By Thane Grauel

WESTPORT — Several preservationists turned out for a meeting of the Representative Town Meeting’s Long Range Planning Committee on Wednesday night.

They were there because the Golden Shadows mansion at Baron’s South was on the agenda.

The discussion was strained. Those in favor of maintaining and restoring the historic structure appeared rankled by some committee members’ unfamiliarity with the building and its history.

The residence, built by perfume designer “Baron” Walter Langer and his wife, Evelyn, in 1959. The town bought the brick Georgian Colonial Revival-style mansion in 1999 along with the rest of the Evyan Perfume magnate’s 22-acre estate.

It has languished, largely unused, since. Its future has been a long-smoldering debate. It flared up again recently when the Selectman’s Maintenance Committee began discussing a report on its condition.

Committee Chairman Jack Klinge said the town plans to spend $300,000 from its American Rescue Plan Act allocation on a master plan for the Baron’s South property.

“I personally cannot see how in the world we can do a master plan without first dealing with Golden Shadows,” Klinge said.

Is Golden Shadows worth upgrade costs? Is it historic?

He said that in recent years the building had been offered to community groups, but none were willing to spend money on making it usable.

He said it would be subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring an elevator and ramps. Upgrades could cost $1.5 to $2 million, he said.

Klinge also questioned why Golden Shadows is considered historic.

“I would rather tear the building down and save some of the terraces around the building … and have a beautiful town perennial garden,” he said. “Much like a miniature Bronx Botanical Garden.”

“It seems to me that until we go through all the iterations of what can or can’t be done, we really shouldn’t be doing a master plan for that property,” Klinge said. “And since no one else seems to want to take on Golden Shadows right now, I would like us to.”

A legacy of neglect taking its toll

RTM member Richard Lowenstein, District 5, said a firm completed a study on what was possible for the property in 2017.

“What has happened, really, is neglect,” he said. “And the neglect has been done by the (previous) administration. They purposely did not spend the money … to keep that building going. We are at a point now where we don’t know what to do.”

“The town should spend the money,” he said. “The funds are trivial.”

Member Sal Liccione, District 9, said the committee and full RTM should push the administration to keep the building and maintain it.

“It could be used for an event space … we need to put some money into it,” he said. “The town has neglected, again and again, to maintain Golden Shadows.”

Karen Kramer, District 5, said she’d love to see the building preserved.

“However, right now we’re going into such a financial crunch with Long Lots [Elementary School] … and the Fire Department,” she said.

She wondered if there was a way to get an organization to fund the upgrades, perhaps in exchange for five years free rent.

John F. Suggs, a former Representative Town Meeting member from District 5 and a past candidate for first selectman, bristled at some of Klinge’s comments, and called the Golden Shadows “the third rail in our community.”

Costs of upgrades questioned; preservationists concerned

He said the building is historic and could be exempt from ADA requirements, and wondered where Klinge got a price tag of $2 million for potential upgrades.

He said the future of the property, including a recent effort to use part of it for pickleball courts, concerns many people.

“It has inflicted a lot of hurt and angst and concern for a lot of people in this community, myself included, from a preservationist’s point of view,” he said.

“It’s extremely disturbing to hear the chair of the Long Range Planning Committee’s preference is to knock it down and make a garden there,” he said.

Suggs raised questions about where the administration stands on the issue, and why department heads and other officials are quiet on the issue.

“Finally, if you could just focus on getting the town to do the basic maintenance,” Suggs said.

“It is being demolished by neglect,” he said.

Morley Boyd questioned why Klinge would doubt the mansion’s historical status.

“You had made mention you weren’t sure why the building was designated as a historic structure and listed on the state register,” Boyd said.

“I wondered why, being built in 1959, that it would be a historic building, yes,” Klinge said.

Boyd said the town, using a grant, commissioned a study of the building’s history. He said that would have been useful for the committee members before Monday’s meeting, and noted that any building over 50 years old is a candidate for such a designation.

“This building was considered to be an important in two different ways,” Boyd said. “One, it was a good example of Georgian Revival architecture, and number two, it was built by notable people, a husband and wife who single-handedly founded the American perfume industry.”

The committee made no decision on the issue Wednesday, but Klinge asked members to email him in the coming days with suggested topics the committee should prioritize.

Thane Grauel, the Westport Journal executive editor, grew up in Westport and has been a journalist in Fairfield County and beyond more than three decades. Learn more about us here.