ORANGE — The storied Orange Armory will soon undergo environmental testing before its future is further discussed.
The 112-year-old structure at 135 East Main St. has fallen into disrepair, and the Orange Selectboard voted in October 2021 to close it and temporarily relocate the municipal offices based there to the former Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church’s rectory. Most Selectboard members believe salvaging the building isn’t feasible, but there remain residents who are passionate about preserving it.
Town Administrator Matthew Fortier said the Worcester engineering firm Weston & Sampson has been contracted to conduct the environmental testing and will deliver a presentation at a future Selectboard meeting. He said a report is expected in October “to see if there’s any contaminants with the site.”
“We’re trying to do this one step at a time,” he said. “The armory has a long history with the town and we’re just trying to see, right now, are there any environmental issues. If there are, we’ll go for grants to clean them up and then we’ll start having bigger discussions [about the building’s future].”
Fortier said the testing will determine the presence of oils, volatile organic compounds (chemicals that can vaporize into the air) and other contaminants.
An attempt to reach Weston & Sampson was unsuccessful.
The Selectboard voted in April 2024 to designate the Orange Armory as surplus property, the first step for the town to wash its hands of the property. At that meeting, Chair Tom Smith mentioned that in fiscal year 2023 the town spent $3,487.22 on electricity in “a building that was not occupied.”
The building and land are valued at approximately $2.1 million, according to a fiscal year 2024 report of assessed land values in Orange that is available on the town website.
But resident and longtime public servant Richard Sheridan, whose tenure on the Selectboard ended on Jan. 31, 2024, was adamant about saving the structure, which he argued was salvageable and structurally sound. In fact, he sat on the Armory Commission up until his death in April 2024. Selectboard talks in July 2024 about potentially disbanding the Armory Commission also elicited some opposition from residents.
“It’s not just a building, it’s a historic artifact of this country and you cannot decommission history,” former state Rep. Denise Andrews told the Selectboard at the time, saying there is community interest in maintaining the armory for its historical value.
According to Preservation Massachusetts Inc., a statewide historic preservation education and advocacy organization, the Orange Armory was named one of Massachusetts’ Most Endangered Historic Resources. The building was dedicated in 1913 as a home for Company E, 2nd Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, which served in the Spanish-American War and World War I. Ownership of the building was transferred to the town in 1975.