New Haven Independent

Whenever something good, or bad, happens down by the historic Quinnipiac River, it grabs the attention of New Haven’s concerned, talented, and involved community of preservationists, architects, and riverine residents. So when the hundred-year old oyster house burned down on Monday night on its river site just off Quinnipiac Avenue, local people knew that over the years, it had become not much more than a large shed or warehouse used for storage.

In its heyday the building, previously owned by the Long Island Oyster Company, had once had hoppers and other equipment used for storing and processing the shellfish of the Quinnipiac River and Long Island Sound.

The Oyster House is currently owned by Norm Bloom and Sons of Norwalk.

Reached by telephone at his Norwalk office, Bloom said that he and his company had every intention to rebuild. In fact they had just had all the property surveyed in expectation of beginning work in the months and years ahead, as money made itself available.

He won’t have any insurance, however, to help in the process. “For an old building like that,” he said, “the premiums were just too expensive.” He couldn’t recall what had been quoted to him as the cost, but the premiums were clearly prohibitive. One of his employees, boat captain Jay Fairty, who was on the site the day after the fire, confirmed that the building had only liability insurance.

According to John Herzan, the preservation services officer of the New Haven Preservation Trust (NHPT), the building was not included in the 1976 New Haven Guide to Architecture and Urban Design by Betty Brown and other surveys of buildings of historic or other distinction, which were done in the 1970s and 1980s. And the NHPT has no photograph. However the property, at 610 Quinnipiac Ave., is within Quinnipiac River national historic district.

Herzan added that for purposes of rebuilding, should the owner choose to do so, what’s really pertinent is whether it’s within not the national but the local historic district. If it is, then plans for the rebuilding must go through the usual process before the city plan and also the historic district commission.

Bloom seemed to have no problems with such prospects. “We’d like to rebuild, yes, and to have a building that functions. Our plans were to make it, you know, a refrigerated building with hoppers, for storing product and for processing, the whole thing. But on the outside, yes, to have it look like it belongs there.”

However, rebuilding is, it seems, quite far down the road for Norm Bloom and Sons. “The first order of business for us is to tear down what’s left and then to clean up the site. After that we need to repair the bulkheads.” That costs a lot of money too.

Bob Grzywacz, vice president of the NHPT, when informed of the fire, said he was not familiar with 610 Quinnipiac. However, he added that the NHPT’s mission is to try to preserve not just visually impressive buildings but also those “that are representative of our history. And if it was that, what a loss.”

David Barone, of the City Plan Department, did confirm that the site is within the local historic district. “That would simply mean,” he said that whatever the owner’s vision, “if he wants to rebuild he has to obtain a certificate of appropriateness by going through the procedures, including the Historic District Commission.”