Town finally sees funds from demo of Rumsey Hall

CORNWALL — The town’s legal dealings with the owner of the former Rumsey Hall property are finally over. The last payment on a loan used to pay for demolition of the condemned structure on Bolton Hill Road has now been received, a little over two years after the work was done.A total of more than $58,000 in principal, interest and legal fees was repaid on behalf of owner Andrew Hingson.The historic structure was once the home of the private Rumsey Hall, until the school moved to Washington, Conn., in 1949. It was later part of the campus of the Marvelwood School, which moved to Kent in 1995 (although it moved off the Rumsey Hall property several years before that). The columned temple-style building sat unused through eight years of town ownership in the 1980s, when its future was vigorously debated by Cornwall taxpayers. It was sold to Hingson in the early 1990s. He planned to renovate it, but could not keep up with the expenses. Damage from the 1989 tornado had already begun to deteriorate the building.Taxes also fell into arrears, and while town officials were trying to work out a plan with Hingson, Rumsey Hall hit the point of no return and the crumbling building was condemned by the building inspector.Hingson was without funds for the ordered demolition. Fearing someone would be hurt on the property, the Board of Selectmen, with the backing of the Board of Finance and a guarantee from mortgage holder JP Morgan Chase, agreed to the 18 percent loan and an immediate $25,000 payment from an escrow account. Rumsey Hall was demolished in a matter of hours in October 2010.For a year, the selectmen were told by the bank that payments were on the way. In October 2011, the town filed a lawsuit. This past May, they agreed to receive five monthly payments of $5,850.22, with any missed payments considered a default on the loan, without a chance to appeal a foreclosure.There was little chance the town would have ended up with the property, as the bank would have likely sought to sell it on the open market to recoup at least some of the mortgage balance, which was, according to town officials, far more than what was owed to Cornwall.The future of the property remains uncertain. It currently does not appear to be listed for sale. It is zoned commercial.