The General’s Residence, an iconic and historical structure tied to hundreds of years of Madison history, was razed last week by developers who will build luxury condominiiums on the property.

While the building itself is gone, there is hope that both a planned replica and the many relics salvaged before the demolition will carry on its spirit.

Denny Van Liew, who chairs the Madison Historical Society (MHS) Preservation Committee, said that he and others in town have been and will continue working hand-in-hand with the developers in a variety of ways to document, understand, and spread all the knowledge and local import of the General’s Residence for years to come.

Van Liew credited the developers, led by Trumbull lawyer Tim Herbst and Guilford-born businessman and former professional baseball player Adam Greenberg, for going above and beyond their required commitments to allow local inventory and preservation of the house, with plans to consult with local experts and stakeholders all the way through the construction process.

“It’s totally collaborative now,” Van Liew. “We’re all working very well together.”

The town approved the demolition of the structure back in May, despite pushback from some residents who wanted the structure preserved in full. Van Liew said that the MHS’s estimates put the cost of a full restoration of the building at more than $3 million, and estimated the cost for purchasing the property was around $1 million- well out of the price range for MHS to try and fully preserve the structure itself.

The General’s Residence was originally built in 1730, and had five or six “major owners,” according to Van Liew, all who made modifications to the original structure, leaving it as an architectural hodge-podge.

The house was foreclosed on in 2017, and deemed unsafe by Madison’s building inspector this year due to its advanced state of decay. An initial plan to build condos on the property and preserve or restore the house was approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission more than a year ago before Herbst and Greenberg took over the project early in 2020.

They proposed a handful of modifications to the plan—most notably the demolition of the house itself, with a replica constructed in its place—which sparked some controversy as residents decried the loss of one of Madison’s oldest structures.

Van Liew admitted that seeing the building come down was “sad,” but said that the collaborative work between the developers and local historians and architects made it likely there would still be a lot of the General’s Residence left for residents to appreciate and study when the dust settles.

Before the demolition, MHS contracted an architectural historian who identified important, notable, or unique aspects of the house—everything from doors to mantlepieces to wood beams—which were removed before (or during) the house’s destruction, according to Van Liew. Many of those items will be part of the replica, he said, crafting the new structure with bones from the old.

Other pieces will be archived, preserved, or displayed by MHS, Van Liew with the potential to create an entire exhibit or run workshops based on these items and what MHS have learned about them. The kind of artifacts MHS is likely to acquire are particularly suited for workshops, he said, because the varied styles and eras from which they come allow interested parties to compare several objects covering more than a hundred years of design.

“We’re going to try to use those things and make the history of the building come alive,” Van Liew said.

Specific plans are still in progress, Van Liew said, as MHS and others sort through rescued pieces. Additionally, the architectural historian’s report will be transformed into a comprehensive and mainstream document so residents can learn a more complete history of the building.

The other large piece of preservation is in the replica, where Van Liew said the Madison Historic District Commission (MHDC) will be working continuously with the developers and local architect Duo Dickinson (who helped spearhead the project with Greenberg and Herbst) to make the new façade an appropriate representation of The General’s Residence.

What exactly it will look like remains to be decided, according to Van Liew, because of the several styles the building presented over the centuries, but he said he was confident the collaboration would produce something that pays it appropriate homage.

Going forward now, Van Liew said the whole experience of losing the General’s Residence might make MHS “slightly change [its] mission,” seeking to raise money and put aside some strategic financial reserves so if another structure of this sort needs rescuing, they might have the power to make sure it is fully preserved for posterity in Madison.

“We’re saving the history of [The General’s Residence], but we couldn’t save the house,” Van Liew said. “Some historical societies do that kind of rescue of buildings. MHS has never done that...but we are trying to figure out how.”