Topics: Historic preservation , Marconi and wireless technology

Tower 1, one of three historic antenna towers at the Marconi-RCA Wireless Receiving Station National Historic Register District, is endangered by erosion of the Ryder's Cove shoreline. Town officials are seeking community preservation funds to assess the best way to protect it, which could include relocating it farther inland. TIM WOOD PHOTO

CHATHAM – Instead of armoring the eroding Ryder's Cove shoreline to protect a historic antenna tower, officials plan to investigate relocating the 100-foot-tall steel lattice structure inland.

Moving the tower would be far less costly than installing some sort of coastal protection in front of it, according to a structural engineer, and could help open the shoreline as part of a planned park on the town-owned land adjacent to the Ryder's Cove town landing.

Town officials initially applied for $300,000 in Community Preservation funds to study and build shoreline protection for the antenna, one of three in the area built in 1921 in conjunction with the Marconi Wireless Receiving Station. That application was withdrawn last week and an assessment of the cost of options for protecting the Ryder's Cove antenna was instead added an another request seeking money to evaluate the condition of all three towers.

The new request is for $75,000 for the structural evaluation of the three towers – two of which are on the Ryder's Cove side of the town-owned Marconi campus, which is a National Historic Register District – and an analysis of options for relocating Tower 1 away from the shore.

The tower is “very close, just a matter of several feet, from the eroding bank,” Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon told the community preservation committee Feb. 7. After he presented the shoreline protection proposal late last month, he heard from Bob Nickerson, a structural engineer and president of the Nickerson Family Association who designs transmission structures. After inspecting the tower and the location, Nickerson said it would cost a lot less to move the tower inland than go through the complex process of designing and building shoreline protect.

“There's plenty of room in there to move the tower,” Nickerson, a Harwich Port resident, said in a telephone interview last week. The Nickerson Family Association recently hired a crane to help disassemble an antique barn off Shell Drive, and the cost was only about $4,000 for a full day. A similar crane could be used to move the antenna tower to a nearby location and place it on new concrete footings, and it would likely take less than a day, he said.

There is some question as to whether Tower 1 was originally built at its current location or has been moved, but moving it within the historic Marconi property would maintain its historic integrity, Nickerson suggested, and would certainly be preferable to losing to encroaching erosion “I would hate to see the tower disappear,” he said.

Plans have been in the works for some time to create a park on the Ryder's Cove triangle across from the main Marconi campus, and work began recently clearing invasive species from the land. Keon said he did not think relocating the tower would impact those efforts, and Nickerson said it might even help create vistas and viewing areas along the shore that would not be possible with the antenna in its current location.

A previously funded study of the towers' integrity is in process, according to Principal Project Manager Terry Whalen, and $40,000 of the $75,000 being requested in CPA funds will go toward implementing tower restoration and preservation measures. The relocation study, expected to cost $35,000, includes developing a digital model of Tower 1 using a drone. The model can then be used to determine how best to move the structure, Nickerson said. The cost of moving the antenna will also be compared to the cost of stabilizing the coastal bank; that will determine the best way to preserve the tower, according to the application.

Funds for the long-term preservation of the tower, whether by relocation or protecting it in place, will be pursued after officials determine the best course of action.

Withdrawal of the $300,000 shoreline protection request will help free up community preservation funds for other projects. The 16 applications total $2,943,908, nearly $400,000 more than is available. A number are in the historical preservation category, which the tower assessment would fall under, including the $300,000 request by the Nickerson Family Association to preserve the circa 1700 Shell Drive barn at its Orleans Road compound. The CPC was still waiting for more information on a $190,000 request from the Chatham Drama Guild for work on its Crowell Road theater.

The committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow (Feb. 18) at 9 a.m. to hear more about the Drama Guild application and begin deliberating on its recommendations to the May annual town meeting.

A float in the 2003 Harwich Cranberry Festival Parade marked the 50th anniversary of the Harwich Historical Society. The society’s museum was a school for many years, though it’s not clear if they actually used a dunce cap for unruly students. FILE PHOTO

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