A late 18th-century home has been on the move in Edgartown. The historic Warren House, which usually fronts North Water street beside the Edgartown library, has been temporarily relocated as part of a major restoration effort.
Changes have been approved to an agreement between the town and the Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative Inc. (CVEC) to create solar arrays on town-owned parcels of land. The projects are expected to save the town millions in electricity costs down the road.
The third time might be the charm in Edgartown’s quest to sell the Warren House, a run-down North Water street mansion.
About a year after the town advertised the circa-1790 home, the Edgartown selectmen received three bids on the old house, two offering $2.5 million and one offering $1.5 million.
Is it really the Warren House? I see in the Gazette that the Warren House is back in the news. I have to smile. The house had a sign on it, “The Captain Warren House” for as many years as I have been coming to the Vineyard.
Edgartown selectmen Monday rejected a bid to buy the Warren House, a rundown town-owned former captain’s house on North Water street.
After a discussion in executive session with town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport, the selectmen said the bid by a group including Edgartown businesswoman Maggie White was too low. The board voted to put the house advertisement back in the central registry with a minimum bid of $2.3 million.
The Warren House, the rundown North Water street house owned by the town of Edgartown, finally has a bidder.
A group including Maggie White, the owner of Hob Knob Inn as well as construction and realty companies, submitted a two-option bid to restore the home into a single family residence early this week.
One bid would pay the town $1 million plus 40 per cent of the profits made from selling the house. A second offer would pay the town $1.25 million in cash.
The selectmen opted to take the bid under advisement and discuss it further at their June 17 meeting.
Captain Warren, it turns out, was actually an accountant.
And the house at 62 North Water street may bear his name (along with the disingenuous title of captain), but the history of the building is not about Captain Warren. The once-stately home dates to the late 18th century and was the home of the Osborns, an old Edgartown family that traced its roots to the whaling era. Caroline Osborn Warren, Mr. Warren’s wife, inherited the house, and was a benefactor of the Edgartown Public Library next door.
The Edgartown Library building committee hit yet another bump in the road this week when the town historic district commission said it will not allow the Warren House to be torn down.
The building committee’s latest plan calls for razing the historic colonial-era house and replacing it with a parking lot for the expanded and renovated library at the Carnegie building on North Water street
But after meeting on Tuesday with the historic district commission, that plan, like others before it, now must be scrapped.
This time with a quorum, Edgartown voters at a special town meeting Tuesday night agreed to allocate money for an appraisal of the Capt. Warren House and approved the conversion of silos at Katama Farm into cell towers.
A total of 168 voters attended the special session. The meeting was rescheduled from last week after falling 20 voters shy of a quorum. Moderator Philip J. Norton Jr. presided over the 15-article warrant.
