Preservationists Seek To Rescue Anchor-facts

Yale will hold off on removing the Anchor sign above the now-closed storied College Street watering hole while it considers a range of suggestions about what to do next with the property.

Lauren Zucker, Yale’s associate vice-president for New Haven affairs, provided that information in a conversation with the Independent Tuesday evening.

The conversation followed requests from City Hall earlier Tuesday to wait before removing the facade and interior of the Anchor Restaurant and bar at 272 College St. to make time to consider new ideas about how to preserve the ambiance of the establishment under new ownership. The 75-year-old bar closed the Sunday before last when Yale ended the lease because of longstanding failure to pay rent. The closing provoked an outpouring of disappointment from Anchor patrons present and long past.

Since then, Yale has been ​“inundated” with inquiries from people with ideas about what to do with the space, Zucker said.

“Some want to preserve it. Some have other ideas. We’re open to” consider all the suggestions, she said. Meanwhile the art deco facade and interior furnishings will remain in place. Zucker said. ​“We were very pleasantly surprised by the level of interest people have shown” in the New Haven landmark.

Read on for actions taken Tuesday by city officials and preservationists.

An earlier version of this story follows:

City Asks Yale For More Time On Anchor

The Harp administration sought a 90-day stay on a demolition permit for the Anchor bar’s facade and appealed for a chance to bring in a new owner for the business — or at least to save the outdoor sign and that Rock-Ola jukebox.

City Economic Development Administrator Matthew Nemerson made the request Tuesday afternoon in a phone conversation with Lauren Zucker, Yale’s associate vice-president of New Haven Affairs. Yale University Properties owns the 272 College St. building that housed, until last week, the 75-year-old storied watering hole, whose lease Yale ended because of longstanding failure to pay rent. (Read about that here.)

Nemerson said that amid the outpouring of public disappointment over the Anchor’s closing, the city has heard from a number of people interested in opening a new business there that would preserve the Anchor’s art-deco accoutrements and ambiance.

“We of course respect Yale’s right to lease its retail space,” Nemerson said afterwards. ​“The city has a responsibility to the citizens to maintain parts of the city that contribute to all of the things that make New Haven a special place. And we feel that the outside of the Anchor and perhaps even the inside of the Anchor have reached that iconic level.

“So while respecting absolutely Yale’s right to run the business side of the institution the way it wants, what we’ve asked is that we try to find a new user who can take advantage of the things that make that particular site very special in a lot of people’s minds. We happen to have a number of people who have come to us with ideas about using that space and maintaining the name and maybe some of the unusual interior architecture. The Anchor could be many things. It could be a lobster house. It could be a breakfast house. It’s clearly struck a chord with the mayor, who would like to try to preserve it if possible; and with thousands of of people.We’re getting emails, petitions being signed. It’s something that contributes to making New Haven special.”

Nemerson said Zucker ​“heard us” out without making commitments. (“They’re meeting with their outsourced leasing people,” he said.)

Zucker failed to return requests for comment. [Update: See top of story.]

Meanwhile, City Plan Director Karyn Gilvarg asked for a one-day stay as she explores whether the city can prevent Yale from obtaining a demolition permit to remove the Anchor’s iconic sign.

That series of events began when Yale University Properties’ director operations,Mike Peck, asked the city building department if he needs a permit to take down the Anchor sign as well as remove the interior elements, according to Bob Welch, the department’s plans examiner. (Peck could not be reached for comment.)

Welch said he told Peck Yale is free to take down whatever it wants without a permit, since it owns the building. ​“Just unbolt it and take it down,” Welch said.

City Plan Director Gilvarg had a different opinion. At least about the facade.

Gilvarg noted that the Anchor’s building is part of the 23-acre Chapel Street Historic District, which was entered into the national Register of Historic Places in April of 1984.

Because of the historic nature of the facade, the owner would need a demolition permit to take it down, Gilvarg said. And under a city ordinance passed in the 1980s, the city require a 90-day delay in granting demolition permits to give time for possible alternatives to emerge to preserve historic artifacts.

Gilvarg told Yale to hold off for at least a day while confirms with authorities to ​“make sure I’m really” correct, she said.

“New Haven’s downtown is a lively mix of buildings that go back to the 18th century” as well as the 19th and early 20th centuries, Gilvarg said. ​“What makes it rich is this layering of historic areas.” The Anchor facade, for instance, hearkens back to a style popular in the 1940s, when the bar opened.

The New Haven Preservation Trust supports the city’s efforts to preserve the Anchor and its architectural features, said the organization’s preservation services officer, John Herzan.

“That wonderful facade is a very rare example of art moderne design in New Haven. This was a very short-lived but distinctive period in architectural history, which you see in many towns and cities throughout the country that were fashion-conscious. Because of the fragility of the materials — that blue glass, everyone uses the word ​‘iconic’ right and left. But the blue glass was characteristic of that design” in the 1940s.

Preservationists, including Herzan’s group and the Urban Design League, planned to ask New Haven’s Historic District Commission ​“to pass a resolution in support of preserving the Anchor in its current setting at their regular meeting,” according to a press release issued Tuesday afternoon.

“New Haven has lost too many beloved and historically significant landmarks. The good news is that there are business people ready to offer feasible and viable alternatives to destroying the historic significance of the building and the historic district. We hope Yale will reconsider their plans. Many New Haven residents, local businesses, Yale alumni support the preservation of the Anchor. We really believe that Yale can do the right thing for the city,” the release quotes Urban Design League’s Anstress Farwell as saying.

Asked last week about the fate of the bar’s contents, the business’s owner, Charlie Moore, said he wanted to wait until related questions were ironed out between lawyers for his family and the bar’s manager, David Nyberg. Moore could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Nyberg said he spoke with Moore and they agreed at this point the decision about the fate of the furnishings is up to Moore.