Last November, residents of the New York State Veterans’ Home in Oxford moved from the 1970s era building they’d called home for nearly four decades, into the newly-constructed 220,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility next door. Since that moment, when the last resident was tucked into their new room, the “old” Vets’ Home has had a wrecking ball looming over its proverbial head.

Of course, the specter of demolition has been looming for much longer than that. It was, apparently, always part of the state’s plan. They went through the motions, of course, scratching the surface of alternative uses. But the reality is, that from the moment the first site plan was drawn up, they had always intended to demolish the structure. Or at least that’s what I was told by Karen Cally, health program administrator from the New York State Department of Health.

For as long as New York State has been planning to tear it down, a small group of dedicated community members – like Oxford Mayor Terry Stark, Dave Emerson and Commerce Chenango President Maureen Carpenter – have been fighting for its preservation. Not because of any historical significance, per se, but out of a desire to see the building repurposed and productive, rather than become yet another symbol of the wastefulness of our increasingly disposable society.