Lafayette House latest: Town worker 'amends' demolition permit application

Owner marked question on home's historic nature as 'No,' but town worker switched it to 'Yes' this week

By Ted Hayes
Posted 12/26/24

A worker in the Tiverton building and code enforcement office this week changed an answer Lafayette House owner David Rose gave on the demolition permit application he filed last August, which was …

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Lafayette House latest: Town worker 'amends' demolition permit application

Owner marked question on home's historic nature as 'No,' but town worker switched it to 'Yes' this week

Posted

A worker in the Tiverton building and code enforcement office this week changed an answer Lafayette House owner David Rose gave on the demolition permit application he filed last August, which was approved in October.

When Rose applied for town permission to tear down the old farmhouse that is listed on Rhode Island and Tiverton historic registers, he marked ‘No’ when prompted to answer whether the home was on “the National Register of Historic Places, the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Register, or the local, Tiverton Register of Historic Places?"

As recently as Tuesday morning, that answer was still marked as 'No.' But by Thursday morning, it had been changed to 'Yes.'

On Thursday, building department worker Priscilla Resendes said she changed Rose's answer after reviewing the document several days ago — "It was a mistake on my part."

Resendes acknowledged that while Rose originally marked 'No,' she overlooked the finer points of the question during initial review of the document months ago, thinking it referred only to the national register, and not any local or state list. She would have made note of it at the time, she said, but "I overlooked it."

So she said she changed it to 'Yes' this week after looking again,  though she confirmed that Rose's original answer was 'No.'

"It was a miss on my part so I amended it."

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