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Comeau
sounding alarm to save Revere's legacy
By Jay Turner
Citizen Staff
In the same
way that Paul Revere rode his horse to sound the alarm that
British troops were headed to Lexington, Canton attorney George
Comeau is sounding his own alarm of sorts in an effort to
preserve Revere’s legacy.
Only this
time, instead of a horse, Comeau has opted for a more modern
tool: the World Wide Web.
“For me, the
power of the internet is amazing,” said the former Planning
Board member who now belongs to the town’s Historical Commission
and Library Board of Trustees.
Earlier this
year, Comeau launched revererollingmill.googlepages.com as a way
of educating the public about the potential loss of two historic
buildings on the former Plymouth Rubber site - buildings that
happen to be all that are left from the Revere and Sons Copper
Company, which Revere founded in 1801 at the age of 65.
The current
owners of the property, Illinois-based Napleton Acquisitions,
LLC, had initially promised to spend over $2 million to preserve
and reuse the Revere barn and rolling mill as part of its plan
to build a mixed residential/retail development. But voters at
the annual town meeting in April rejected the necessary rezoning
article, leaving Napleton with an industrial lot and few other
options than to try to sell it and move on.
Recognizing
that some companies who might be interested in the site would
not have a use for the Revere buildings, Napleton has since
filed a demolition request in order to expedite the six-month
delay that the Historical Commission is expected to implement,
thereby eliminating the hassle for the prospective buyer.
But while
the move may seem logical from a business standpoint, to
preservationists like Comeau, it would be nothing short of a
death blow to perhaps the most historically significant
structures in all of Canton.
“I feel as
though we have a moral and an ethical obligation to get the word
out that things like these are being threatened,” Comeau said.
To do his
part, Comeau has kicked his personal public relations effort
into high gear as of late, contacting national media outlets
like the New York Times and Washington Post, and making sure to
update his own website regularly with the latest news and
information pertaining to the fate of the two buildings.
And judging
from the statistics he keeps, Comeau’s ride through cyberspace
is apparently paying off, as more than 600 people have visited
the website since mid-April, including some from as far away as
the Czech Republic, Australia and Japan. In fact, people from 41
different states and eight countries have now learned about the
situation playing out in Canton, Mass., and many have pledged to
help in any way they can.
“We cannot
forget history, and these buildings are a part of that,” writes
Vic from Idaho Falls, Idaho. “Please DO NOT destroy these
buildings.”
Adds Mary
from Ohio: “I will continue [to] help as much as I can from
afar, and I welcome any additional information which you can
provide. Thank you so much for trying to save these buildings.”
Comeau has
also managed to get coverage in the national publication
Preservation Magazine, which is based in Washington, D.C.
and put out by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. In
the magazine’s recent online edition, Gianna Palmer wrote a
piece on June 16 entitled “Threatened: Paul Revere’s Mill and
Barn,” which summarizes the events of the past several months
and includes a link to Comeau’s website.
Comeau said
he is not finished sounding the alarm, either. He said he plans
to “place prospective buyers on notice” by putting up signs in
the public areas that surround the property, informing them of
the historical significance of the Revere buildings in
particular and the site in general. And at the point that state
and federal permits are needed, Comeau said he will
“aggressively ask for archaeological resource recovery” to take
place.
“That is the
Historical Commission’s job,” he said, “to protect what’s above
the ground and what’s below the ground.”
Comeau has
also challenged the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board,
which is chaired by his brother Jeremy, to “go back to the
table” and try to work out a mixed-use project similar to the
one that died on the floor of town meeting. At least then, he
said, the buildings would be guaranteed preservation and reuse.
As long as
Napleton continues to shop the property, however, Comeau will be
there with his warning: “caveat emptor, which means ‘buyer
beware.’”
July 3, 2008
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