Excellence Award Spotlight: Whitcomb’s Garage Adaptive Reuse Project
Photo showing Whitcomb’s Garage at an angle, filling the right of the frame. It is a blue and white former garage and service station that retains much of the original aesthetic. The Whallonsburg Grange Hall, a red barn, can be seen across the street.
Whitcomb’s Garage Adaptive Reuse Project has been named one of this year’s Excellence in Historic Preservation award winners.
“The adaptive reuse of Whitcomb’s Garage shows that preservation, revitalization, and community involvement are intertwined,” said Andrew Buchanan, Vice President of Whallonsburg Grange Hall. “It is an example for rural New York and beyond.”
The renovation and repurposing of this disused service station and garage has created space for new businesses in an economically challenged rural region. The conception, planning, and construction work was done by volunteers, both skilled and unskilled, who spent thousands of hours transforming the old garage into commercial workshops, a retail store, ceramics studio, and mixed-use space for classes, performances, and other community activities. This derelict garage has been transformed by volunteers into a vibrant center of economic revival and community engagement. The project is having positive impacts on the morale and confidence of the entire community.
A look inside the new retail space. Photo by Andy Buchanan
The Whitcomb’s renovation project preserved the building’s iconic exterior and industrial look, connecting the upgrades with its history. Throughout the building, windows, doors, and other features were reused wherever possible. The “Whitcomb’s” lettering has been preserved on the exterior and the colorful updated facade echoes key elements of the original. The original multi-bay design was utilized to create separate workshops.
The Whallonsburg Grange Hall (WGH) is a volunteer-driven nonprofit arts and community center. The century-old Grange building sits at the crossroads of NYS Route 22 and Whallons Bay Road in the hamlet of Whallonsburg. Whitcomb’s Garage is directly across the road from the Grange. After WGH purchased the long-vacant garage in 2018, they organized a group of dedicated volunteers to plan, design, and carry out the adaptive restoration. It was a challenging project – the garage had no insulation, primitive wiring, most was unheated, and the building had been badly damaged by years of neglect. Without the support of committed local volunteers, Whitcomb’s Garage would surely have been lost.
“Whitcomb’s Garage is a prime example of a community deciding for itself what is worthy of being preserved,” said Preservation League President Jay DiLorenzo. “The vernacular garage and service station was an important fixture of the community, and we applaud Whallonsburg Grange Hall for rallying such a committed group of volunteers to save it and make it a true community asset.”
The rehabilitation of Whitcomb’s Garage was only possible thanks to a group of dedicated volunteers.
Whitcomb’s Garage Adaptive Reuse Project was funded thanks in part to a Northeast Heritage Economy Program (NHEP) grant provided by the Preservation League of NYS (NHEP was funded through a grant from the Northern Border Regional Commission’s Regional Forest Economy Partnership program) and additional grants from the Cloudsplitter Foundation and the Essex Community Fund.
The Whitcomb’s Garage Adaptive Reuse project team included Project Director Andrew Buchanan, Vice President Whallonsburg Grange Hall; Project Managers Jim Kinley, and Schell McKinley; Mark Hall, CPHC, Hall Design Group.
Click here for everything about the 2021 Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners!
Since 1984, the Preservation League’s statewide awards program has highlighted projects, organizations, publications, and individuals that exemplify best practices in historic preservation and recognize the people who are using historic preservation to build stronger neighborhoods, create local jobs, provide affordable housing, open our eyes to overlooked history, and save the places that are special to all of us.