NORTHAMPTON — A long-reach excavator tore into the fire-ravaged remains of 49 Round Hill Road Monday afternoon, marking the demise of one of the city’s most historic buildings.
The demolition of Rogers Hall, once a dormitory at the former Clarke School for the Deaf, comes after the city last week ordered property owners with Historic Round Hill Summit to tear it down, saying it posed a serious risk to public safety in its current state.
The building was being renovated into a luxury housing complex when it was heavily damaged in a three-alarm blaze that began the night of Aug. 5 and raged into the next morning. The fire was not considered suspicious, and its cause has not been determined, according to state fire officials.
A crew from Charlie Arment Trucking in Springfield went to work Monday in the misty air, breaking apart and razing upper sections of the 19th-century structure. Owner Charlie Arment said his team plans to work in phases, alternately tearing down sections of the building and sorting and cleaning up demolition debris.
“They’ll be separating that debris before they take any more down,” Arment said of the materials that came crashing to the ground Monday. “We could easily be a week or more with the cleanup we have on the ground right now. It’s just easier to separate as we go.”
Arment said metals and masonry materials such as brick and concrete will be recycled.
The city’s demolition order last week came after an architectural survey of the building by Thomas Douglas Architects determined that 98 percent of the roof was destroyed by the fire and collapsed or is missing.
The entire third floor of the building suffered extensive fire damage with the collapse of large brick chimneys, and all doors and windows on that floor were destroyed, according to the report.
The survey found that most floor decking was buckled and smoke-damaged, penetrated by soot and water and not salvageable. The floors provided “limited seismic support to the exterior brick walls,” according to the survey.
In addition, the survey found that all wiring, plumbing, HVAC and sprinkler systems were damaged beyond repair. And because sealing the structure from weather like rain and snow was impossible to complete before the winter months, water would freeze within the wall cavity, expand, and severely compromise the structural stability of the walls.
“They will then be subject to collapse,” the report states.
The property’s owners are Peter Picknelly, chairman and CEO of Peter Pan Bus Lines and owner of Opal Real Estate Group, Springfield attorney Michael Siddall, and businessman James Hebert. They purchased the property from Clarke School for $4.8 million in 2013 to transform it into a mix of residences and light office and commercial space.
An adjoining building at 47 Round Hill Road, once known as Hubbard Hall, also was damaged during the fire, displacing 11 tenants. The property is expected to be restored in January, according to the property owners. Tenants will be able to move in to the partially restored building sometime before then with prospective new tenants able to fill the remaining empty units in January, they told the Gazette last week.
A temporary road closure of Round Hill Road to traffic from Elm Street to Bancroft Road remains in effect. The section of roadway is accessible only to local residents and contractors working at the scene.
“The whole goal is to have that road open by Friday,” Northampton Building Commissioner Louis Hasbrouck said.
Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.