Garden City voters: Save St. Paul's

Garden City residents overwhelmingly defeated Wednesday a referendum that would have called for the demolition of St. Paul's School, once one of the nation's top prep schools.

The nonbinding referendum, which failed by a vote of 3,290-1,120, asked voters if the village trustees should be authorized to float bonds for up to $3.75 million to knock down the 128-year-old High Victorian Gothic structure on Stewart Avenue.

Building preservationists were happy with the vote result.

"We're thrilled," said Peter Negri, head of the Committee to Save St. Paul's. "The real challenge will be what the village will do next."

Village Mayor Donald Brudie said Garden City is waiting for the details from a client of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The client might be interested in reopening the four-story red-brick building as a school, Brudie said.

"We have to take it one step at a time," Brudie said after last night's vote.

Giuliani's firm, Giuliani Partners, confirmed it recently brought a client to the school, but declined to provide further details.

Brudie also said that Garden City officials had not given up on some type of village use for the St. Paul's building.

Robert Rothschild, who ended his term as Garden City's mayor this month and favored the referendum, said he was disappointed at the turnout. "They [village residents] had better be ready to handle the preservation in their taxes," he said after the vote.

Opponents contended that the structure, while breathtaking and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is costing taxpayers thousands of dollars a year to maintain and no longer has any realistic use.

Supporters of preservation pleaded to save a building they called a historical gem that is central to the elegant village's character.

"The structure is absolutely one of the most magnificent buildings on Long Island," said John Cameron Jr., chairman of the Long Island Regional Planning Council, who opposed demolition.

Rothschild said that for 18 years since the village purchased the former boys Episcopal boarding school for $7.25 million, no feasible use has been found. Proposals have included turning it into a high school, luxury apartments, a village hall, a library or a health facility.

Village historian John Ellis Kordes said similar plans have been aired before and never panned out, partly because of the costs. "Usually these things are not going to fly," he said.