 Well, fine. Good morning all. This is Patricia, and I am traveling for history So I want to talk today about a place called the Immaculate Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Burlington, Vermont it's a It became Well, let me back up and talk a little bit about its history first before I start talking about its present So that particular Cathedral Which is located on Pine Street in Burlington, Vermont. It was built in the 1970s now it was designed by a well-known modernist architect named Edward Larrabee Barnes and The grounds which are filled with these locust trees Were planned by Daniel Kiley a prominent landscape architect So the trees there those are the locust trees and that is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception The original Cathedral burned down in the late 70s as I recall by an arsonist and Then this one was built in its place. The original one was a gothic style and And now this one is modernist The in fact this area this green space is the second Only there are only two green spaces downtown Burlington, and this is one of them. The other one is City Hall Park This photo is actually when I snapped in 2021. I have a video that I talked about this this particular church Cathedral by the way the difference between a church and a Cathedral Cathedral means it is the seat of the bishop now it did become co-cathedral with St. Joseph's church and The title of Cathedral moved completely from the Immaculate Conception to St. Joseph's a few years ago Now the this particular that the I'll just keep calling it the cathedral because it was for a long time But the Immaculate Conception one closed in 2018 due to dwindling attendance, which is true across all religions honestly, there's a definitely a decreasing Enrollment decreasing parish numbers And that's that was happened there and they said also that parishioners now worship at the St. Joseph's instead The church decided the diocese rather see the diocese Catholic diocese decided to sell the property Prime real estate in downtown Burlington across the street from the parking garage Next door to a state building Very close to Church Street, which is the main Shopping district in downtown Burlington Probably in Burlington itself. So It's prime real estate. I don't know how big that property is but that's a big church and It just takes up a lot of space So it's prime real estate and the church listed it the diocese listed it for 8.5 million dollars Seems like a hefty price tag, but did I just say it's prime real estate? it is so the Development and review board development review board in Burlington issued a demolition permit in January 2023 and And preservation Burlington Filed two lawsuits to stop it one in Federal court and one in state court the federal lawsuit was dismissed. I think it was lack of grounds Oh preservation Burlington in case you don't know is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to preserve Historic architecture and the livability of our neighborhoods through education and advocacy and I hope next month to have a guest on from preservation Burlington to Talk about this and a few other advocacy project projects. They're working on See Church Street when it was actually a street right there Wonderful group of people who volunteer with that So so as a an environmental a judge in environmental court Stated on February 7 2024. Yes the parish can demolish the church because There is this There's a state law that exempts religious buildings from following zoning ordinances zoning laws and I Don't know why that's in place It makes me wonder why it's in place I have filmed churches around Vermont Including certain Catholic ones and what I have found and What way I found to be true on a whole bunch of them is that the churches are not cared for I imagine because the the The Diocese can't afford to anymore, you know, they have dwindling numbers that parishioners they have the Catholic Catholic Church worldwide not only dwindling numbers, but all sorts of lawsuits against them and The coffers are not as full as they once were so It's expensive to maintain buildings if you own something, you know, that's the case even if you just own a car They're expensive, right? Yes, they can be so Since it's expensive to keep you know to do the upkeep on buildings I've seen lots of churches and I'm talking specifically about the Catholic churches that Have not had the the maintenance done on them. They've become structurally unsound their Were they decommissioned as a church? Deconsecrated, deconsecrated, sorry, deconsecrated as a church and then put up on the market And I have to wonder if the Cathedral of Mackey the conception here is structurally unsound. I Don't know for a fact. It's to me. It seems to stand to reason And now it's March So I don't know I haven't been downtown Burlington in quite a long time I'm not sure if they sold the building now for eight and a half million and Who will demolish it? What will be built there? I don't know any of those things, but Burlington, I see me preservation Burlington is considering its options It's not sure if it's going to take it to court again to the Vermont Supreme Court Should be interesting to see how this pans out You likely know that I'm an historic preservationist if you don't I'm an historic preservationist at heart I know it's expensive to Fight battles, you know, so you're going to court and fighting things Takes time takes money takes expertise takes standing so Fascinating and yet wow just so sad And this is from preservation Burlington itself about let's save this building and I'm thinking specifically to the especially the the the green space So important have green space I wish there were more than two in Burlington, but this green space will certainly be lost If and when the building is demolished, so that's real shame So so I'm a little speechless that you know, it's it's so short-sighted to knock down a building that's It's it's it's It's 50 year protection would hit in 2028 because it was built in 1978. So, you know, it's Once the building hits 50 years, it has some some protections in place So you really have to work out not to demolishing it. It can still be demolished, but it's harder to do that and It's just four years away from that Because I think any one of us knows that whatever is built nowadays is not as well built as What was built say 50 years ago is as you know, almost 50 years ago as this building was so Anyway, for speaking of the history of preservation is I'll be sorry to see it go I'll be sorry to see the green space go and oh Yeah, but the law apparently is clear according to the environmental judge It is abundantly clear that This is the law that religious buildings are exempt from zoning laws here in the state of Vermont. So That's that So next month, I hope to have Ron Wanamaker for preservation Burlington on the show where we can discuss this and more in more depth and detail because When we were talking about this and other advocacy pieces that preservation Burlington is working on He said well if you want to talk advocacy, I'm the advocacy guy. So it'd be fun to talk to him I had served personally on the board of directors of preservation Burlington years ago hosted their TV show Not sure what night of what day of the week that is for them I know used to be the fourth Thursday of the month But certainly type in preservation Burlington TV show and they should pop up on Papa Google so You can check out their website preservation Burlington org and They have all these all these things here they offer they do offer some tours specialized tours and So that's something you can check out I hosted their TV show a bazillion years ago like the mid-2000s. So yeah, a bazillion years ago and They have a link so you can watch those shows on this on this channel I'll interview a lot of interesting guests over the years. So yeah, you checked that out, too But So this is Patricia and I'm traveling for history Thanks so much for joining me today. And as I always say in the end of my YouTube videos Thanks so much for watching Hope you have a fabulous rest of your day and until I see you again Thanks for being here. Bye now