Expansion plans at the Aidylberg elderly housing complex in Oak Bluffs are likely headed to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission for review, after a historic house was demolished in preparation for the project without required review by the MVC.

The commission has seen an increasing number of demolition reviews in recent months and years, including retroactive reviews.

The historic significance of the modest house at 38 Wing Road was a topic for wide-ranging debate at a meeting of the commission land use planning subcommittee committee Monday night.

Formerly owned by Marguerite Bergstrom, the late Tisbury resident who was a founder of Island Elderly Housing and staunch early advocate for elderly support services on the Vineyard, the house dated to 1900, according to commission records. It is listed in MACRIS, the state register of historic homes.

According to MVC research through the Portuguese Geneaological Society, the original owner was Manuel Silveira Machado, born in St. George, who moved to Oak Bluffs in 1879-1880 and worked as a day laborer.

According to MACRIS, the house was connected to the continued expansion of Cottage City as a resort.

The house was torn down in May.

MVC review is required for the demolition of buildings that are listed in MACRIS or more than 100 years old.

Aidylberg 3 is the planned third segment of an elderly housing complex named for Ms. Bergstrom, who gave land behind her house for Aidylberg 1 and 2. Ms. Bergstrom died in 2003 and had left the Wing Road house for use as elderly housing as well.

The Oak Bluffs building inspector issued a demolition permit for the house in 2019, but there was no referral to the MVC, according to commission records. The project was delayed due to the pandemic, with actual demolition occurring in May 2021, MVC records show.

At the subcommittee meeting Monday Peter Freeman, a Barnstable attorney representing Aidylberg 3, downplayed the historic significance of the house, which he claimed was built in 1923 not 1900. He also questioned the reliability of MACRIS when it comes to historical records.

“I take historic preservation very seriously,” Mr. Freeman said in part. “My clients acted in completely good faith.”

But MVC executive director Adam Turner said commission planners had met with elderly housing spokesmen as far back as 2018 and made it clear that a referral would be required.

“We definitely told them that this house needed to be referred,” Mr. Turner said.

Commissioners who attended the subcommittee meeting debated how to proceed. If the house was not historic, then MVC review may or may not be triggered, some said. But others said aspects of the plan for Aidylberg 3 could trigger a review anyway.

The plan calls for building five units of age-restricted, income-restricted housing with 10 parking spaces and a nitrogen-removing septic system (the area lies in watersheds for both Farm Pond and the Oak Bluffs harbor).

After much back and forth, commissioner Joan Malkin suggested staff do further research to verify the age of the house.

Commissioner Ben Robinson said the plan would need review anyway since it is a modification of a previous development of regional impct (DRI) from the earlier Aidylberg projects.

Mr. Robinson also took a moment to critique the plan for making poor use of the south-facing property.

“We see a lot of projects that come before us. Some are sited well, some not so well,” he said. “This [plan] is butchering the site . . . a southern facing site is gold.”

Commissioner Brian Smith took an opposite view, arguing strongly that there is no reason for the MVC to review the plan, especially given that the house has already been torn down.

“That ship has sailed,” Mr. Smith said.

“It didn’t sail Brian,” committee chairman Doug Sederhom shot back. “We have reviewed things after the fact.”

Mr. Smith and commissioner Trip Barnes both downplayed the significance of the modest house.

“At some point in time MACRIS is going to list every two-bedroom one-bath ranch on the Island as being historic .... and all the commission will do is talk about whether those houses should be saved,” Mr. Smith said.

Mr. Barnes said the house was typical of many built along Wing Road in the 1920s.

“Nothing special about it . . . it’s gone, let’s get on with it,” he said.

Commissioner Kathy Newman disagreed.

“The more we talk about demolitions the more important it seems to me that it’s not about, is this a great house, it’s what the grouping of houses in their authenticity bring to the sense of the Island and the Island’s history,” she said.

“We can’t just dismiss it, we have to pay attention to it, that’s our job . . . to keep the culture of the Island alive. And it could be a bunch of two-bedroom ranch houses because that’s what was built at the time. We don’t want to turn everything into plastic rebuilt houses.”

After more discussion, Mr. Sederholm brought the meeting to an end.

“It seems like this is going to wind up in a public hearing,” he said.