Providence Journal: "Grove School will be demolished"

Richard C. Dujardin, Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE Conceding defeat in its years-long effort to save the historic Grove Street School, the city has issued a permit allowing the building s owner to demolish all that remains of the former six-room school house.

David Ortiz, a spokesman for Mayor Angel Taveras, confirmed Friday that the permit to demolish the 1901 structure was issued earlier this week, signaling an end to a battle that had been fought in a number of legal arenas, including Superior Court.

Mayor Taveras is very disappointed that the building has to come down, Ortiz said. The city has done everything possible to save the building but has run out of options.

The building is owned by state Rep. Michael A. Tarro, whose father, the late funeral director Richard Tarro, purchased the building in 1982 with the idea that he could tear it down to expand a parking lot for the family s funeral home next door.

That idea never did sit well with the West Broadway Neighborhood Association or with the Providence Preservation Society, which had gotten the school placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, around the same time it was decommissioned as a public school.

Built in 1901, the school featured separate arched entries for girls and boys and a graceful Italianate design. It is or was a building with a story to tell, says James Hall, the preservation society's executive director.

It was built to educate the children of immigrants when the city was growing by leaps and bounds.

The battle over the school began in earnest when the Tarro family which had refused offers from buyers who wanted to save the building sent a bulldozer to the site in early 2007, only to be stopped in the process because it had not obtained a permit. That July the building was further damaged by a fire of suspicious origin.

In the many legal skirmishes since, the city has won some and lost some. This past August, yet another fight erupted when city Building Official Kerry Anderson, for reasons of public safety, ordered that the building be demolished, only to reverse course the next day, telling owners he wanted the work stopped because of the approach of Tropical Storm Irene.

Some observers said that less that 10 minutes after the building official left the site, the demolition began anew, prompting Mayor Taveras to declare that he would pursue all legal remedies against the owners for trying once again to raze a historic building without authorization.

On Friday, Hall said he was sad to say that the owners had won their battle through an intentional and cynical end game having allowed the building to deteriorate so that demolition was the only option.

This is a building that was meant to last the ages. Its brick walls are 22 inches thick. But when you open buildings to the weather, as the owner has done, they are put at risk. It s a sad situation. He won. It gives us no great pleasure to say that.

Will it now become a parking lot? Hall said the city s zoning ordinance forbids that, but he doesn t know what the owners plan.

Tarro, who also had served as an assistant city solicitor until he was fired from that role earlier this year, didn t return phone calls Friday.

There was no word when demolition would begin.

Ortiz, the mayoral spokesman, said that before getting the demolition permit the owner was required to provide proof that he had taken the steps to abate any problems associated with asbestos or with rodents.

He said the city will continue to monitor the site after the demolition, to make sure it is maintained according to the law.

Presumably, that means not allowing the land to be turned into a parking lot.