For more than two centuries, the Baxter House has stood on Shore Road in Port Washington.
It housed Hessian soldiers during the American Revolution and famous architect Addison Mizner in the early 20th century. In that time Shore Road went from a dirt path to a paved, four lane street, hundreds of homes were built and Baxter Estates, named for the home, was founded.
On Monday morning, the house was unceremoniously torn down.
An excavator made quick work of the dilapidated home that had been damaged by years of neglect and a fire in February.
Along Central Drive, several passersby stopped and stood in the rain to watch the remains of the home being scooped into a dumpster.
“I’m sort of shocked and horrified that they would take it down,” said Michael Scotto, one local resident who was trying to save the house, said. “I don’t understand why they had to do it in the manner they did it.”
The demolition of the house ends a saga that has stretched on for several years.
The home’s owner, Sabrina Wu, purchased the house in 2003. But the house had been neglected for several years and had fallen into disrepair.
An engineer’s report from last year said the deterioration had caused damage to the roof, chimney, foundation and front porch and suggested that renovations take place immediately to prevent further damage.
Wu and the Baxter Estates Board of Trustees considered several options going forward. One option was to completely demolish the house and build an exact replica, a move that drew criticism from many local residents in preservationists.
In January, Wu submitted an application to demolish the structure and build a replica to the Landmarks Preservation Committee. It was the only landmark in the village.
A public hearing was supposed to be held during the second week of February, but a massive fire on Feb. 5 thwarted any plans for renovation. The home was a significant eyesore and after assessing the damage, it was determined the building needed to be demolished for safety reasons.
“The inspector had jurisdiction to demolish because of hazard issues,” said Baxter Estates Trustee Chris Ficalora. “If we had a bad hurricane this season, and fortunately we did not, that house would be all over the neighborhood. It was a safety issue.”
Wu was told by the village to demolish the house in May, but the demolition was delayed due to her inability to secure permits from the sewage district.
“The water and sewer districts went way beyond and gave her a hard time,” Ficalora said.
Although it was too late to do anything, Scotto and members of the “Save the Baxter House” expressed frustration toward the village and Wu for allowing things to reach this point.
“It’s terrible that it came to this, the village should have done much more,” Scotto said.
But Ficalora said that there was only so much that the village could do, and he couldn’t change that the house had caught fire.
“Why would a village enforce making roof repairs to a house that was burnt?” he said. “The village followed every legal guideline they were required to, those who believe we should have gone beyond the legal process… to penalize her, one person said to put her in jail, we can’t.”
Ficalora said the village has not received any plans from Wu on what would replace the Baxter House on the property.
