Historic Brewster House in Flanders faces demolition after years of falling into disrepair

A Flanders home that dates back to the late 1800s could soon be history.
The Brewster House, which has an interior portion that could be from pre-Revolutionary times is set to be torn down.
The historic home has been falling apart since catching fire in the 1980s.
The former boarding house, which was built around 1880, has hosted guests like Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Al Capone. It now is abandoned and has fallen into disrepair.
"It's kind of ugly - nobody takes care of the grass," says Maria Garcia, of Flanders. "In the summertime, it's very long and I can see raccoon, deer."
Southampton Councilman Rick Martel says the town acquired the property in December through the East End's Community Preservation Fund.
The plan is to tear it down, but first remediation has to be completed on asbestos building materials and contaminated soil.
Martel says it has also become a safety hazard and they are afraid of it coming down by itself.
"We're going as fast as we can," Martel says. "If I had my way, we would have been there the week after we purchased it. We do have to go through the right channels do it the right way as a municipality."
Some residents say they are hopeful something could be done to save the historic house.
"It's been transferred from one owner to the next and now it's in a really sad state," says Ken Ettlinger, of Flanders. "It's too bad that part of it can't be preserved."
Martel says the demolition could take place within 30 to 60 days.
After the town demolishes the building, it will be kept as an open space as part of the East End's Community Preservation Fund program. They hope to make it look like nothing was ever built there.