteads as established by expert witnesses, lowballed every estimate, treated them with distant contempt.”
The county, along with the towns of Kent, Southeast, Carmel and Patterson, demanded that New York City pay local property taxes. The parties continue wrangling over rates and payments.
For decades, the DEP used the Belden property as office space and a caretaker lived on-site. Workers now occupy a makeshift barn across the street and a cluster of rusty trailers a couple of miles away.
After the DEP implemented its robust watershed protection policy in the late 1990s, the Belden homestead withered. Then, in 2006, the agency announced in a press release that it had earmarked $2.9 million to “restore the exterior of the building to almost its original condition.” It also pledged to provide space for its Land Management division and the Friends of Belden House, which would “also have the opportunity to decorate public areas of the building, including its main foyer.”
Citing the 2008 recession, however, the DEP diverted the money elsewhere and the building is now falling in on itself.
“We just want them to do what they pledged to do,” Fanizzi said.
Ways to save
Last October, Victor G. Grossman, the judge presiding over the Friends’ lawsuit, issued a stay of execution until at least July. The DEP is “still open to transferring the structure if anyone will take it,” according to court filings.
The statement references a 2003 agreement between DEP and the county to swap Belden House for two plots of land. That year, the county paid $11.35 million for three large pieces of property, including the public Putnam County Golf Course and the circa 1741 Hill-Agor House. Despite promises to renovate the home, it sits untouched.
In 2005, the Putnam County Legislature voted against accepting Belden House, citing its poor condition, but still handed over the parcels it promised to DEP.
Now, neither the town of Carmel nor Putnam County have the means to renovate or maintain dilapidated historic houses, said County Executive Kevin Byrne. The Friends’ lawyer, James Bacon, admitted that lawsuits of this type are rarely successful.
Several county legislators reached out to U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, who represents the area, for federal aid. State Sen. Peter Harckham and Assemblyman Matt Slater contacted the state Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to help save the house. As of press time, they had yet to hear anything in response.
A private developer could also come to the rescue, as happened with Kemble Cottage, which was built circa 1826 in Cold Spring. Two retired pediatricians bought the home from Scenic Hudson. In 2022, they restored it into a bed and breakfast after the village let them build a swimming pool, a three-car garage with a second-floor apartment and an adjoining five-bedroom house with interior doors that open into the historic structure.
Four miles from Belden House on Route 6 in Southeast, Manhattan-based developer Praq Rado is turning another long-neglected home from the 1800s into a bed and breakfast. The town of Southeast had owned the 7,000-square-foot house across from the Middle Branch Reservoir for 20 years and planned to tear it down, according to Rado. But after he began renovations, the DEP issued a ticket for “disturbing too much land” and made him move his well and septic tank.
“I’m trying to save this house,” Rado said. “But there are a lot of hurdles I never anticipated.”