Should Historical Buildings Yield to Square Glass Boxes?
A GIANT metal claw started to rip away at the 100-year-old Laurel Street School in Branford one day late in October, only hours after a Federal judge in Hartford concluded that town officials had not acted unreasonably in deciding to demolish the school to make way for a new police station. The destruction of the school was the culmination of a 10-month sometimes bitter battle between town officials and their supporters, who wanted to raze the school, and a citizens’ organization known as SOS (Save Our School). Eventually the battle also involved the Connecticut Historical Commission and the State Attorney General’s office, both of which favored retaining the school building as a historically important structure. For the historical commission’s director, John W. Shannahan, the demise of the old school meant one more folder he will add to a stack in a cabinet in his office. Each folder represents a lost cause, a sort of necrology of buildings Mr. Shannahan felt were important reminders
