RHINEBECK, N.Y. — Town Board members have approved the stabilization plan for the Wyndclyffe mansion in an effort to move forward with the restoration of the 170-year-old deteriorating relic of pre-Civil War extravagance.
The work will keep the attractive nuisance from being a hazard, town attorney Warren Replansky said during a meeting Monday.
“It has for many years been in a state of disrepair and possible danger of collapse,” he said. “Over the years, the various zoning enforcement officers for the town have filed notifications that the property needed to be sealed and a fence installed around it in accordance with our property maintenance law and the town’s unsafe building law.”
The town resolution notes that the building has been sealed and a 6-foot security fence has been erected around the property.
Under the stabilization plan, owners will install a new floor and roof framing to the freestanding masonry walls, add supplemental interior wood stud bearing walls and shear walls for support and bracing, replace interior brick walls and chimneys, and pour a new concrete slab.
“The structural drawings adequately address the emergency stabilization of the structure and are suitable for the purpose of restoring the structure to a safe condition,” wrote town consulting engineer Bruce Richardson. “The drawings do not include information regarding roofing, insulation, windows, doors, and the permanent repair of the exterior walls, so additional input from other consultants will be needed to return the building to a watertight condition and to future occupancy.”
Board members approved the resolution in a 4-0 vote with Councilman Alan Scherr abstaining because he is a neighbor of the property. He noted that before a long-term repair plan moves forward, there needs to be protections for residents who live nearby.
“What I’m worried about is the asbestos,” he said. “The mitigation of that asbestos was priced out at nearly a million dollars. So we’re not talking (about) an easy job.”
Scherr added that contractors will need to use a shared road to access the site.
“The construction vehicles will ruin the driveway,” he said.
Scherr said that the last use of the property was as a nudist camp in the 1940s. it had been built by Elizabeth Schermerhorn Jones and in the 1880s was purchased by family members who owned Knickerbocker beer and had their product piped between the main house and tennis courts.