Trim the Green, Keep 1913!

Trim “The Green”, Save the 1913!

As a New Canaan resident for over two decades, and a past owner of a 1764 antique colonial in our great town, I have always been very sensitive to the balancing of old and new, of honoring the rich history and traditions of this town, while also recognizing that time marches on and that, in the aggregate, most progress is for the better (hence the wifi, wine fridge and central AC in our centuries-old saltbox colonial).

As I follow the quickly escalating and increasingly vocal divisions between the supporters of the “new” New Canaan Library (which I fully support building) and the supporters of concurrently retaining the original modest footprint of the historically beloved and architecturally significant 1913 Library as part of the final plan, my perspective is simple – we can, and should, be able to have both, because if this town does anything well, it is keeping New Canaan one of the most desirable towns in the nation in terms of housing, schools and resources while still retaining its comfortable, safe and aesthetically unique “small town” feel.

If the options are retaining the 1913 library structure, or tearing it down for additional “green space” as part of the overall new library plan, here is my perspective:

Form: The timeless and sturdy grey stone façade of the 1913 library is, to me, part of Connecticut’s architectural DNA, as found in grander scale in the buildings of culture and learning at Yale, Trinity, and elsewhere across the state. Another half-acre “village green” of grass, bushes and benches abutting a gas station and facing a parking lot is, frankly, not quite as inspiring to me.

Function: I can easily see the 1913 structure repurposed for any number of popular community and commercial functions. Intimate art exhibitions, small concerts and prestigious lectures, a beautiful catering and meeting space for paid private events, an additional community resource for classes or affinity group meetings. A “village green” that is too small to host town-wide events like those held at Waveny, or that lacks the picnic-perfect pond setting of Mead Park, or that can’t capture the magical spirit of Christmas Eve caroling on God’s Acre, or that lacks the bucolic rambles of the Nature Center or Grace Farms, is, frankly, not nearly as functional or appealing to me.

Finance: This is where the competing local agendas really come out, as no one really seems to be telling taxpayers a straight story on numbers on either side. But, common sense and experience tells me that it is cheaper to retain and upgrade a sound structure with potentially problematic innards (be it lead, asbestos, etc.), than it is to fully tear it down and remediate an entire site, and that it is also financially wiser to have a revenue-generating and/or philanthropically-supported structure as part of the final plan than a “village green” which, depending on who you talk to, will actually cost more to develop and landscape than preserving the 1913 Library, with nothing but more taxpayer/town outlay to maintain it going forward. (Spoiler alert – keeping the 1913 still allows for a perfectly decent sized plot of green space/public seating surrounding the new (and old) library).

Finally, these past few years of national and local politics have, if nothing else, made me a bit of a cynic on the ulterior motives of almost everything done in the name of the “public’s best interest”. Without the retention of the 1913 Library in its current location, the selectmen, the library board, a developer, or a combination of all three could easily decide a few years down the road that, alas, the “village green” had not really lived up to its grand expectations, and the newly “reclaimed” real estate will be cleanly carved off the original library footprint and quietly sold off to commercial developers for even more prime retail space or residential development in an already over-stuffed down-town. I’ve seen it happen here before. And so have most of you.

That is my take as a taxpayer, a lover of New Canaan heritage and history, and a firm believer in the art of compromise, where nobody gets exactly what they want in the end.

Keep your village green, I’m with 1913…

John Paterson