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Resident: Canfield needs to protect historical culture
CANFIELD
A Canfield resident expressed the city’s need to protect the culture of old homes when faced with the demolition of one.
“One thing I’ve realized is, younger people don’t care,” said Pat Woomer, Canfield resident and former Canfield Historical Society museum curator. “All of the people who really cared are gone.”
Woomer said that from a former curator’s standpoint she’s concerned about the architectural integrity of older Canfield homes.
“People love the old houses in the Canfield community,” Woomer said.
After purchasing the 7-acre property at 275 N. Broad St. in January, Sam Pitzulo of Sam Pitzulo Homes & Remodeling, 427 S. Broad St., said his plan is to construct single-family homes.
The property once belonged to Judson Canfield, the grandson of Canfield’s namesake – also named Judson Canfield.
Over the years, the Kosling family, whose ancestors are the Canfield family, obtained the property and sold it to Pitzulo in January with an agreement asking for the preservation of family history.
Pitzulo said he’s not trying to destroy the historical integrity of the property. Part of his plans are to name the development Founders Glen and the street of the development Judson Canfield Court.
“We are trying to preserve it [the house], if possible. The plan is to offer it to the [Canfield] Historical Society if they want to move it and if not, advertise it for someone who would like to move the house,” Pitzulo said.
Pitzulo said if the house is taken it is to be preserved, not scrapped. But he said preserving the house will be an expensive endeavor.
“It can’t cost that much. It’s just a line young people are having so no one buys it,” Woomer said.
But Pitzulo said the house inspection report revealed mold and rotting wood, a bat infestation, poor foundation quality, and the roof needs reframed.
“I’m sure it met whatever the codes were back then, but the house is 150 years old,” Pitzulo said.
If no one takes the house, Pitzulo said he has plans to preserve its history in another way.
“We will be taking the fireplace apart by hand, take the brick from that and put in a brick in each house as cornerstone,” Pitzulo said. “This way the house kind of lives on that sense.”
In addition, Pitzulo said if the house has to be demolished, he plans to take wood from the house and make it part of the sign for the development.
Woomer said she thinks it’s a sin to have the home destroyed.
Mike Cook, zoning inspector, said complaints outside of historical preservation come from residents living around the property with regard to keeping or losing their trees.
Pitzulo is presenting his plans to the planning and zoning commission between 6 and 6:30 p.m. today at the Canfield Administration building, 104 Lisbon St.
At 6 p.m. Monday, Pitzulo will be asking the Design Review Committee, also in the administration building, for a demolition permit for the property.