Alders OK Historic Rehab

The city’s anti-blight agency has received the go-ahead to pursue the rehabilitation of a historic West River brownstone that was once pegged for demolition.

During a regular meeting of the Board of Alders at City Hall Monday, the Livable City Initiative (LCI) won unanimous approval to apply for as much as $2 million from the state’s 2017 Homeownership Development Projects grant to redevelop the property at 596 – 598 George St.

Neighbors and preservationists had decried plans by the building’s previous owner, Yale-New Haven Hospital, to tear down the 19th-century brownstone at the corner of George Street and Orchard to make way for a Habitat for Humanity home-build. (Click here to read a previous story about a neighborhood meeting about that.)

LCI negotiated to buy the property from the hospital for $1. The building is a block away from Yale-New Haven’s St. Raphael campus. The agency plans to use the funds from the state grant to do a historic rehabilitation of the brownstone’s facade and transform it into townhouses that would consist of a total of two owner-occupied units and four rental units.

The multi-family house was built around 1885 in the Queen Anne-Romanesque Revival style. It has been documented by the state’s Historical Commission. It sits within the boundaries of the Dwight Street Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places. LCI wants to not only preserve the house’s historic charm but also affordable homeownership for working class people. Preservationists call the building a ​“linchpin” property that helps anchor the Dwight and West River neighborhoods.

The future homes could be purchased by families with incomes up to 100 percent of the area median income, or AMI, which currently is $82,700 for a family of four.