Nearly 150-year-old slate on Norwich City Hall roof needs replacement
Norwich — If all goes according to plan, City Hall could be half wrapped in scaffolding next summer for the first phase of a $600,000 project to replace the original, nearly 150-year-old slate on the steep mansard roof.
The City Council on Monday is scheduled to vote on a resolution to apply for the maximum $100,000 grant from the state Historic Restoration Fund, administered by the state Historic Preservation Office, to offset part of the cost for the $300,000 first phase that would replace half the slate, covering the east and south sides — the front and Broadway sides of the 1873 building.
The resolution is on the agenda for the 7:30 p.m. council meeting Monday, which will be livestreamed on the city website, www.norwichct.org, and broadcast on Norwich Comcast Channel 97.
City Public Works Director Patrick McLaughlin said the city plans to split the project into two phases to apply twice for the $100,000 maximum grant. The city plans to apply for the grant for the second phase a year from now and do that phase in the summer of 2022.
The original slate has become brittle, cracked and loose in spots, allowing water to seep in, McLaughlin said.
The plan is to put the first phase out to bid and do construction in summer. Because of the steep slopes, scaffolding will be required to reach the roof. “That’s what costs a lot of money,” McLaughlin said, “just getting to the work area.”
The windows will not be touched, but metal pieces and trim around the slate will have to be removed, cleaned and painted and re-installed as part of the project.
“It’s pretty specialized work,” McLaughlin said. “The roofing contractor has to have experience working on historic buildings.”
The city has tapped into the Historic Restoration Fund for City Hall twice in recent years to continue restoration work on the building after a major $4.4 million renovation project was completed in 1999. Several years ago, the city obtained a grant to restore the original wood floors — the 1999 renovation inexplicably included modern black-and-white diamond patterned tile floors over the original wood — and a few years earlier to restore the cast iron staircases in the front and west or Union Street side.
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