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NORRISTOWN — The story of the old Montgomery County/Airy Street Prison continued unfolding this week as the Norristown Historical Architectural Review Board issued a recommendation.
The municipal board convened Wednesday evening in downtown Norristown ahead of the deadline to make a recommendation about Montgomery County’s application to demolish the old prison at 35 E. Airy St.
“I want to deny it in my heart outright, but my instinct is we should suggest a compromise,” said Doug Seiler, vice chairman of the Norristown Historical Architectural Review Board.
The roughly 1.1-acre parcel encompasses a circa 1851 structure designed by Architect Napoleon LeBrun.While it’s been characterized as a “castle on the hill,” two other buildings were added over time, built in 1890 and 1910, according to Seiler. The structure’s entirety encompasses roughly 40,000 square feet. It ceased operations in 1987 and was later sold to the county.
HARB had previously tabled a recommendation on the building as the county’s application was “deemed incomplete” by board members at an Aug. 23 meeting. Seiler had said the county lacked some sufficient paperwork including an engineering report and enough evidence proving the need for demolition. The September meeting produced a similar result.
“The application was incomplete from the start,” said HARB Board Member Gale Bresnehan.
Seiler agreed.
“I think that bad behavior and improperly prepared proposals that contradict the spirit and intentions of the Norristown HARB should not be rewarded,” he said. “Doing so sets a bad precedent (and) implies a two-tiered system of enforcement.”
Conversations surrounding the old prison have been circulating in recent months on social media, in letters to the editor, as well as during public comment periods in meetings among Norristown and Montgomery County officials. A change.org petition started on Aug. 3 had netted 2,153 signatures as of Thursday afternoon.
“Losing the LeBrun portion would be a catastrophe for this borough,” Seiler said.
A forum hosted by the grassroots advocacy group, Friends of the Prison, took place earlier this month, where panelists advocated for preservation and reuse.
Despite public outcry calling to save the historic structure from the wrecking ball, county representatives remained steadfast, with Montgomery County Department of Assets and Infrastructure Administrator Jesse King citing “practical and moral reasons” for demolition.
“We are not prepared to ask taxpayers to spend millions of dollars to preserve a monument to a system of incarceration that disproportionately imprisoned people of color,” county Commissioners Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr. said. “Taking down this structure will not change the inequities in our criminal justice system, but we also refuse to invest in celebrating that legacy.”
Aaron Wunsch, an architectural history professor at the University of Pennsylvania, shared his own thoughts on the matter during the public comment portion of Wednesday’s municipal meeting.
“I will also say that while one can discuss the structural condition of this building with some level of precision, the moral arguments to demolish strike me as not only hazy, but disingenuous,” he said.
The issue came to a head when a nearly $1 million demolition contract agreement between the county and Tamco Construction, of Doylestown, was reached in August, and a $141,650 agreement with Lansdale-based GZA Environmental was authorized in September for “air monitoring services for Norristown area construction projects.”
While details were limited, Lawrence previously stated plans included temporarily transforming the property into a “well maintained green space” to eventually “repurpose the prison property and the neighboring Airy Street parking lot to further spur the borough’s revitalization.”
Norristown Council President Thomas Lepera has said that future use would be “public safety-related.”
Montgomery County’s 2023-27 Capital Improvement Plan adopted in December 2022 also includes a 2023 line item for the “removal of (the) Norristown prison” listed at $4.5 million.
“Obviously there’s a bigger plan because they’re looking at the facility; they’re looking at the parking lot,” said Tom DiBello, a Limerick Township resident running as a Republican for Montgomery County Commissioner.
DiBello was one of several people who spoke out against demolition at Wednesday’s meeting.
Seiler too expressed some frustration around the lack of information and ill-defined uses.
“It’s one of this borough’s main accomplishments,” Seiler said. “It’s a fantastic testament to our tremendous century in this town’s history — and for reasons that certainly the HARB can’t rule on — it’s being proposed to be torn down with very little due diligence, and with what appears to be a shroud of opacity because I have to drag out of sites what the proposed uses are likely to be, and I think there’s a strong argument for just denying this application in its entirety.”
As Seiler gave his final comments, he went back to an idea of compromise.
“My gut tells me this is what should be done,” Seiler said. “Fight for LeBrun. Keep that building, give them a little bit of land around it, let the county and borough have their firehouse, their parking garage…”
“My instinct is to deny the application,” Bresnehan said. “Unless they’re cooperating with us, I don’t know how we can amend the application.”
“I appreciate your position. We are not amending our application,” King said.
After much discussion, the “motion to deny” that Seiler made included a “a note to council that the HARB is open to a partial demo(lition) that retains the LeBrun portion.” It passed 2-0 with votes from Bresnehan and Seiler. Chairman Bill Ward did not participate in the vote. Fellow board member Lynn Bixler, recused herself from the item as she works as a municipal building code enforcement official.
“The message is we tried to compromise,” Seiler said, adding “we’ll see what council does.”
While HARB offers up recommendations, the decision ultimately lies with Norristown municipal council members.
“The HARB made their decision, and we will make sure that the municipal council is aware of the decision made by the HARB,” Norristown Code Enforcement Manager and Building Code Official Amrinder Singh told MediaNews Group following the vote.
The next Norristown Municipal Council meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 8 at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, 2 W. Lafayette St. Visit norristown.org for more information.
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