In uptown Kingston on Wall Street and North Front Street the historic buildings have been covered by faded mint green canopies since the 1970s. After decades of back and forth, the Pike Plan canopies in Kingston are finally going away.
“I've owned this building for 35 years, been on the boards and on the Pike Plan commission, and have been through all of the controversy over the 20 years, and all of the inspections and all back and forth,” said one business owner, Dominick Vanacore, who has been waiting a long time for this.
Vanacore owns the Dream Weavers hair salon on the corner of North Front street. He says the canopies have never been good for business, and they’re blocking the view of his building.
“These buildings were created at great expense, designed and redesigned between the 1890s and the 1930s to be ornate on the top and glass on the bottom, so your eye is supposed to draw you down to the glass storefronts. This frames the ornate part that grabs your eye and covers up the vital part of the buildings and it’s not good for business. There's no cross pollination that ever happens from somebody leaving my salon,” said Vanacore.
He says apart from making it hard for shoppers to see the other stores and explore the area, he said they just make the area dirty.
“If you open your windows, you can smell how gross it is, the cigarette smoke that stays underneath the overhang and doesn't get released. When you open this door, it comes in. See how it comes right in,” Vanacore said as he opened the door.
For lifelong resident and Mayor of Kingston Steve Noble, the canopies have been a long battle. He’s also seen the business district move through different stages.
“You know, growing up in the 80s and early 90s, you know, uptown was going through a really tough time. So even while the Pike Plan was there, maybe keeping the rain off of our heads, there were still a lot of empty storefronts, and a lot of turnover amongst these buildings.”
After receiving a $10 million grant from the state in 2017, the city is trying to pour part of that into the business district to give it more life.
Noble says many people, including him, have never seen these buildings without them being cloaked by the canopies.
“But for many as well, being able to see these historic buildings actually be able to be seen for the very first time since really the early 1970s is going to be an interesting opportunity for us to work with these property owners to restore these facades and to really kind of create a beautiful but yet unique business district that was placed on the National Historic registry for a reason. It was these kinds of 18th century buildings that have a lot of these pastel colors.” Noble said.
Vanacore points out the original pike plan canopies are not even standing and were replaced a while ago
“This has been going on since 2007. It did get rebuilt in 2011, so the people that are in favor of it standing got their way and it got rebuilt. And it got rebuilt shoddy. The pike plan that was here before doesn't exist anymore, because that was basically dismantled and they built a new structure, and it was built poorly, with poor materials,” Vanacore said.
The canopies are scheduled to all be taken down by mid-March. Over $1 million has been spent on repairs and the canopies have apparently overstayed their welcome. Along North Front Street and Wall St, scaffolding has gone up and construction workers in fluorescent yellow and orange are taking apart the decaying canopies on the historic street.
For Vanacore the timing couldn’t be better, especially because when the weather is bad people walk their dogs under the canopies – and don’t always properly clean up.
“The city power washes it twice a month during the summer, it doesn't always happen. Every other sidewalk in the city gets cleaned by the rain and the sun. That doesn't happen here,” said Vanacore.
Very soon the sun and rain will return to North Front Street and Wall Street in Kingston.
