WORCESTER—Despite having been listed as an endangered historic building four times, Hope Cemetery Commissioners are asking the Commissioner of Public Works and Parks to prioritize funding for the barn at Hope Cemetery with the possibility of razing the 142-year-old structure.
In a letter to DPW Commissioner Jay Fink, Hope Cemetery Commission Chairman Matthew Curewitz wrote that the barn was built in 1882 and contains a top-floor hay loft because, at that time, horses were used to pull mowers in the burial ground.
“As I’m sure you are aware, the barn is in a terrible state of disrepair,” Curewicz wrote, noting that it’s been a topic of discussion for more than two decades but the only repairs done have been “stop-gap measures to put off the inevitable replacement.”
The barn, at New York Street and Stoddard Drive inside the cemetery, is “a fine stick-style structure, characterized by its verticality, angularity, steeply pitched roof and cupola, and overhanging eaves which are pierced with dormers, according to Preservation Worcester, which has named it as endangered as recently as 2023.
The group pointed out that “Preservation Mass., the statewide architectural preservation group, placed barns on their Ten Most Endangered Historic Resources List several years ago and has since formed a Barn Preservation Task Force to promote restoration and maintenance of old barns.”
But Hope Cemetery Commissioners said that a 2007 “treatments and conditions” report indicated that renovation of the barn wouldn’t be cost-effective nor would the renovated building serve the needs of the cemetery in the future.
The Hope Cemetery 2018 Master Plan recommends the building be leveled, as well.
While tearing the building down might seem the easiest and most cost-effective option, Preservation Worcester mentions on their website that Hope Cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been since 1997.
Cemetery commissioners said it may be the oldest municipal-owned barn in the area.
That could make it more difficult to demolish it, cemetery commissions have said, but they don’t think that makes the potential razing an insurmountable task.
In a description on the National Register’s website, the barn is described as having, “Elements of Queen Anne style” which “are seen in the shaped shingles on the second floor that wrap around the structure.”
Preservation Worcester has listed it as endangered in 2005, 2007, 2022, and again last year, citing “neglect and deferred maintenance.”
Commissioners have talked about the potential for grant funding to rehabilitate the building, but even with that done, it wouldn’t be useful, and a newer building would likely still be needed.
Following years of neglect, the barn is now weathered, stripped of any paint, its windows covered in aging plywood, exterior wood is falling off and the brick foundation is four different colors. Officials said it’s no longer suitable for storing equipment.
Commissioner Christopher Faucher said the building lacks adequate square footage and a “renovation is not what the cemetery needs.”
He said the issue has been “kicked down the road” since 2007, and he doesn’t want it to fall by the wayside.
At their December meeting, commissioners said they could use money to fund design plans for a new building and they agreed to send a letter to Fink asking him to “prioritize funding of the preliminary steps leading to the replacement or renovation of the maintenance facility for Hope Cemetery.”
Commissioners hope funds will be included in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget for the project.
Kim Ring fell into journalism in the 1980s as a correspondent at the Telegram & Gazette and eventually left her initial career to pursue reporting full-time. In her years of writing, she has penned articles for several Massachusetts-based publications, taking a brief hiatus to work as chief of staff for a state representative. She can be reached at Kimringwrites@gmail.com
