The building has a long history and at its core it is a Federal style home, typical of the earliest architecture of homes after the Revolution. More recent parts of the building were part of a unique feature of Winchester's town in the early twentieth century called "Seven Acres."
This Main Street home is part of the town's historic row alongside the ELM center and the Shipman Tavern. Save Our Heritage and call the Town Hall, send a letter to the Historic District Commission and ZBA to state your support for keeping the Historic look of our town, and preserving this heritage home.
The house in question is located at 71 main Street and up until a month or so ago contained tenants and was occupied. The owner of the home is none other than Margaret Sharra, who instead of fixing up the house and preserving the history of Winchester, she's looking to make a very substantial personal gain. Is this why she pushed to change Zoning Laws and Site Plan Regulations earlier this year and worded those changes herself? Sure does make one wonder who she really represents sitting on the Planning Board and working in the Land Use Office.
33 comments:
Can we get a head shop put in like where the tattoo place used to be? and maybe a good bar with some music to?
Just what we don't need another dollar store in competition with a local business owner. If there was any doubt about what Margaret is all about there's none now. She is all about Margaret and does whatever is good for her and her alone, not Winchester. I hope you people who voted for her start opening your eyes and seeing the real Margaret, not the phony she pretends to be.
But it is such a beautiful home. Pony up the cash and match the offer or shut up. I would love to tell you all what to do with your property too.
Sue
Just what we need another dumpy run down house, a eye soar to most of us
one mans historical is another mans rat trap.
Where are the grant writers and the alternate plans??? This town is great at saying what is wrong but fails to act to stop her!!! She flaunts her actions and struts around town hall knowing no one will defy her. Someone needs to get some "teeth" besides Kim. OK we don't want a dollar store and we want to preserve the house BUT do what with it ??? We need to reclaim downtown but not for Margaret's gain but for the image of Winchester. Time to stop playing the Little Red Hen Story. We all want the bread made ; we all rant and rave about what is wrong but noone helps to bake the bread and the "Little Red Hen" makes the "bread" by herself and clucks and cackles all the way to the bank because her bread is not whole grain......... it's green. Sure Sue, it's her property but that is downtown and the image of all of us and she is a town official who represents ALL of us not just her own personal gain. This is Winchester not Margaretville!!!!!
Boy the attitudes in this town are awesome. Especially Sue's. Thanks for your 2 cents. I think think this story is tragic for 2 reasons. This building was allowed to fall into disrepair and the type of store planned for the property. How many discount stores can one small town have?
If this were anyone else's property the owner would have been cited by the town but when you are the assistant code enforcement officer you can get away with whatever you want to do, talk about flaunting your perceived authority. The BOS is just as much to blame for all the shenanigans that go on in the town by the perceived royalty, while the rest of us are forced to toe the mark. Time we all started making better choices with our ballots.
A new building even a store of any type will look better than this place now and create jobs,yes minimum wage jobs but any jobs are needed right now. I don't see any historical value in this dump at all and the ugly porch is not original or historic. I think we need to worry more about our actual main street. The white apartments across from Mr. Mikes need to go or be renovated to look better and fit in. And unfortunately the entire building where the old hardware store and barbershop is needs to be restored to make our main street look good. As sue said if you are that worried about a private house then get your money together and make her a offer and sink tons of money into it yourself to meet the HDC codes.
Just how many jobs do you thing a dollar store is going to provide, 4-5 at most wow, what a boon for the town. That's really going to help alot of people now isn't it? Let me ask you and Sue a question. Why have the Wal-Marts and large tech firms passed up Winchester for other nearby towns? Why didn't they come here to build?
What people seem to be missing here is that across our nation every city and town has an Historic District meant to preserve the heritage of our past, something that can't be brought back once it's gone. People who purchase these old homes and buildings are made aware of the regulations governing these structures before hand and agree to maintain and preserve them for posterity in accordance with the laws set forth by the Historical Committees of the towns where they purchase them.
Here we have a house on Main Street in the downtown area that was purchased by someone who full well knew all of this in advance of purchasing.
This person then went about spending just enough money fixing up the home to make it inhabitable to several tenants on the inside; but did nothing to maintain the building on the outside, thus violating the town regulations that she had helped write. To get around having to comply with the law, she in turn sent notices and had these tenants removed so that she could broker this current deal to sell to this conglomerate to build a store and tear down our heritage knowing full well the consequences of her actions. She even went so far as to spend last fall and the early part of this year writing and attempting to implement changes to our zoning and site plan review regulations under the guise that these changes were suggested by the town's attorney. What a coincidence, just out of the blue, our town attorney with nothing better to do, suddenly suggests the town make changes to these ordinances and regulations? Hmmm, food for thought.
You decide for yourself, based on facts just what is really going on here and remember, the focal point of all this is the building; do we protect and preserve our heritage or do we allow the destruction of our past just to make a buck.
As someone above has so eloquently put it, this is Winchester, not Margaretville, the rules are meant to be followed by everyone, no exceptions, no matter who you think you are.
Well put informer and isn't it against the law to use your position as a town employee for personal gain?
You guys are freekin crazy....you rather have this dumpy eye soar as an example of our main st?????????This building is a wreck and I see no or dont care about the historical B.S. Its nothing like our town hall,covered bridges etc. etc. leave people and their houses alone.....anything in place of this wreck will be better.Like the posters above stated man up get the cash and buy it from her then spend a fortune making the HDC happy
Why don't you run for office? Then you can change the rules and regulations so you and your friends don't have to follow them. This is exactly the type of conduct that would result in anyone else being removed from their position and yet instead, we have fools like you crying foul. Why should town employees and town officials be allowed to do whatever they want while the rest of us have to play by the rules? As the informer has stated, this is about saving our town's heritage and preserving the history of our town, do you know the history of this house? Do you know when it was built and by whom? Why are you so eager to destroy our past?
Yes this house is an eyesore and should have been repaired a long time ago. Why hasn't Leroy issued citations and forced the owner to comply with town law? Guess we all know the answer to that one.
if Leroy is going to issue a citation on this house then he would also have to issue one for the house on the other side of the ELMM front yard and many other houses in these districts. Why are you only interested in this house only? Fair is fair hassle every owner of dumpy houses in theses districts.Again...Buy this house yourself and restore it if you are so concerned.
Evidently you are too busy mouthing off to pay attention, are any of those other homes being threatened with destruction? Wake up. Did you actually read the topic of this blog are are you just spouting off for something to do because of personal feelings towards this blog? Go away, you're an idiot.
Now we know why she was so gungho to get a side walk. That was a sneaky one too. It didn't pass at the polls, but then Gus Ruth did some interesting math and claimed that it did by one vote. SURE!
Sunday Sentinel-Readers Opinion-title, Cronyism in local politics.
Okay people I am sick of the crap. we have asked you to go out and vote for the past two years. Most of you put your head in the sand and said OK we like what we have.
Here we are with a mess on our hands and most of you write to the blog but never get off your ASSES to vote. Yep, I'm angry and sick of all the whining. In fact there was a letter to the editor today in the Sentinel that explained what is happening in Winchester. You have to give the guy credit he stood up to the BOS and Maggie. Kudos to him.
So for all of you that are whining here suck it up and move on. For the rest of you go and vote. For the Irene Ruth's of the town or world go play in someone else's sandbox as we know that you are biased and cannot tell the truth.
Have a great day blog!
OK folks lets preserve our heritage! What is that anyway? A piece of crap house that should be torn down is our heritage? Why do we want to preserve that kind of property. There are enough eye sores around the downtown area.
Sue
And a chain store, unneeded dollar store is not an eye sore????? especially when it goes out of business because no one wanted it when we already have one filled with junk that is more expensive than WalMart??? Added to more junk stores and the Baby Factory??? How about making Margaret follow her own rules and fix up the place??? Whatever happened to the grant plan she began besides the park where she goes to smoke instead of work?
All of you are ridiculous. If you want the house there so badly, buy it. Margaret IS NOT "gunghoe" about the store, she just wants a house that requires too much time and money to be taken off her hands. And for all of you that write in to the paper, you are completely uneducated and uninformed about the situation! Get a life, go to some meetings, and know your stuff BEFORE you attack an active person in Winchester politics.
This was my first visit to this website and I have to say that the owners of this website are violating their own Acceptable Use Policy. As clearly written on the right-hand sidebar, "We ask that you post responsibly, the use of foul language and any personal attacks will not be tolerated." To say the least, the Winchester Informer's lack of moderation clearly reflects its own cheap and lame Code of Conduct. To the "editors" of this "newsletter" SHAME ON YOU!
Blah Blah Blah, you two should go sit in the new park with Margaret and stay off this blog.
If you don't like the comments or the subjects on this blog, then we strongly suggest you find somewhere else to spend your time. Facts are facts and people are entitled to comment on their feeling in regards to these facts. The only thing lame here is your comments, so shame on you. As for moderation, I allowed you to voice your opinion, should I have deleted your comment?
The only thing cheap and lame around here is your attempt to attack this blog for exposing the truth. Don't go away mad, just go away and take Margaret two face with you.
To the posters at 1:18 and 2:01 on June 10th I have this to say. I post on the blog and read the comments I have M. Ed. after my name with distinction so I am asking if I am here does that mean that you think that I am stupid? Hmm-food for thought. I do not lie, steal or cheat as some people do. I do not manipulate the facts so that I look like a rose!. Do these descriptive sentences remind you of someone? Perhaps you need to think about your friends and what they are doing to the town. To knowingly buy a property in the historic district and then try to manipulate the system for your own personal gain takes gumption. Margaret is not a class act and she got stopped by Kim Gordon. The rest of us are going to make certain that Kim gets the support that she needs.
For your information I am not stupid or a day late or dollar short. As I have said before go play in another sandbox you are not welcome here.
One fact - the owners of the building haven't paid their property taxes for last year. What do you bet they don't pay this year's either. I would say that they are desperate to take the money and run.
What comes around goes around! And they thought that they got a good deal....jokes on them!
This house is our heritage? come on people.
Have you seen the ads for Dollar General? Don't let the "dollar" part fool you. Hardly anything for one dollar there. What's the advantage to the public? Rehabing the existing home would have far greater appeal for our downtown and far less traffic hazard at that narrow part of our Main St, just to mention a couple thoughts.
I would think if you are looking for support for your cause you may have found some historical data about this home to report. Is this the home of some great author or artist or perhaps the first home built in Arlington? Maybe we should consider revising our historic district to include areas that actually have significant historic relevance.
The picture you posted is absolutely ridiculous and cannot be gaining you any support for your cause. Is this really about the house? I get the impression this is actually about Margeret (or about those who didn’t get their way and want to hold Margeret responsible) or maybe the potential business competition is bothering someone.
to Anonymous @June 14, 2011 10:50 PM
This is one of the smartest, right on the money post I have ever seen on this site. You nailed everything the controversy is not about this so called "historical house" but the person and you are absolutely right about protecting historical places that have some kind of importance or meaning to our heritage. not just throwing every house that is old "beautiful or not" under the historical umbrella.
this site could really use more posters like yourself that have taken all the personal politics out and really discussed the real issue
I take it neither of you two opinionated fools read the article in the Sentinel describing the importance of preserving the Wheaton house? And besides who in hell wants a box retail store next to the Elm Center ruining the ambiance of that fine historical place too?
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