Attention Turns To Marconi ‘Hotel’

by Tim Wood

            CHATHAM --- With the lease for the operations buildings at the town-owned MCI-Marconi property finally signed, attention now turns to the three vacant buildings on the 13-acre campus, especially the large brick structure known as “the Hotel.”

            The two-story Hotel is the largest building on the property, and like its neighbors is a part of the MCI-Marconi National Historic Site.  Like the other structures on the campus, it was built in 1914 and was essentially a dormitory, thus the moniker “Hotel.”  In the early days of the ship-to-shore radio station, the building housed the bachelors who worked as radio operators and technicians.  During World War II, it served as barracks for the dozens of military personnel stationed there. 

Looking along the exterior back of the Hotel building. CHRISTOPHER SEUFERT PHOTO

           But the building has barely been used since.  Former RCA radio operator Lewis Masson, who began working at the station in 1957, only recalls one other employee staying there temporarily until other quarters could be found.  For many years, it was used for storage.

            While the exterior was recently restored, along with the outside of the operations building and the two vacant bungalows, inside the Hotel bears witness to years of neglect.  There are holes in the ceilings and walls and the rooms are “pretty stripped down,” said Chuck Bartlett, president of the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center, which is leasing the operations building.  But it’s also something of a time capsule, said photograph Christopher Seufert, who recently published a book documenting the Marconi buildings.  Many of the rooms haven’t been touched since the military left in 1945; discarded cigarette packs, calendar pages, pieces of pin-ups and liquor bottle labels were scattered about, he said.  While vandals have had their way with some sections, there were still wireless messages from the 1930s, pool chalk cubes and blackout shades evident.

            “Overall, the inside was surprising to me, as it was more interesting culturally than architecturally, with all sorts of vintage ephemera in every corner,” Seufert wrote in an e-mail. 

            Last week’s signing of a 20-year lease for the operations building with the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center (see separate story) culminated a years-long process of installing a tenant in the building.  At the same time the town put out a request for the organizations interested in the operations building, it also sought tenants for the Hotel and two vacant single-family homes.  The housing authority initially expressed interest in rehabilitating and leasing as affordable housing the two homes, much like three smaller houses on the property which have been part of a rental program since shortly after the town bought the property from MCI in 1999. But it later backed out, chiefly for financial reasons.

            The one organization interested in the Hotel, the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association, was initially enthusiastic about using the building as its headquarters, an education center and as housing.  But it, too, later backed out when it became clear that the 99-year lease it sought would not be palatable to the town. A shorter lease was not economically feasible, since the organization estimated it would cost about $2 million to renovate for its planned use.

            During recent discussions about Monday night’s special town meeting request for funds for infrastructure work at the site, selectmen suggested that the lease criteria could be relaxed.  Previously requests for proposals were sought only from private non-profit agencies.  If the leases are opened up to the highest bidders --- including public agencies and for-profit businesses --- there would probably be more interest, selectmen agreed.

            One of the charges of the capital projects review committee is to examine uses for vacant town buildings, said Town Manager William Hinchey.  That has yet to happen; but Alan McClennen Jr., the town’s consultant on the Marconi property project, said it wouldn’t take much to change the request for proposals to conform to the wishes expressed by the selectmen.

            When the last RFP was put out, there were other agencies interested in the Hotel building. McClennen said.  “I suspect that other people held back” because of the interest previously expressed by the Hook Fishermen’s Association, he said.

            Housing is the most obvious use for the Hotel building.  It could also be an office building, but that would require “significant” modifications. While the first floor is relatively open and expansive, the second floor contains small bedrooms with only a few shared bathrooms.  Parking requirements for both uses are also different, he added.

            The two bungalows that site on the hill east of Orleans Road with a wide view of Ryder’s Cove could be renovated and leased “with very little work, now that we’ve done the work on the outside,” McClennen said.  The buildings could be turned into “pretty nice two-bedroom homes.”

            However, if that is the direction officials want to go, “I’m ready to make it happen,” he said.

            It would be “highly desirable” to have the building occupied, Bartlett said.  “Buildings deteriorate if they don’t have tenants.”

            “It’s a shame,” Masson said of the building.  “It’s such a beautiful building.  We’ve got to save it for future posterity.  We have to save these buildings.”

1/28/10