The project manager for the renovation and expansion of the Point Breeze Hotel in Nantucket, MA began his request to the Historic District Commission for a demolition permit in an unconventional way: by apologizing.

“I would like to apologize to the members of the board and to the community,” said Nick Ladano. “This rides with me and not with my crew. I apologize for not understanding where we sat.”

Ladano was referring to the demolition of three-quarters of the first floor of the historic Point Breeze so that steel support beams could be installed. The beams that had been holding up the top floors of the hotel while the renovations were undertaken belonged to island contractor Toscana Corp., which needed them back.

HDC members did not seem impressed with the apology.

“I feel we were led down a darkened path and mugged,” said Valerie Norton of the work done on the Point Breeze without commission approval.

Other commission members expressed similar sentiments, with John McLaughlin going so far as to ask what kind of fines could be levied against the property’s owner, Bob Matthews, for the transgressions.

In the end, the HDC voted to require the project’s architects to submit information regarding what portions of the Easton Street hotel would and would not be saved and a detailed narrative about how the entire construction project would play out.

The move delayed the builders from installing permanent, more structurally-sound steel support beams.

The beams that are currently holding the upper floors aloft are temporary and Ladano said the building was “borderline stable” right now and that since the collapse of a house on School Street earlier this winter, the project’s insurance company has been pressuring the builders to shore up the structure.

This is the second time in less than six months the stability of the building has been questioned. In November 2006, an outgoing structural engineer for the project, James Schrock, said the building was a “potential threat to public safety” because it was empty, and high winds, which he described as “less than hurricane force,” could topple the building. At the time the letter was written, the building was on wooden cribbing.
Ladano also said wind was an issue. During a stiff breeze, the building can be seen swaying, he said.

Work on the project was recently halted by the Building Department for the second time in less than a year, for work being performed outside the scope of the project.
At the time Matthews purchased it in April 2005 for $3.7 million, the Point Breeze property included a 24-unit hotel, a restaurant, a duplex and dormitories on a single 55,000-square-foot lot at 71 Easton St.

In the first half of the 20th century, the Point Breeze was a symbol of comfortable wealth, a grand old Nantucket hotel where affluent New Yorkers and Bostonians spent a few weeks each summer away from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Construction began in 1890, and was completed by the fall of 1891. It was named the Point Breeze to advertise its prestigious location at the bottom of Brant Point and the balmy sea breezes that blew across its porches on most summer days.

The hotel was three stories tall, with a four-story turret and 40 rooms. It was one of the first hotels on the island to boast its own phones and electricity.

In 1933, eight years after a devastating fire destroyed nearly half the structure, including the turret, the hotel was purchased at auction by the Nantucket Institution for Savings (the predecessor of Nantucket Bank) and was closed for several years.

The Point Breeze reopened in June of 1936, and was named the Gordon Folger Hotel. It then enjoyed a prosperous but uneventful four decades, and was purchased by the Bowman family for $250,000 in 1972. The Gonnella family restored the hotel’s original “Point Breeze” name when they bought the property in 1997 and ran it as a hotel until 2004 when they sold it to Matthews, who plans to convert it into a boutique hotel and condominiums, restore the turret and make other improvements.

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