Decade-long fight ends with the demolition of historic Hartford chapel
HARTFORD — When the historic funeral chapel at Hartford’s Beth Israel Cemetery was dedicated in 1886, the ceremonies drew attendance so large that some had to be turned away.
The crowd was far smaller that gathered early Wednesday for the Deborah Chapel’s demolition, the end of the decade-long fight over whether the 3-story building in the city’s Frog Hollow neighborhood — recognized nationally as historic — should be preserved or torn down.
A leader of Congregation Beth Israel in West Hartford, which owns the cemetery and chapel, said the chapel had long outlived its original use as a mortuary, had deteriorated and was an object of vandalism. The comments came at the cemetery before a backhoe equipped with a claw started ripping into the building and creating a pile of rubble.
Chet Zaslow, president of the congregation’s board of trustees, said many had expressed interest in saving the brick-and-brownstone building, but “few came forward and none had the funding and a viable plan to make it happen.”
Zaslow said the congregation insisted the building be moved from the cemetery and offered to sell the building for $1 if it was moved. Plans to convert the chapel where it stands at the corner of Ward and Affleck streets into a home, apartments or a community center were incompatible with the cemetery, Zaslow said
“People come a visit their loved ones there — and we have people living here in this building or its repurposed as a community center, that’s not what people have come to the cemetery to see,” Zaslow said. “They’ve come to visit their loved ones, and pay respects to them. And that’s why any of those alternatives are just not possible.”
Options to preserve the chapel through the courts were exhausted a month ago. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong had stepped into the case, but a ruling by the U.S. National Park Service determined that the structure was not within the Frog Hollow historic district. Tong no longer had jurisdiction to pursue the case, his office said.
Neighborhood leaders, who were strong proponents of preserving the structure in a city that has lost many of its historic buildings, watched Wednesday as workers prepared for the demolition.
“It’s certainly a sad day, it’s a travesty,” Rhodee Gine, co-chair of the Frog Hollow Neighborhood Revitalization Zone, said. “The time and effort it took to come to destroy the building amazes me under [the congregation’s] leadership.”
Gine pushed back on the congregation’s assertion that there were no viable offers to save the building. He also noted there was financing available through state programs, including historic tax credits, that may have helped funding for a renovation project. The city offered a vacant lot nearby that could have become a new location for a chapel renovation.
“Rather than create community, forge relationships, they’ve chosen to destroy,” Gine said.
The fight by preservationists to save the chapel — stretching back a decade — gained national attention last year when the chapel was named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of 11 most endangered properties in the country out of a field of 120 candidates.
The Romanesque Revival-style structure was built after a fundraising campaign by the Ladies Deborah Society, an organization of Jewish women dedicated to performing good works in the community.
The National Trust noted the chapel was “a rare and early American example of an intact Jewish funerary structure which embodies the strong leadership of women within the 19th century Jewish and communal organizations.”
The debate over the chapel’s future came to a head after the city’s historic preservation commission refused to approve a demolition permit in 2019. Beth Israel sued, and the courts sided with the congregation. In November, the courts ordered the commission to grant the demolition permit and once issued by the city would clear the way for demolition after 90 days.
In a last-ditch effort, Preservation Connecticut, the former Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, petitioned the state historic preservation council. The council then ask Tong to intervene. A temporary injunction had held off demolition.
On Wednesday, Zaslow said a memorial garden will be created where the chapel once stood, using some of the building’s architectural elements. In addition, some of the bricks and brownstone — including the cornerstone — will be used by the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford as it pursues an expansion. The center is housed in what was Congregation Beth Israel’s original synagogue — the state’s first — before the congregation relocated to West Hartford.
“Charter Oak continues to do such amazing work in our community, it will be an honor to have our historic materials maintaining this landmark,” Zaslow said.
Kenneth R. Gosselin can be reached at kgosselin@courant.com.