The cupola is Town Hall’s defining architectural feature. Destroying it destroys the character of this National Register site.
If ever there was a fitting symbol for the town of Harvard’s governance, it is Town Hall, which various iterations of Board of Selectmen have been demolishing via neglect for so many years. But the recent threats to destroy the cupola take the limitations of their imagination and competency to a new depth. This isn’t just neglect and incompetence; this is proactive demolition.
If they don’t believe in taxes, what about private fundraising to make up the balance for this necessary expense? Or applying for grants? Or seeking out someone to restore it less expensively? In the past, we have saved tremendous costs by finding preservation carpentry advocates and institutions to do this kind of work at dramatically less cost than market rate. Failing to exhaust all these avenues is a squandering of precious resources that is the equivalent of raising the taxes that they profess to so abhor.
I would urge the selectmen to try to show more imagination here. And if they are not up to the task, I would ask them to please halt all work on this project rather than destroy yet another historic site. If you can’t fix it, please, sit on your hands and do nothing and wait for a more competent generation of leadership to emerge.
Jonathan Feist
Shaker Road
