You Guest It: Don’t Destroy West Harwich Baptist Church

The town finds itself in a terrible situation regarding the pending demolition of the West Harwich Baptist Church. The clock must be stopped, and cooler heads must prevail. Among the many problems that beset this project, allow me to present a few critical issues that should enable all responsible authorities to pause and seek alternative answers. I offer my solution below. 

First, the buyer has created a sense of urgency without fact. The “engineering reports” were written by parties who have never set foot in the building. This is euthanasia without a diagnosis. Individuals with the simple project of paving a driveway in Harwich are required to submit an engineering report detailing water runoff patterns that mystify the average reader with calculations and thresholds of statistical significance. At the Baptist Church, not a single calculation concerning the load-bearing viability of any of the building’s structural members has been submitted. The potential damage done by the giving way of eggshell-thin tin ceiling panels and fluffy, blown-in insulation is all that has been offered. And let’s not forget sharp edges! We have been told to expect imminent collapse of the entire structure. 

This is a case of shallow analysis leveraged to create maximum emotional manipulation. As such, it is a dreadful betrayal of the public’s good faith and of the sensible stewardship of a distressed building that has already been recommended for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. This is a repudiation of the public’s desire to save, not demolish, a landmark of national significance.

Second, the buyer presents this sham urgency as requiring “relief.” The town does not owe the buyer “relief” from a condition that has not been proven to exist. This is a cunning inversion of reality. A decade ago, the town sought “relief” from thoughtless demolitions and neglect in West Harwich. A corps of diligent citizens, a former town planner, several members of the Cape Cod Commission, as well as county and state officials all supported the West Harwich Special District. The central premise of the district was to conserve as many of our rich examples of two centuries’ worth of American residential and civic architecture, with the Baptist Church being the jewel on the diadem of Captains’ Row. Seeking “relief” to demolish it represents unspeakable arrogance given the context of the district, to say nothing of the premise of the RFP. 

My third concern is in reference to the RFP whereby Harwich has been poorly counseled and weakly led by the administration. The notion of justifying a taking to consolidate a fractious title with an explicit “public good” was interpreted in the most craven, ideological manner imaginable. A transactional conception of a “public good” was the result, as if this irreplaceable landmark was somehow contingent on its capacity to produce a few units of “housing.” This constitutes a radical disconnect from the church’s incalculable value to the village, its centrality to the district, and the symbolic value it has for the town. Maintaining its existence is the desired “good.” Full stop. 

The civic insult is even more extreme when one considers that not only are there now roughly two dozen new units underway within a 30-second walk of the church front door, but another 39 units are in the planning stages. Let’s not forget that the local comprehensive plan plots a clear demographic plateau in our near future and a population decline thereafter. Today’s “good” must be kept in a mindful balance with our past and our future. We need to stop fixating on the second hand and begin to contemplate the movement of the hour hand. 

The nearly three-hour historic district historical commission meeting last week had over three dozen attendees, and not even one of them rose to speak in favor of the buyer.

I believe that, despite the noble original intentions and the Davenport Company’s desire for a “legacy project,” the RFP has devolved into a scenario where the applicant will destroy its public reputation by going against the entire rationale of the village’s special district and against the will of the people of the town who turned out in force and who have been without exception manifestly against demolition. 

Demolition cannot be undone. And the last thing Harwich needs is to demolish a key monument connecting us to our nearly 400-year-old civic identity. And to have the “powers that be” bless this outrage on the 60th anniversary of the disaster of demolishing the Exchange Building is unconscionable; the footprint of that amazing building remains an open wound in Harwich Center, an enduring reminder of a lack of vision. Simply put, turning a preservation-oriented project into a demolition is an abomination.

I respectfully request the Davenport Company rescind its offer, accept the sunk-cost loss, and walk away from the RFP in order to allow the town to facilitate a swift transfer of the property to a third party whose primary purpose will be to shore up, clean up, then determine a use for the building that is consistent with its historic peculiarities. Harwich needs to save a landmark. It is a key piece in the mosaic of this town’s identity that is almost universally recognized. 

As preservationist Jack Sawhill noted, “In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create, but by what we refuse to destroy.” It is high time that all parties take a deep breath, take the high ground, and refuse to destroy the West Harwich Baptist Church.