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In the Region
| Long Island The Montauk Community Center is to be completed next month. GROWING up in Montauk at the tip of the South Fork, Larry Greenbaum wondered whether the crumbling old Montauk Playhouse on Edgemere Road was haunted. "Kids would go in and explore and come out with horrible ghost stories and say there were bats in there," said Mr. Greenbaum, now a father of two and still a resident of the hamlet, part of the town of East Hampton. The playhouse was built in the 1920's as the Montauk Tennis Auditorium, a glass-roofed tennis arena with seating for 6,000. It was the centerpiece of several buildings built by the developer Carl Fisher, who dreamed of transforming Montauk into the "Miami Beach of the North." After several incarnations — as an assembly hall for the Navy during World War II, a theater, conference center, boxing ring and movie house — the structure was left to molder in the 1970's. Now, however, after a 16-month restoration, the Montauk Playhouse is about to start a new life as a community center. The 50,000-square-foot structure on 4.4 acres, which opens next month, will house child and adult day-care programs, which can accommodate up to 60 children and 15 adults; a gym and a fitness area; and a senior nutrition program, which can serve nearly 60. The plan also includes a playground and a flower garden that will be maintained by retirees.
The Tudor revival-style playhouse, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Preservation League of New York State's "seven to save" list of the most endangered historic places, is one of several previously threatened historic properties on Long Island that have found new public uses. These include the old Main Street School in Port Washington; the historic Hewlett House, a colonial-era Dutch structure on Nassau County's South Shore; and Coindre Hall, a landmark based on a French chateau design, in Huntington, Suffolk County. "It's great to see a historic building come back to life," said Suffolk County Legislator Jay Schneiderman, of Montauk. "Montauk has recreational centers, but they are outdoors, and this would give seniors a town-owned building in which to congregate. This will be centralized and multigenerational." Long-term plans for Phase 2 of the construction within the building, which is to include a pool and a 300-seat theater, would be financed privately. Joan Lycke, president of the nonprofit Montauk Playhouse Community Center Foundation, estimated that project would cost an additional $6 million or $7 million. Preservationists say that new uses for historic properties can be a hard sell. "Sometimes the most feasible use, both economically and physically, is not a use that the community supports," said Charla Bolton of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities. She said the odds are in favor of the Montauk playhouse because it is an "important building and a worthy project, a realizable plan with strong local backing." Nevertheless, the playhouse's future got off to a rocky start. In the mid-1990's, the community opposed a plan by a developer to convert the structure into low-income housing and then senior housing. In 1999, developers donated the property to the Town of East Hampton and an advisory committee recommended that the building be restored and used as a community center. The town and the playhouse foundation jointly commissioned an engineering study, which favored restoration. A second study authorized by the town raised the possibility of razing the playhouse and rebuilding. A third study recommended restoration and settled the debate. William Schlumpf, president of Island Structures in West Islip, whose company is handling the restoration, said parts of the playhouse's foundation, steel skeleton and stone walls were salvageable. After the town decided to preserve the building, East Hampton officials and residents worried how they would finance the estimated $7.5 million restoration. In 2003, the town approved a $6.4 million bond issue, to be repaid over 30 years. After a $350,000 grant awarded by the New York State Office of Parks and Historic Preservation and other private donations streamed in, the "scales were tipped in favor of restoration," said Pete Hammerle, an East Hampton town councilman. The cost of the project for the typical homeowner is about $15 a year in taxes, he said. One day in February, Mr. Schlumpf of Island Structures pointed out that the red porcelain tiles in the building's entrance, corridors and lobby were the identical color, size and shape of the original red concrete that Mr. Fisher had stamped to resemble tile. He said the ebony-stained trim in the interior echoed the decorative half-timbering on the exterior of the building. Ms. Lycke said: "We are taking what the outside looks like, in the beautiful Tudor style, and carrying it through the inside. It will not be industrial looking." Since the structure is a historic landmark, the New York State Historic Preservation Office had to approve the exterior restoration plans, Mr. Schlumpf said. He added that he had been required to maintain the original size, shape and design of the casement windows that faced two public areas to the south and west. Mr. Fisher left behind more than a dozen Tudor-revival style buildings in the hamlet, including Montauk Manor, once a hotel and now a hotel-style condominium complex, and Shepherd's Neck Village, a cluster of cottages for workers at his beach resort, now individually owned. Along with a handful of the oldest houses in the hamlet, "Carl Fisher's buildings are Montauk's identity," said Robert Hefner, a historic preservation consultant in East Hampton. "The playhouse was the biggest tennis auditorium in the country at the time and the glass roof was unusual." He noted, "It was architecturally important for its engineering." "True, his plan did not come to fruition, but there's enough there that it gives a chapter in the history of Montauk," he said. |
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Doug
Kuntz for The New York Times
Doug
Kuntz for The New York Times