Family Dollar could replace Hose Company No. 6

PAWTUCKET – Hose Company No. 6, a former popular restaurant at 636 Central Ave., could be coming down to make way for a new Family Dollar store, city officials confirmed this week.

On April 7, the Pawtucket Historic District Commission received an application from Barone Capital LLC for a certificate of appropriateness associated with the proposed demolition of former Fire Station #6, said Jay Rosa, senior planner for the city.

The property has no local or national historic designation, said Rosa, but the Historic District Commission does review all proposals in which 25 percent or more of a structure that is at least 50 years old is scheduled for demolition.

The commission heard the proposal to demolish the 1895 structure at a public meeting on April 11, but at the request of the applicant did not make a determination of historical significance as required by zoning ordinance. The applicant requested that a determination instead be made at a scheduled May 9 public meeting to complete a due diligence structural evaluation.

At the May 9 meeting, at 7:30 p.m. in City Hall, commission members intend to vote on a final determination of significance, said Rosa. If members find that the structure is indeed significant, then a six-month demolition delay will be imposed from the date of application submission. If the board does not find the structure to be significant, then the applicant is free to move forward with demolition permitting.

The applicant submitted a structural evaluation by Odeh Engineers to both the Historic District Commission and the Zoning Department on April 27, as additional evidence to consider as officials consider the historical significance of the building and whether to institute a demolition delay.

Representatives for Barone Capital have indicated that the new Family Dollar would be a single-family building. Future use of the property is not considered during the commission’s evaluation of historical significance, said Rosa.

Records show that Charles E. Kirk designed the old Fire House #6. The “very handsome” building is a “hip-roofed Queen Anne fire house of red brick with round corner town and central cupola, it states. “Built to serve the rapidly expanding Darlington neighborhood,” it was later converted into a restaurant, “an excellent example of adaptive re-use.”

The late proprietor of Hose Company No. 6, Paul Gaudette, a former member of the city-based Hometown Rockers and Wild Turkey Band, ran the restaurant until his death last year.