Dover's historic but deteriorating Scull mansion demolished to expand hospital parking lot
Fifty years after being added to the National Register of Historic Places, Scull mansion in Dover is being demolished to make way for an expanded parking lot for Bayhealth Hospital’s Kent Campus.
The mansion, on South State Street across from the hospital, was built in 1863 by Manlove Hayes, a civil engineer who was the director of the Delaware Railroad, the founder of the Dover Library and a state representative. For the next 36 years, he and members of his family lived in the home until they sold it to Carl and Sarah Scull in 1946.
Carl Scull served as the chief of staff at Kent General Hospital in the 1930s and opened a medical practice on South State Street in 1946. He died in 1950.
His wife submitted the application to put the mansion on the National Register of Historic Places, and the application was approved in 1973.
In 1982, she sold the home to Bayhealth, which used it for offices until about 12 years ago.
Bayhealth stopped using the offices because of the high cost of heating and cooling the building, a spokesperson told Delaware Online/The News Journal. In 2021, the cost of renovating the building for commercial or residential use was estimated at $2 million.
When the hospital announced plans to demolish the mansion, the Friends of Old Dover historic-preservation group began discussions with the hospital and the city to try to save it.
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As talks continued in April 2021, Bayhealth offered the Friends group 18 months to find a solution.
The Friends asked house-moving companies about relocating the mansion, but they all said it wouldn’t work because of the age and condition of the structure.
City manager Dave Hugg said the process included discussions with the historic review board.
“Bayhealth went through the proper steps and worked with us and the Friends of Old Dover,” Hugg said. “They were willing to delay it and let the Friends and others have an opportunity to find an alternative. They talked about working around the building, moving it, but ultimately, they got a demolition permit.”
The city staff considered the history of the building but also the condition of it.
“It looked pretty good from the road, but there were a lot of areas of deterioration, and I don’t know how practical it would be to move it,” Hugg said. “It’s unfortunate.”
Although the mansion is on the National Register of Historic Places, that doesn’t protect it from being torn down.
“It’s a red flag to any local government that this is an important building and needs to be seriously considered before granting a demolition permit, but it doesn’t mean the building can’t be demolished,” Hugg said. “You have to go through a process, but being on the National Register can’t by itself stop the process.”
The hospital's plans for the site
Bayhealth plans to increase parking spaces from 227 to 680 on the property for employee parking, which is in short supply.
Bayhealth senior vice president and chief strategy officer John Van Gorp said since the hospital opened in 1927, it has expanded “to meet the demands of our growing community in a responsible way within a small footprint of Dover.”
“Bayhealth has made the necessary decision to bring down the Scull mansion as part of the efforts to improve the underground drainage infrastructure and make space for employee parking,” he said. “While Bayhealth worked with community stakeholders to try to save the building, we were unable to find a solution but will continue work to salvage portions of the home and identify ways to memorialize the home. When the structure is removed, Bayhealth will save as many trees on the site as possible and will elevate the landscaping to enhance the look and feel of the area.”
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Comments from the Friends of Old Dover
Nathan Attard, preservation chair of the Friends of Old Dover, emailed a statement about the process that led to the demolition of Scull mansion.
"Bayhealth took the position that the only acceptable option was for the house to be moved. This option, though technically feasible, would have been cost prohibitive. Dover's historic area is maintained through the individual stewardship of property owners who spend their limited means to keep their historic buildings standing. Moving Scull mansion would not only be an insult to them as they scrape for funds to maintain historic buildings but take away from much needed state and philanthropic support needed to maintain buildings which do not need to be moved."
He said the Friends group proposed alternatives including taking advantage of historic preservation tax credits available to nonprofits to renovate the building for offices or workforce housing.
"Bayhealth's decision as a not-for-profit, community-serving entity is regrettable when so many Doverites take painstaking pride in retaining the history of our community," Attard wrote.
Reporter Ben Mace covers real estate and development news. Reach him at rmace@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Historic Dover mansion demolished to expand hospital parking lot
