Put another mark on the tally sheet for a piece of Garden City’s rich legacy that’s been consigned to the ash heap of history. The Victorian home that used to sit at 104 Sixth St. wound up getting razed on Monday, Aug. 1. It would be easy to paint new homeowner, New York Islanders defenseman John Boychuk as the villain, but he offered to give the home away upon finding out that it was on the National Register of Historic Places after the sale was completed. All the purchaser had to do was pay for moving costs that were estimated to be between $175,000 and $200,000, a pittance considering the fact that someone was going to end up with a free house. Boychuk and his family delayed moving in while his architect T.J. Costelloo and Garden City Historical Society board member Terry Kenny scrambled to find a person or organization to rescue this nearly 150-year-old piece of Garden City history. Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano wound up stepping in and finding a site at Mitchell Field, where Habitat for Humanity was going to prepare it to donate to a veteran. Unfortunately, the logistics of having to take down power lines and deal with hazardous traffic conditions made this particular move a nonstarter. That said, Costello (who was donating $20,000 in cash and services that involved creating blueprints and mapping out logistics) pointed out that all these issues would have been nonfactors had the house been moved within the village. Appeals to both the library board of trustees and village board of trustees fell upon deaf ears. Mayor Nick Episcopia was quoted as saying, “…the library had no use for the house and the board of trustees was unwilling to get involved with moving a home.” And despite this house being on the National Register of Historic Places, the village has no current law on the books that will prevent this kind of thing from happening again. With the fate of St. Paul’s being the elephant in the room regarding historical preservation, don’t expect this to change. Look at 104 Sixth St. as being the opening act for the main attraction, when years of neglect and not dealing with the future of St. Paul’s will have it unfortunately winding up with the same fate.
