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In
quest for development, Napleton contends with history of town,
country
By
Jay Turner
Citizen Staff
For those eagerly awaiting the day when the Plymouth Rubber
site on Revere Street will finally be developed and bustling
with activity, they may want to pay close attention to the fate
of an old, wooden barn.
 At least for now, that barn, along with a former rolling mill
building on the property, are at the center of intense discussions
between the site’s owners — the Napleton family from Illinois
— and the town’s Historical Commission, as both structures have
clear ties to Canton’s most famous resident, the Revolutionary
patriot and shrewd businessman, Paul Revere.
The Revere Barn and the Revere Rolling Mill, as they are called
in Massachusetts Historical Commission records, have both been
documented as original buildings of the Revere Copper Company
— founded by Paul and later run by his son, Joseph Warren Revere
— and have been deemed historically significant and of national
importance.
While the new owners are not contesting these facts, they, like
Revere himself, are thinking first in terms of their investment,
and have therefore decided to hold out on any preservation plans
until they can be assured by the Planning Board of 650 units
of housing. What has the local historical commission worried,
however, is a plan recently submitted by Napleton to demolish
everything on the property.
At least one of the historical commissioners, attorney George
Comeau, said he is prepared to do everything within his power
to save the two structures, including contacting national media
outlets, and even taking legal action if necessary.
“In buying the property, they bought two historic buildings,”
said Comeau. “As part of this, it’s their ethical, and, in time
they will find, their legal, obligation to preserve these buildings.”
 Comeau’s comments came days after an informal Historical Commission
hearing on the Revere Street structures, at which Napleton’s
attorney, Paul Schneiders, explained his clients’ hesitation
to remove the buildings from the demolition request. The hearings
are required because of the town’s demolition delay by-law,
which allows the Commission to delay approval on a demolition
permit for six months to have time to explore possible alternatives.
Approved by Town Meeting in 2003, the by-law applies to all
buildings constructed prior to 1940. If the structures in question
are deemed historically significant at the informal hearing,
as was the case with the Revere buildings, the owner then must
file for a formal hearing. If the buildings are determined to
be worthy of preserving at that hearing, then the six-month
delay goes into effect.
In an interview with the Citizen, Schneiders stressed repeatedly
that his clients have never intended to demolish the Revere
barn.
“I made it abundantly clear that that is not Napleton’s position,”
he said. “For years, all of the talk has been about saving the
Revere barn. Napleton has always planned to build around it.”
As for the copper rolling mill, Schneiders maintains that the
building was not initially a part of the preservation talks,
and he admitted that Napleton grew concerned when the mill,
which is quite a distance from the barn, was added to the discussion,
especially, he said, when viewed in light of all of the other
requests made of Napleton by various interest groups within
the community.
He said when one considers not only the distance between the
buildings, but also the space that they would have to set aside
around each building, then Napleton would be sacrificing as
much as 12 acres of their property to preserve them — an amount,
he said, that is too great “unless the Planning Board supports
650 units.”
 “Napleton does not want to take either one of those [buildings]
down,” he said, “but they can’t just decide to take away 10
to 12 acres of land unless there’s a quid pro quo. I thought
our offer was very, very fair and reasonable.”
Comeau, however, sees it differently. He said an issue involving
historical structures of this magnitude has to be handled with
great sensitivity, which “has yet to be exhibited” by the owners.
In contrast, he said, Plymouth Rubber, who purchased the site
from the Revere company early in the 20th century, incorporated
the rolling mill into its operations and used the building until
the day it closed. He said the company had also used the barn
within the past ten years.
While he supports smart growth and applauds Napleton for investing
in the property, Comeau said he has a hard time understanding
why Napleton would not have done their “due diligence” before
they purchased the site at what he called a “bargain basement
price” of $5.5 million.
“When someone buys a property, it comes with certain obligations,”
he said, “particularly for a commercial property of this size.”
Among those obligations, said Comeau, is agreeing to clean up
the site and also recognizing the national historical significance
of the buildings.
“They are the last remnants of the beginning of the copper industry
in this country,” he said, noting that Revere’s copper covered
the dome of the Massachusetts State House and the hull of the
U.S.S. Constitution. “Nobody owns these things; they belong
to the public trust.”
Schneiders said his clients know full-well the historical significance
of the property. In fact, he said they have agreed, in writing,
to remove the two buildings from the demolition request if the
Commission agrees to take the delay off of the other buildings
on the site.
“Those buildings are totally empty,” he said, “and it’s very
dangerous to leave them sitting there. Even the chairman of
the Board of Selectmen agrees; He has gone on record as saying
the buildings must come down sooner rather than later.”
Schneiders said Napleton’s real problem has been the fact that
every town board and community group wants to get something
out of the property. He said the owners don’t even mind having
to spend between $6 and $20 million cleaning up the site, but
that “everybody has to be reasonable.”
“We can’t just keep taking away land,” he said. “People want
a community center at Napleton’s expense. Millions of dollars
we have been asked to give by another town board, which we haven’t
yet said no to. We’re running from board to board to board to
board, trying to make everybody happy.”
Meanwhile, Comeau said the Commission is not trying to “nickel
and dime” the Napleton family with its efforts to save the buildings,
and he believes their preservation “should take nothing from
[Napleton’s] ability to develop the property to the best use.”
“These are not just important to the town of Canton,” he said.
“They are of national importance. And I just hope that Napleton
will do the right thing by the United States and preserve them.”
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