Fate of Proposal To Demolish Duke Farms Mansion To Be Decided Tomorrow Night
Mansion Hidden Better Than Norman Bates’ Mother
Mike Catania Should Be Ashamed
Duke Mansion peeks out
The Hillsborough Historic Preservation Commission will decide the fate of the Mansion at Duke Farms tomorrow (Thursday) night.
It seems that the Duke Foundation – which reportedly was left a $1.79 BILLION endowment to manage the Estate – failed to maintain the Mansion for many years and now feels it should be demolished.
Duke Farms CEO Mike Catania says restoration is not “cost effective”: (Star Ledger story)
Catania has said the cost to rehabilitate and maintain the mansion is prohibitive. He said the foundation has explored adaptive usages to the structure but determined that none is cost-effective. He said the notion that holding wedding, special events and conferences in the mansion isn’t the “panacea” many believe.
Catania is a leader in NJ’s conservation community.
Full disclosure: I have been a strong critic of his work, particularly with the organizational model he formed tellingly named “Conservation Resources, Inc.”, which I think undermines and injects corporate values into what should be activism and public policy decisions.
But Catania is also a former regulator, where he once served as Deputy Commissioner at DEP.
In that capacity, Catania was frequently confronted with industry arguments that various DEP requirements to protect public health and the environment were not “cost effective”. Thankfully, for the most part, those arguments were in conflict with laws, regulations and policies and were rejected.
So it is deeply hypocritical for Catania now to base his argument on cost effectiveness grounds. What about the public interest?
The public interest philanthropic mask comes off when private wealth is involved – those decisions will be made solely on private grounds, eh Mike?
Aside from the fact that he manages a $1.79 billion endowment, under that standard, Duke Farms itself would be paved over for development – it’s not a cost effective land use.
When I first read about this story, I traveled to Duke Farms so I could take a look at and photograph this mansion.
I could not find it identified on any the maps Duke provides to guide visitors to all the spectacular places on the Estate grounds.
I asked a maintenance supervisor where it was and he immediately became extremely defensive and evasive. He said it was not open to the public and that I couldn’t get within a half mile of it, but I could view it from a trail (which he refused to identify).
So, I set out to find it – and as I finally did, I got this creepy feeling as it emerged within view:
The place was as well hidden – and preserved – as Norman Bates’ mother!
Why are they hiding it?
And none of this is cost effective either:
