Historic Brattle Stop building facing demolition

• Posted by Worcester News February 26, 2020 - Filed in News - 21,790 views

  Owners of building that includes popular convenience store, pizzeria say no plans are set, but they no longer want to put money into building

  

  

  The owners of 1 Brattle St., which currently houses the popular Brattle Stop Pizza and Market, received permission from the Historical Commission to demolish the iconic and historic building.

  Fotini and Konstantinos Angelis, who’ve owned the property since 1985, made it clear to the commission on Thursday that they have no timeline for the property’s demolition.

  The owners appeared at the commission with attorney Jonathan Finkelstein, who said on their behalf that the couple, “No longer want to put money into this building.”

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  Video of the meeting is here, with the property being discussed between 3:10 and 30:10.

  In addition to saying the building is too costly to maintain, Finkelstein said the couple is right now just contemplating taking down the building and replacing it with a new commercial structure. There are no final plans.

  Update: Three readers commented on the social network NextDoor.com that they've spoken with the owner, who said the current plan is to build a new structure behind the existing one, and the businesses will continue to operate without interruption.

  The property, which includes four residential units in addition to the convenience store and pizza shop, is an historic property. Also known as the Lora B. Hoit House, the structure was built in 1875. 

   

  

  (City of Worcester)

  From the Historic listing: “1 Brattle Street was first occupied in 1875 by Lora Hoit, whose occupation was listed as "patent foods" in later directories and as "inventor" in earlier directories, when Hoit lived on Newton Street. Although no biographical information regarding Hoit is presently available, it seems likely that Hoit was the inventor or seller of some variety of "health food." (Numerous different "health food" fads existed in the nineteenth century.)  In the 1880s, the house was occupied by John McTammany, a maker or seller of musical instruments, and in the 1890s by Alexander Shelton, a "wire drawer."

  “The Hoit Cottage is one of Worcester's better preserved Second Empire style cottages, although much of the decorative detailing of the dormers is derived from Victorian Gothic architecture . A one-store stroefront (sic) has been added to the building at basement level on the structure's south side, which, because of its low height and flat roof, has not altered the appearance of the house.”

  The Historic Commission took two votes, according to new procedures laid out by the city. First, the commission rejected a motion to remove historic status from the property. A positive vote would have made the petition for a demolition delay waiver moot as building would no longer fall under its guidelines.

  The Commission then voted to grant a waiver of the one-year demolition delay, meaning the owners are free to demolish the building.

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