97 years of a town's life leveled in a day

FRANKLIN-As both a chilled wind and light, intermittent spurts of rain fell, the former Franklin Hospital was torn down Monday. The end was as swift as the building's history was long. Crews hired by St. Clare's Health Systems, the property owner, arrived early Monday morning with a demolition permit and razed the 97-year-old building. As of late Monday morning, bulldozers had already demolished part of the hospital's back side, and a large hole was present in the roof of the building's front side. By late afternoon, only the large entry/exit ramp from where the front hospital entrance had been, remained, along with rubble. Despite last-minute scrambling to try and save the building, historians conceded the odds had been against them. "We went together trying to stop it, but we didn't get very far," said a saddened Betty Allen, the Franklin Historical Society president, who was out of town Monday. "There were too many people in high places, we felt, that just weren't willing to give the building a chance. The cards were stacked in their favor. And I think that should say it all." According to borough administrator Richard R. Wolak, the demolition permit sought by St. Clare's was issued last Friday afternoon. Building inspector Keith Stager was unavailable for comment. "They're the ones who came in and requested the permit, and once everything was satisfied, we had no legal grounds to deny them the permit," said Wolak. "It was between individual parties. We're not the owner of record." Historical society vice-president Judy Williams confirmed on Monday that both she and Allen were preparing to bring a lawsuit individually, seeking a last-minute injunction for temporary restraint until the courts could better decide on whether legal requirements for demolition were met. Last September, the borough council had enacted a new zoning ordinance that had first been approved by the planning board that states: ". . . attempts shall be made to reuse any buildings of historic significance. This requirement may be waived by the Board based upon credible expert testimony that the buildings are beyond repair." The intended suit, therefore, would have claimed the building was still a "sound structure," and that no public meeting had ever been held to decide whether or not the building was beyond repair, according to legal papers that had been prepared. "I don't know what's going on in the borough when we can get a permit late on a Friday afternoon to destroy our most historic structures, but we can't get approval to develop the borough's blighted areas," said Thomas Prol, the lawyer involved who was, as of Monday morning, attempting to receive temporary injunctive relief. "There's something seriously wrong with the process. There's so much wrong with what happened here." "I am extremely saddened with the loss of Franklin Hospital, the first hospital in Sussex County, which served its community and county for almost 100 years," Williams said Tuesday. "Receiving a demolition permit on a Friday afternoon effectively and strategically blocked any court hearing that could have been arranged. I am greatly disappointed that continued forthright communications with St. Clare's hospital and Mr. Nardella were repeatedly refused." Both Jerry Nardella, the intended purchaser of the property from St. Clare's, and mayor Doug Kistle declined comment. "The demolition was part of the preparation for the sale of the property," explained Stephen Bocskocsky, the chief administrative officer of St. Clare's Sussex Hospital. The hospital, the first-ever of its kind in Sussex County, opened in June 1908 at a time when the New Jersey Zinc Company began providing better and faster care to badly injured miners, some of whom had been unable to survive lengthy train rides to either Morristown or Paterson at the time. By 1917, an addition had been built to house a surgeon's dressing room, a room for hospital nurses — known as the "nurses' quarters" — and two bathrooms. In 1924, another addition created room for both mens' and womens' solariums. By that time, the hospital had also been serving the surrounding area and county as well. As recently as the late 1970s, the hospital was still a viable facility, long after the zinc company — the hospital's builder and original owner — closed the legendary Franklin mines on Sept. 30, 1954 and sold the property about a year later. St. Clare's acquired the property in 1994. After the borough used the hospital for temporary offices until the current borough hall was renovated by 1998, St. Clare's used it as a mental health facility until closing it on Friday, Oct. 31, 2003. Shortly before the hospital was deemed one of the state's most endangered historic sites by Preservation New Jersey on May 4, 2004, the state's Natural and Historic Resources preservation office informed Allen that "the Franklin Hospital is eligible for listing in the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places under Criterion A, for its role as Sussex County's first hospital." At that same time, Nardella, the Wayne-based developer who heads Sunbrite Investments, withdrew an application from the zoning board of adjustment when it became clear that Nardella's efforts to receive variances to allow construction of an age-restricted condominium complex on the site might have been voted down by the seven-member board. Since then, the zoning was changed to permit six structures per acre rather than the 2.9 allotted under the old ordinance. Also, on Feb. 26, 2004, the Sparta Historical Society issued a letter that urged Franklin officials to give "utmost consideration" to the building's preservation. "The hospital was a piece of many lives that will not be forgotten, and will be remembered often," borough councilman John Sowden IV said. "I heard that the hospital was being taken down today, and I got there and it was flattened," said local historian and author Bill Truran of Sparta on Monday. "I was saddened because it was one of Franklin's historic landmarks. I was personally grieved because it was my birthplace as well as the birthplace of both of my parents. "My hope is that they recognize the historic value in some significant way with the new construction."