What May Go When Central Norwalk is Redeveloped

With the click of a mouse on Aug. 5, Norwalk historic preservationist Tod Bryant secured a 90-day stay of execution for a century-old Italianate-style house at 27 Orchard Street off West Avenue.

It’s one of 15 properties otherwise scheduled to be demolished without fanfare in October by developers of

Today is the last day interested persons can act under the city’s demolition delay ordinance to save—for a limited time at least—any of the other threatened buildings. Emails to the chief building officer are sufficient to serve notice under the ordinance.

“It’s in such great shape, with a huge amount of historical integrity,” Bryant said  of the petite, pale blue, flat-roofed house at No. 27 he believes may have been built as early as the 1860s.

Bryant, who heads and co-founded the Norwalk Preservation Trust, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is a professional historic preservation consultant with a particular passion for this threatened neighborhood on Orchard Street – numbers 7, 9, 11, 15, 19, 23, 25 and 27.

“This is where the real people who built Norwalk in its industrial heyday lived—the managers of the garment factories, the straw hat factories, the lock companies,” he said. “This is the last one of the intact middle class neighborhood of the late 19th to 20th centuries.”

Apart from No. 27, Bryant’s passion is piqued by No. 7, the elaborate Victorian with mansard roof improbably elevated one story by a prior owner, Joseph Rysz, who turned the lower level into an auto repair shop in the 1950s and 1960s.

“It’s the most elaborate and flamboyant Second Empire-style left in Norwalk,” he said exuberantly. “It’d be a tremendous shame to lose this place.”

Norwalk’s demolition delay ordinance sets a 21-day period for objections to be filed once owners file forms certifying they have taken all required steps to notify building occupants of their intentions.

That date was July 26. The ordinance requires a detailed notice to appear on signs nailed to buildings, although none of the signs observed on West, Orchard and Merwin contained the words of the published legal notice.

Bryant hopes his objection will enable him to reopen a dialogue with the developers to spare the “little Italianate” and perhaps other historic buildings on the block.

Once he notifies the of his objection, it will meet and set a public hearing date to consider the objection. The Commission can’t stop a demolition but the 90-day stay gives preservationists time to strategize and negotiate ways to save a property.

Several of the house on the demolition list are among those identified as historically significant in a historic resources inventory completed by the Commission’s consultant just one month ago.

What residents say

As for the occupants of the homes and businesses on the list for demolition, most are resigned and some are bitter.

“Everybody’s upset,” said an occupant of a house midblock who did not want her name used. She has lived there for six years and her husband has walked to work.

They have plans to relocate to South Norwalk—“where I don’t want to be.”

“Nobody came to help nobody. They don’t care,” said Marvin Sadler, who has occupied a room at 25 Orchard Street for the past five years. “There are old and handicapped people living here. They’re not ready for this. Everybody feel the same way.”

Brandon Lacoff, managing director of Belpointe Capital LLC, a partner in the redevelopment, said all persons displaced by the project were welcome to become tenants in the new buildings when they are complete. Ten percent of the 330 units will be set aside for low- and moderate-income residents, according to a Belpointe news release from Aug. 2.

He said there was no legal obligation to relocate those who are evicted.

Stanley M. Seligson, who assembled most of the parcels of real estate and is a partner in the redevelopment venture, said all tenants have received notices of eviction in accordance with the terms of their leases, all of which are month-to-month.

“We put the tenants on notice eight years ago,” Seligson said. “There are no surprises.”

July Castro, owner of Solutions of All Trades, said Seligson made no mention of his plans to demolish the building when she became a tenant six months ago at 5-7 Orchard Street.

She said the space was a mess when she took out the lease and she invested $20,000 to redo everything—walls, floors, ceilings, room dividers, doors – except the windows. 

She would not have made the investment had she known she’d be served with a demolition notice six months later, she said.

Maria Migliaccio is the popular proprietress of Sonny’s, the pizza parlor at the corner of West and Orchard that her father, Sonny, ran until he began cancer treatments in 1986.

“We were a tight-knit family operation that fed the neighborhood,” she said wistfully, at times seeming to be close to tears.

“Sad? Of course it is!” she said.

“I wanted to do so much!” she said of plans to repaint and redecorate the family-friendly premises decked out in red-checked tablecloths.

She’s hoping to relocate the business and put her own stamp on it.

 “New beginnings are supposed to be good. I hope so.”

A few doors down, at Economy Shoe Repair, Joe Ancona was repairing a leather bag at his vintage Singer sewing machine powered by foot treadle.

The machine was handed down by his father David, who opened the shop in the cubbyhole-size space (10 feet wide by 50 feet deep) in 1929—82 years ago.

“Yeah, I’m not happy,” Ancona said.

“I’ve been on West Avenue all of my life. I’m 67 years old,” he said. “It would have been nice to live out my days on West Avenue.”

If Seligson has his way, that is just what Ancona will have the opportunity to do.

Seligson said he was very taken with Ancona, his business and his old-fashioned machinery.

“He’s a little part of Norwalk history,” Seligson said, explaining that he intended to offer Ancona retail space within the new development at a below-market rental.

“Have you ever seen the Norman Rockwell painting of the shoemaker?” Seligson asked. “It would be really nice to move him in.”

Editor's note: Some additional information was added to the article at 7:35 a.m., Tuesday, Aug. 16.