Font Resize
Not even an $875,000 cash offer for his two-story Tudor on Yale Avenue could keep Tom Hulbert from tearing down his house.
Just hours after neighbors offered to buy Hulbert's east Salt Lake City home on Friday, the blunted teeth of a backhoe bucket ripped through its rooftop, releasing a shower of shingles, bricks and stick-framing shards.
Neighbors clustered on the sidewalk across the street, watching in disgust as occasional plumes of dust wafted upward. Windows shattered. Walls crumbled. And by noon, the home's south-facing facade was nothing but rubble.
The demolition came as a crushing end for neighbors, who fought for months to keep Hulbert from leveling the 2,761-square-foot home to build a much bigger one in its place.
"It is heartbreaking," said Joanne Rizzo, who lives across the street and a few doors down. "That's the only way to describe it. I feel like I'm watching a friend of the neighborhood destroyed."
Hulbert declined to comment Friday on his reasons for demolishing the Yale home -- despite a full-price offer from residents who pooled the money to buy the house.
Yet frustrations and feelings of betrayal run throughout this upscale historic neighborhood, where residents begged Hulbert to reconsider building plans for a home that would include an estimated 7,000 square feet. Appeals to city planners and Mayor Ralph Becker failed stop the project.
Hulbert obtained a demolition permit Friday
"He is out to prove a point that he can, and will, get what he wants," said Salt Lake City Councilman J.T. Martin, standing on the curb as demolition crews sprayed the hollowed house with water to keep down the dust. "He's proven that. He's proven that he doesn't care what people think. He doesn't care about his neighbors. He doesn't care about preservation. He doesn't care about anyone but himself."
As a backhoe cut away another chunk of Hulbert's rooftop, Martin said he and Councilwoman Jill Remington Love will urge the council this fall to make the preservation of historic neighborhoods a greater priority and designate a staffer specifically to that purpose.
First on their list: the areas in and around the east-side Yalecrest neighborhood.
"This one is lost," Martin said. But, hopefully, "it will turn the council's attention to preservation."
