The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
A decrepit structure on the property of the New School for Music Study on Route 27 in Kingston will soon be razed, but not before local historians get a last look at it.
The structure sits nestled among trees and bushes on the property. The building that houses the music school is pre-Revolutionary War, and local historians believe the ice house may date back to the late 18th or early 19th centuries.
Ice houses were, as their name implies, structures built to save winter ice during the warmer months. Homeowners and the owners of inns and restaurants would use them to store meat and dairy products.
The music school’s building was once an inn, according to a letter from Kingston resident George Luck, read to the Commission by Chairman Andrew Burian.
A representative of the music school appeared before the township Historic Preservation Advisory Commission on November 1 for permission to raze the building. The commission gave its blessing, but did attach a condition.
Noting that Kingston has a Village Advisory Committee and a Historical Society, Commissioner Glen McParland suggested that the school approach both of those groups before the building is taken down.
“I don’t think I have a problem with it, but if there’s something that can be done to save pieces, see what you can do with those two groups,” he said.
“Outbuildings can be just as significant as main structures,” Burian said. “And seeing that this may be the last … maybe reach out to the groups to see if they want parts of it.”
“Who’s to say they might not want to take the walls?” he said.
Vince Dominach, the township liaison to the Commission, said he would stop by soon to take some pictures of the building.
“Depending on what Vince finds, we might organize a group of us to go look at it,” Burian said.
