By Andrew R. Melillo, Greenwich
The Havemeyer Building – nestled in the center of Greenwich has never left but is somehow here again.
The current home of the Board of Education and the former high school building to the former high school building of the present High School campus.
The building has deep roots in Greenwich history, and its ancient limbs, like those of the old, lost elms of the borough still reach out to us in the present day. This building is aesthetically beautiful, historically relevant, and structurally, a growing concern.
It is simultaneously both a gem and a liability. To commercialize it would seem to be a sin, yet to leave it to its current course of minimal care would seem to be an equally grave sin. No building, without proper care and attention, especially one of this design, made of these materials, and of this age [final construction year of 1893/4] can stand forever. What is the future of the Havemeyer Building in the Town of Greenwich? The debate regarding that topic is not new. It has popped up again and again over the one-hundred and thirty-one years of its existence. At first, the discussion was about the need for a new school building, so one was constructed and donated: the Havemeyer Building. As the town’s population exploded in the early 20th-century with the arrival of many European immigrants, a new building was needed and in the 1920’s the Town built a new high school, and the Havemeyer Building adapted with the times. As the needs of the town changed again, a new high school was built on Theodore H. Mead’s farm, the old “Ten Acre’s” and the Havemeyer Building adapted once more to the times. The discussion and legal inquiry into the status and nature of the building and property and its ownership by the Town of Greenwich is not new – it is back again. What to do with the Havemeyer Building? What is its future?
There was an editorial written not too long ago in this publication which stated, “the deed from H.O. Havemeyer in 1892 that generously contributed to the town ‘for educational purposes’ the building in which the Board of Education resides on Greenwich Avenue.”
The Greenwich Land Records [GLR] should be consulted in this instance, especially when the word deed is utilized so strongly by the author. It appears that Mr. Havemeyer or his assigns and heirs apparently may not have filed any deed of conveyance for the building with enumerated restrictions upon it. If Mr. Havemeyer did, and if such a covenant was agreed upon and signed with enumerated restrictions and expressed desires by the appropriate representatives of the Town of Greenwich and Henry O. Havemeyer, his assigns, and or heirs, then it appears to perhaps be on file somewhere in the town offices, but not likely on the GLR.
A brief history of the transaction will show that on October 26, 1891, in Volume 61 page 473 GLR, that the land on which the Havemeyer Building is situated was conveyed to The Meeting House School District from Daniel S. Mead for $45,000. A good investment. The land was ten [10] acres more or less [all the land that is now the Town Hall Building, ball fields, park, and Havemeyer Building] and the only encumbrance referenced in the deed was that a sewer line crossed a portion of the property. A good portion of land on Greenwich Avenue was owned by various members of the Mead Family and others, but a substantial portion of it was owned by Daniel S. Mead, this is why he sold the land to the local school district.
In the last decade of the 19th-century, Greenwich still had many independent school districts. There was the Mianus School District, the Meeting House School District, the Glenville School District, the Stanwich School District, etc. The Meeting House School District was the largest and was concentrated in the limits of the Borough of Greenwich when it legally still existed and was governed by a separate board of trustees. The Meeting House School District was not just the largest, but also the wealthiest district and it led the charge against the State of Connecticut’s repeated attempts to consolidate local school districts into a single Board of Education for each municipality. Somewhat similar to the debate today for the regionalization of school districts between municipalities, during Havemeyer’s time, the local debate was whether to give up direct local neighborhood control over their school governance to a single, consolidated, town-wide board. This debate went on for a long time, decades in fact, but by 1912 the resistance efforts lost, and the Greenwich Board of Education made its infantile arrival into the world.
When the several independent school districts merged in 1912, the property of each school went along with it and fell under the care and custodianship of the Board of Education, which in turn was Town of Greenwich property by right.
Hence the land is indeed Town of Greenwich property, and the Havemeyer building was donated to the Town of Greenwich by Mr. and Mrs. Havemeyer in 1892 as construction of it began. It was a gift to be used as a school and Mr. Havemeyer was always very concerned with the education of children.
This was important to him personally, as his own past mishaps led him to abruptly end his education at the age of eight – yet he went on to take over a family enterprise that made him a very sizeable fortune.
Mr. Havemeyer knew the importance of a proper education and how that translated to success in the marketplace – hence his dedication to donating the new school building to the Town of Greenwich. No deed appears to show any building or restrictions upon it being filed in the GLR as so forcibly referenced in the other article. Therefore, the statement(s) made is and are misleading.
Furthermore, and as already referenced in a separate editorial in this publication by different authors, there are documents of the Trust established by the Havemeyer Estate and heirs for the maintenance and care of the building for its use for education.
As has already been shared, the stipulations are clear. There are provisions that:
…in case of the destruction or abandonment of said school building or the neglect or refusal of the authorities to continue its use as intended by the said Henry O. Havemeyer, or if for any reason it shall be impossible for the income from the said fund to be applied for the purposes herein intended, the principal and any accumulation of income shall revert to the parties of the first part and their heirs.
This would imply that the building, though intended to be a school building or be used for educational purposes, may undergo a future evolution and therefore not always exist or be maintained for such expressed educational purposes.
In other words, that it is uncontested that it was donated as a school and to be used as a school building and for educational purposes in general, however, the language in the trust would imply that perhaps one day it would not be used for such purposes. And therefore, the money set up to maintain the building for such purposes, if the building stops to be used by the Town for a school or for education, will go back to the heirs of the parties of the first part (Henry O. Havemeyer’s heirs). The original capital injected into the trust could have built at that time a very sizeable and decent upper middle-class home, and the capital has grown considerably, but nowhere near the capital levels remotely relevant to renovate, modernize, or upgrade the building in full which will run into the tens of millions of dollars.
In fact, there appears to be no deed on the public record that states it cannot be used for another purpose, the trust does not have anywhere near sufficient funds to accomplish its intended goal [maintenance of the building for educational purposes], and the Board of Education has shown some desire that it no longer would like to use that space.
Lastly, the land and the building are property of the Town of Greenwich. To claim that there is a deed from 1891 from Havemeyer to the Town is just as curious as other statements made that the building is to be “given back to the people of the town.” It already belongs to them.
Query: Is the trust fund financially able to meet its founding goals, obligations, and reasons for existence regarding the Havemeyer Building, and if not, why simultaneously does it appear that there are some elements of town governance in such a hurried pace and rush to transform the building without due and proper reflection?