A 191-year-old building in New Hampton could be torn down as early as next month. That's after residents voted last week against paying to save it.
For more than 25 years Kris Harmon has woken up across the street from the Grange Hall building. She’s picked up her son from events there, attended town meetings and even cast votes there.
The two-and-a-half story white building is made of old timber, with post and beam construction. It’s been used as a chapel, a schoolhouse and a community center.
“It was part of New Hampton’s identity – it would be nice to have a community center again, what we had will be lost forever," Harmon said.
But the church that owns the building says it no longer has use for it and wants to tear it down to build a parking lot. In order to save the building, the town would have had to pay $150,000 to move it downtown.
That plan fell short by 37 votes - 134 to 97. Those for tearing the building down were against paying the initial as well as ongoing costs to keep it open.