During the afternoon of August 17, 2015, the 1894 Mackey Funeral Home in Danvers, MA was demolished to make room for a parking lot for St. Mary of the Annunciation Church.
I wish they had at least brought in an architectural salvage company and saved as much decorative and structural items as possible. That beautiful light hanging on the front porch tells me they didn't. :(
+Susan, they did salvage some interior elements and a few windows but we aren't exactly sure how much was lost. Search for the Albion Welch House on Google to see some great interior shots.
You're right, but these guys don't give a shit.SMASH and DASH is the name of the game.That's how you make money in the demo business. No time for salvage.
The town council of Danvers failed. They should have given that building heritage status....then it couldn't be torn down. How sad to see yet another old landmark torn down, in this case for a silly church parking lot.
Anyone wanting the same construction is free to build in the identical style. Nothing mysterious was used or done in the old days that cannot be replicated. That building was merely old and not architecturally remarkable.
This is really messed up. They tear down a gorgeous home for a parking lot for a church? Park on the damn street! Why didn't they strip this home of all the goodies in it first? The beautiful slate roof could have been saved. Same for the window ac's, the beautiful old light on the porch, the gutters could have been torn off and sold as scrap and the windows could have been taken out and recycled. They even left the plants in the windows. The landscape was gorgeous. It could have been turned into a beautiful B&B. I'm surprised the town even let this happen. I thought New Englanders liked their historic places. Bunch of boneheads.
The sad part is preservationists pitched a compromise plan that would have given the church parking (one extra space if combined with a lot next door) but the pastor just didn't want to hear it.
What happened to people that just minded their own business and didn't put their nose in business it doesn't belong in? What're you; Mother Earth? Gotta save everything?
I am shocked to see such a lovely and historic building being removed to provide parking. Surely the local authorities could have acquired and repurposed it to benefit the wider community. Very sad
In order to get on the list , all of the later additions have to be torn down first. There was a beautiful older home in our town that someone decided to save by having it declared historical, when they got done nobody recognized it. The wrap around porches had to go , along with the summer kitchen because they weren't original to the house. Idiots !
The guy with the water hose was having way to much fun with that hanging light! I hated to see this house come down, you could see how sturdy it was when trying to push down the walls, terrible waste
well I hope the church is at least one of those really old grand ones that is a tresure for the eyes and the soul, that was an old house over 100 years old they dont make them in the victorian style anymore very often. I checked the name with the city, its a romenesque style church so it not some post modern monstracity, but its not quite as ornate as the roman style churches in my diocese, but it seats over 1000 people if you include the seating in the chapel it says.
@@manga12 When me and me mates do urbex, we bust up old abandoned places like that inside, before they do the demo. We put all the doors through, smash holes in the wall/floor and bust up the stairs/balustrades etc.
+TheRandomReviewer honestly as an owner of a well known Demolition company with roughly 1500 structures wrecked under my belt yeah this time you should just stop and listen ause I sure as hell have prob forgot more than you will know about this. Lea' Demolition look it up if you don't believe me.
@@lukedumouchel3358 the amount of space for parking lots in that area is crazy - i mean why don't you just get the city to make one big public lot and everyone walk from there - you'd concrete over as lot less of the town and everyone could get fitter.
Tearing down a perfectly good building to construct parking lot for a church. Absolutely disgusting. It amazes me how churches plead poverty, lecture people on giving to charity and yet they do things like this. Did the town of Danvers or the surrounding towns not have homeless people in 2015, could the church not have sold the property for a profit as they obviously purchased it. Could they not have turned it into a day centre for the elderly or a food distribution centre? Of course not, let’s tear it down instead and lay some concrete and asphalt instead. Absolutely disgusting. My friends wonder why I’m not a religious person, this is a perfect example of why I’m not. It’s about time churches stopped acting morally superior to everyone else and were made to pay taxes instead of hiding behind some fictitious incarnation of their own making.
I’d rather see the churches torn down and more of these architectural antique homes saved. If I had a $1 for every time I’ve seen or heard of a church tearing down a historic property for a parking lot I’d be rich.. it’s disgraceful.
Shut the hell up you none believers I am on your side about the house but you saying God is fictional is just hurtful he's real and he created you so you should respect him or just try church for once
tear down a a historical house to build a parking lot.....how very sad and I pray that church is proud...how many homeless people of young families could they have help and lodging at the Inn instead of the stables.....
This would not happen at home. All the recyclables would be pulled as much as feasible prior to destruction. Hazmat may even be involved if there was extensive use of carcinogens in it construction. Asbestos mainly(insulation, flooring )
I had to give up watching it was making me feel sick. So much for the church helping the community. They didn't try and reclaim any of the beautiful old building.
To the owner of this video. Love watching houses being torn down. This is by far my favorite. Is it possible I could buy a copy on DVD from you? Thanks.
it is much more expensive to recover the materials than its worth it all looks good but its usually not the wood has dried out and is split and covered with lead paint
Lathe board walls, scratch coat likely contains asbestos (a common filler back in the day), no insulation in the walls, loaded with lead paint, window shakers to keep rooms cool, outdated electrical. Not everything is worth saving. Nice house for it's time
The house was a very visible landmark in the community so I'd say that makes it worth the effort to save. All of the problems that you mentioned can be addressed but we aren't sure just by watching the video that this house suffered from every one of those issues. This part of the country is filled with old houses and they seem to exist just fine.
This house was built thirty years before asbestos, that being said the building department would not have issued a demolition permit without the removal of any asbestos products .
I just want it for myself. Probably sounds crazy, but love watching old houses/buildings being torn down. Got another video on dvd from another person. I just like this one too.
@@minpaff That's somewhat difficult since the footage is locked up in a server at a cable access station. As a nonprofit, they probably wouldn't make the footage available for private home use. :(
+pguiver Its more because construction/demolition companies and real estate agency dictate the prices,everything must go fast,to press more and more profit out of a project,,,,,Its bad,because somebody may be in need to live in an older cheaper house....
(12:21) OMG! Did you see it? There was a ghost in the window! A trapped soul forever destined to wander the new parking lot haunting those who dare to park on sacred ground! Or it might have been a reflection of a tree.
That tile roof was worth a LOT of money and yes people will come take them off!!! I am absolutely stunned ANYONE thought this was the right thing to do!!!! Maybe some people and churches are just too wealthy to comprehend the real value of things like this or their responsibility for them!!! Grrrrrr
Pretty scary, that crematorium just standing there while everything around it was knocked down. I don’t understand the reason for this, it’s nothing that anyone would want to dwelling or reminisce about. I guess the demolishing guy thought it would be interesting for the public to view, I thought it was in poor taste. So sad the old building had to die, but it was its time. 😔 Bless the people who worked there who took care of our loved ones passed on to their reward 😇🥰 🙏🏻
Ist ja echt schade um das Haus sieht doch noch gut aus. Die arme Pflanze am Fenster die hätte man doch retten können...und einiges mehr. Ich mag solche alte Häuser.
Not sure why the demolition person didn’t knock down the front porch or the side building. Then he just parked the truck and turned it off. Maybe it was lunchtime and he finished it later(?)🤷♀️
The church had first refusal on the house so that would not have worked but a plan to move the building was being discussed. Given all the zoning laws our towns have does that mean anyone can do anything they want with their property?
This is where my cousin was waked and yes, it wasn't a happy occasion but he was at peace and it was comforting to see that. I think of that as I see those front first floor windows being torn apart.
the view from the front made it look like a TREX was ripping the house apart .. VERY COOL >> BUT was a Beautiful house. How many of you would have taken that house for free knowing it was a funeral home????
No disrespect, but iv'e seen other machine operator work like that, and wondered if they had eye problems, like near sided, causing them to see things much closer then they are, it seems there always short of there reach.
Looked like a beautiful house. I’m going to pretend the house was haunted by all the poor souls that were tortured & murdered by an evil mortician. Bye bye evil house. (I’ve been binge watching AHS)
This is the new America . A home like that could have been used to house a lot of homeless people . What does a church (of all things do) tear it down for a parking lot . Makes you wonder what they do for their congregation.
big deal Danvers has A TON of historic places, homes, etc. All with all kinds of restrictions. besides the Mackey Funeral Home director Daniel Mackey said he has been leasing back the home but in a short time he will be phasing his operation to a new funeral home on Route 114 in Middleton, a home which opened in October. let the OWNERS do what they want. get over your whiny selves.
Honestly, what are you talking about? That new location for the Mackey Funeral Home has been open since 2014. You just read the newspaper article but forget to look at the date? Historic homes are a cultural resource that many people and some government agencies have deemed important and worth preserving for many reasons which I am sure you could care less about which is why people like you should have no part in how their future is determined. Watch any episode of Chronicle on WCVB and you'd see why they are considered to be an important resource. I don't think a ton of houses in Danvers looked quite like The Mackey Funeral especially right in the center of down town. Maybe when zoning catches up with how many feel about preservation we won't see these kinds of demolitions but it should be noted that no one has a right to build whatever they want on their own property and even if they did abutters should have some say. For now, the church got the parking lot they wanted but given the trends with the Catholic Church and the aging of parishes, maybe someday St. Mary's will close its doors for good too.
Dang Catholics! This is why I moved south! LOL. Its just sad watching such a pretty structure being torn down to build - wait for it - a parking lot! Sometimes the combination of the claw and the water from the hose, it almost seemed like a ravenous drooling monster.
Sadly, demolitions like these are happening a lot in the Northeast and it's not just the Catholics, either. Plenty of developers, banks and drugstores who are all too happy to see perfectly good houses be torn down simply because they are in the way.
