Grant to help fix-up of St. Lawrence Hotel
by James Schlett, Times Staff Writer
First published: Wednesday, March 12, 2003
WADDINGTON - The nonprofit group that wants to save the St. Lawrence Hotel will use a
$10,000 grant it received last week to help buy and restore the nearly century-old
downtown building.
Clark House Preservation received the grant from Hammond's Sweetgrass Foundation. The
4,620-square-foot building is owned by R.E.O. Management Services of Maryland.
The grant is Clark House's first big score in terms of funding. The group of residents was
founded in December.
With the grant, the group may not wait to begin stabilization work until after St.
Lawrence County can auction off the structure in October.
R.E.O. Management has the right to reclaim its property up until the county's annual tax
sale. The property has accrued about $33,000 in tax liability. The company has offered to
sell the hotel for $5,000.
Clark House Operating Manager James S. Thew said negotiations with R.E.O. Management for
the building should begin soon. The nonprofit group cannot stabilize the hotel until the
structure is in its possession.
"We'll try for something less than that," Mr. Thew said.
With the building not weathering well and with a 3-square-foot brick area of its rear wall
falling down, Mr. Thew said, there is a need to begin stabilizing it as soon as possible,
though the hotel is not in immediate danger of collapsing.
"A couple more months isn't going to have adverse effects on that structure,"
Mr. Thew said.
Clark House's purchase of the building would open the doors for construction on it in June
or July.
If Clark House waits for the county to foreclose on the building, place it in the
village's trust and then transfer ownership to the group, work would be delayed until
winter.
"When you try to do construction in winter, costs always increase and it's tough to
control the quality of the work," Mr. Thew said.
The village Board of Trustees may vote next month to authorize the county to transfer the
hotel into its ownership after foreclosure.
The vote depends on Clark House's decision to pursue negotiations with R.E.O. Management
for the hotel.
"At this point it's up in the air," Supervisor Elizabeth J. Phillips said.
Stabilization of the hotel will include work on its windows, roof, concrete basement
floor, main floor and drainage.
The cost for shoring up the structure is estimated at $248,000. Restoration would cost
more than $1 million.
"We've only raised a portion of what we need," Mr. Thew said.
E-mail: jschlett@wdt.net
Used with permission.