MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury selectboard has agreed to establish a “pop-up park” on the soon-to-be-cleared Lazarus Building spot at 20 Main St. Middlebury College bought that building earlier this year and gave it to the town to raze in order to widen the adjacent Printer’s Alley access to the Marble Works, and to make way for replacement of the nearby Main Street railroad overpass.
Middlebury Town Manager Kathleen Ramsay said Town Planner Eric Blair and local landscaper David Raphael — in concert with some University of Vermont students — will design the park. It might include some planted trees, benches and/or an interpretive kiosk, she said.
“It is going to be more urbanistic because of the concrete,” Ramsay said. She explained that while the building will be removed, perhaps as soon as this week, the concrete foundation will remain because it helps support both Printer’s Alley and the railroad bed. The town has scheduled a yard sale for Tuesday, Dec. 2, from 4 to 5 p.m. to dispense with some of the little useful material left within the long-vacant Lazarus building. Items for sale are likely to include shelving, a hot water heater and some plumbing fixtures. The sale will take place at the rear (Marble Works) entrance to the building.
The temporary park will disappear when the railroad overpass project gets into full swing next year.
“This is an exciting opportunity for us to do something to make that site look nice until the railroad project comes along,” Ramsay said.
Reporter John Flowers is at [email protected].