RUMSON THROWS SWITCH ON OLD STATION
The phone company switching station turned police station was reduced to rubble Tuesday. (Photo above by Peter Lindner. Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
A chapter of Rumson’s history ended Tuesday as wreckers tore down a building that served for decades as the town’s police headquarters and, before that, a telephone switching station.
In its place, say town officials, will likely be two new homes, completing the property’s transformation from an oddity: a classically elegant red brick standing incongruously among modest homes.
A cloud of dust rises during the tear-down. (Photo by Peter Lindner. Click to enlarge)
Mayor John Ekdahl notes that the building, on Center Street, was there first, and most of the homes came later.
The structure, built in the 1940s and converted to police use in the ’60s, was vacated two years ago, when the police department moved into space in the new borough hall on East River Road.
Borough officials later decided that the building was not worth saving because of the cost of updating it.
Town officials will have to go before its own zoning board for approval to subdivide the property into two building lots, both of which conform to area residential zoning, Ekdahl said.
Sometime early next year, he said, the property is to be sold at auction.
Nov 09, 2011 @ 12:55:57
A sad loss of history from our neighborhood.
Nov 09, 2011 @ 14:42:36
It is so sad to see the old Hdqs go. I grew up in that building while my dad and uncle were Rumson Cops and then I proudly worked with some great people in that same building for nine years as a Rumson Cop. Farewell to such a unique building with some great history.
Nov 09, 2011 @ 20:02:14
I loved that building!!! It was something out of Mayberry… I wonder, was it really too impractical to renovate, or is there more money to be made selling the lots or building spec. homes??
Nov 09, 2011 @ 20:36:50
Of course the lots conform. Rumson has an interest in it. My parents lived in Rumson all their lives. Paid taxes on a double lot for years and then all of a sudden Rumson decided it was a single lot. How does that happen. It’s all about the money. It’s a shame to see this building go also. They must squeeze as many houses into Rumson that they can.
Nov 13, 2011 @ 13:19:28
Rumson Council has a funny way of deciding that something isn’t historic or worth saving when they want to do something else with the property.
If they want the Oceanic Bridge to remain a low bridge, they request that the Historic Commission decide that its historic. Everything else goes. When they don’t want to preserve the Borough Hall, they find a way to decide its not historic. I don’t know how people in this town live with this kind of hypocrisy. That’s why the Tri-City News this week said that one party rule works “great in places like Cuba. North Korea and Rumson”.
Keep in mind that when the Council decided to build the new Borough Hall, they estimated the Police Station proceeds would be $ 1,000,000. See what they get and subtract the demolition costs which they estimated at $75,000. If the Police Station was unusual on that block, would they get rid of the Junior League building next door also? Rumson residents will live with this kind of thinking until they vote for nonpartisan or bipartisan government.