Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1984 clippings related to Winter ClubNORM PALM BEACH PUBLIC UNARY --Ile Oakes Mementos to Be Saved — i Below, North Palm Beach resident Harry Main inspects one of two murals found in the Winter Club (Oakes House(. The paintings are in storage until Village Council decides what to do with them after demolition of the building. Above. John W. (Jack) Ridgway looks at a thirty -light chandelier salvaged from the main room of the building. Several historical groups have expressed an interest in the memen- toes. Funds OK'd To Raze Winter Club Council Appropriates $24,000 To Tear By Jeff Stanfield P. B. P• s'l" G ►� 11s�8`•f- Staff Writer NORTH PALM BEACH — The Village Council appro- priated $24,000 last night to tear down the historic Winter Club on U.S. 1. Village Public Service Director Charles O'Meila said the demolition could begin in about two weeks. "We're wasting $24,000 of the taxpayers' money to tear down a building that is of great value to the village," said Vice Mayor Al Moore, who cast the only vote against providing the money for demolition. Mayor V.A. Marks was absent. Moore said the council will have spent nearly $200,000 to repair and tear down Winter Club. The city made extensive roof repairs more than two years ago. "The council ought to think before they tear this building down," he said. But council member Harriet Nolan said the council was following the will of the majority. Voters recently approved the demolition. "This has been debated for several years now. The council is being responsive to our citizens," she said. "Majority rules. That's the way this country runs." Moore replied that the March 13 Winter Club referen- Down liuilding dum did not ask voters whether they wanted the building torn down. The question was whether the public wanted the building restored with profits derived from leasing it to private interests, he said. Councilman Tom Valente said the city would need $1 million to fix the building. Moore said the repairs could be done in phases. "You could spend what you want," he said. "No," said North Palm Beach resident Donald Welsch. "Go ahead and tear it down." He was the only resident to voice an opinion on the building's destruction. The demolition issue had been hetly debated in recent months. An organization called Save the Winter Club Inc. conducted a door-to-door campaign and sued the city to stop the building's destruction. A court -ordered referen- dum followed, but the club's supporters lost by 200 votes. "If we could think of something to do we would do it," Patricia Marin, the group's lawyer, said recently. "Unfor- tunately North Palm Beach voters don't appreciate the place." Delta Demolition of North Palm Beach was the low- est of five bidders and will tear dovn the building. Two large banyan trees near the club building will be saved, village officials have said. Tinter aub ate P8126it Lures Relic Hunters By Jodi Schneider Staff Writer NORTH PALM BEACH — They gathered in the hot afternoon sun, oblivious to the historic importance of the moment. When the doors were opened, they rummaged through the rubble as if at a garage sale. "I'm just looking for odds and ends," said Loxahatchee resident Gail Brown. "I'm building a house and looking for anything to fit into it — old brass doorknobs, pocket locks, things like that." "I wanted to buy some doors," add- ed Jerry Cone, a Palm Beach Country Estates resident. "That's all." Only a dozen souvenir hunters and curiosity seekers remained yester- day afternoon when the crew from Delta Demolition arrived more than two hours late to open the doors to the 57-year-old Winter Club. It was the last time the relic would remain intact, for the crew began selling off parts of the historic building as a prelude to its demolition Tuesday. Delta Demolition will raze the de- teriorating structure with a 3,000- pound wrecking ball on orders from the North Palm Beach Village Coun- cil. The village was granted permis- sion to destroy the Winter Club after a group of residents lost their long legal battle to save the building last March. Condemned seven years ago, the decaying structure bears little re- semblance to the grand mansion built in 1926 expressly as a country club for Palrn Beach millionaire Paris Singer. Years later, Sir Harry Oakes, a Canadian millionaire, purchased the building and enlarged it. Due to its historic significance to the area, the building holds a spot on the National Register of Historic Places. Now the aging structure suffers from years of decay and neglect. Yesterday's visitors stepped on bro- ken records and yellowed newspa- pers in the large room that once housed a ballet studio. Pigeon eggs were hidden near the porch. While most of the group was there to buy, a few local residents came out of nostalgia for the Winter Club. Al- though L.A. Nininger respects the historic value of the building, he said he won't be sorry to see it destroyed. "I was in favor of taking it down," he said. "To me, if this had been a good stone building with a good foundation, it may have been worth sav- ing. But with this building, we'd have to start all over. We'd just be putting good money into something that would cost more than building a whole new structure." Village residents holding Nin- inger's view won at the polls.'A ruling by Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Lewis Kapner put the club's future on the March 13 ballot and residents voted 1,692 to 1,525 not to spend hun- dreds of thousands of dollars to re- store the building, but instead to pay $17,143 to destroy it. Members of Save the Winter Club, the group that campaigned to restore the building, didn't show up yester- day. Some say they won't attend Tuesday's demolition, either. "It would be too painful for me to watch," said Jeri Athey, the group's president. "It's almost beyond my comprehension how they could do it. I try not to think about it." Group member Patty Moran said she'll witness the demolition, "proba- bly with a black arm band," out of respect for the building. She said yes- terday's souvenir sale was typical. of the public's attitude toward the build- ing. • • . A demolition company has found the Winter C iu souvenir hunters. PILE PHOTO too rickety for Winter Club's dilapidate date *delays sale of hi cal tidbits By DAVID MARCUS Herald Staff Writer A sale of old bricks, cypress, door knobs and other knickknacks of North Palm Beach history — scheduled for today — has been delayed. A demolition company had planned to sell useable bits and pieces of the 57-year-old Winter Club, but found the building too rickety for souvenir hunters. The sale has been postponed until at least Sept, 4, when the wrecking team starts to tear down the rambling old yellow building. "We sent a crew in there last night and we found it is quite high risk and dangerous," Candi Geyer, vice president of Delta Demolition Inc.. said Thursday. "I won't have our men climbing up in the rafters to take wood out." Geyer had told town officials that workmen from her Fort Lauderdale company would scour the building for pieces that could be sold. But Thursday afternoon, she called off the sale. The building, constructed as a country club for Palm Beach millionaire Paris Singer, has weathered a .1•1111111111.1. 'We st rit a crew in there . and we found t is quite high risk and dangerGuS: Candi Gs, vee, Delta Demolition inc. 1928 hurricane and decades of changes and abandon- ment. Now owned by the village, it has been condemned for seven years. Arguments over the mansion's future split the community for several years, until the council voted to raze it earlier this year. The foundation will be uprooted and the area covered with sod. And the pecky cypress ceilings a other salvageable remnants probably will go t buyers. "You don't know what people are after," V*1 Manager Roy Holland said. - : • Don Preisler/THE POST Demolition of the Winter Club began yesterday in North Palm Beach Decaying minter Club Razed - By Jodi Schneider Staff Writer NORTH PALM BEACH — About 9 a.m. yesterday, attorney Ted Babbitt planted a sign near the decaying mansion at the North Palm Beach Country Club. "This property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places," it read. About an hour later that message became inconse- quential as Eric Jenkins of Delta Demolition Inc. got behind the wheel of a Caterpillar bulldozer and started knocking the first pieces out of the 58-year-old Winter Club. "This is a sad, sad day," said Babbitt, who represented Save the Winter Club, the group that campaigned to restore the building. "I can't help but believe that the people who voted to do this must be having second _ thoughts." Built by architect Louis de Puyseger in 1926 for Palm Beach millionaire Paris Singer, the three-story building later served as a vacation home for Canadian Winter7s end . , , o,,,, , H E R R millionaire Sir Harry Oakes and then John D. MacArthur. The village of North Palm Beach bought the building in 1961 and used it for recreation activities until the mid- 1970s. It was condemned seven years ago. The demolition was ordered by the North Palm Beach Village Council. For years, village residents fought to preserve the neglected structure and return it to its former glory. In a 1979 election, they were able to keep their hopes alive because of an amazing 1,103-1,103 tie vote. But on March 13, Winter Club supporters lost for the last time when village residents voted 1,692 to 1,525 to tear down the building. Most of the small group of village officials, residents and passers-by that huddled outside the building yester- day attended the demolition out of nostalgia, not out of a desire to see the mansion restored. "I think it's seen its day," said Leon Koon, a 10-year village resident. "I think restoring it was a useless ges- ture. " - -g44- Once a playground for the wealthy, the decaying. Winter Club in North Palm Beach was reduced to rubble by wrecking equipment Tuesday. Machine operator Eric Jenkins rolls over !/i C.J WALKER / Miami Herald Staff the remains of a barrel -tile roof as a huge shovel prepares to chomp boards end bricks into splinters and dust.