The City of Stamford has long owned—and long neglected—the Hunt Center complex in Courtland Park, and the oldest building in the complex originally served as the carriage house on the estate of prominent Stamford citizens, Edward Y. “Stubby” Weber and his wife Eva Hoyt Weber. Now a new administration has decided to demolish the historic building.
Edward Weber was President of the Rail Joint Company of New York. He served as Commodore of Stamford Yacht Club from 1914 to 1920 and presided over construction of a new (and current) yacht club building after a fire destroyed the original. He later served as President of Stamford Hospital.
Weber married Eva Hoyt, who outlived her husband by more than 20 years. She donated the property to the city in the 1940s with the stipulation that it be used as a public park and that it not be named for her. We now know this land as Courtland Park.
Last month Stamford building department officials say the whole complex is too dangerous even to enter, and have refused to allow an independent engineer to evaluate its viability for adaptive reuse, even at his or her own risk.
We have heard this kind of thing before from previous administrations. Never finding a use for the buildings, previous mayoral administrations repeatedly trivialized the historic significance of the carriage house, let the whole complex fall into disrepair, and then declared it hopeless.
We had hoped that the new administration would take a more preservation-friendly approach. The current mayor, Caroline Simmons, has expressed interest in building a new library branch in Courtland Park. At a hearing last month building officials said they would save and incorporate into new construction any part of the carriage house building that could be salvaged.
But the administration’s position on demolition did not change, even after appeals during the hearing by local and state-level preservationists to allow an independent engineer to evaluate it. Building officials are pushing to demolish the entire complex as soon as possible, which will likely preclude the possibility that an independent review might find it suitable for adaptive reuse.
We should be celebrating rather than erasing our city’s history. This building is a physical representation of the city’s historic fabric. Please help us to encourage the Simmons administration to be good stewards of Stamford’s historic properties and to save the historic Hunt Center carriage house today by signing our petition.
Sign our Petition & Save the Historic Hunt Center Carriage House Today