By Guy Page

The Waterbury State Office Complex needs an $8 million slate roof because the old slate is beyond its life expectancy and cannot be replaced with cheaper materials due to historic and architectural significance. 

The slate roofs being replaced are original to the Waterbury State Office Complex and are beyond their life expectancy, Cole Barney, Vermont Department of Buildings and General Services told VDC this week. Pieces of slate have been breaking off, increasing the chance for leaks and water damage in the buildings. The portions of the roof being addressed were not replaced during the 2013 rebuilding after Tropical Storm Irene. 

The project consists of eight slate roofs as well as various connectors between buildings. The estimated cost is $8 million over multiple phases.

The majority of the slate being replaced is original, dating back to the core buildings’ construction between 1889 and 1896, Barney said. 

“While alternative materials are permitted in certain cases, the historical and architectural significance of these structures merits a true replacement in kind,” Barney said. The new slate roof will last another 100+ years, far outperforming modern substitutes, he said. He added that historic preservation guidelines required the new slate to match the existing material as closely as possible, rather than allowing a change in materials.

The complex was originally the Vermont State Hospital. Alternately known as the Vermont State Asylum for the Insane and the Waterbury Asylum, it was a mental institution built in 1890 in Waterbury to help relieve overcrowding at the privately run Vermont Asylum for the Insane in Brattleboro, now known as the Brattleboro Retreat, according to Wikipedia. 

Originally intended to treat the criminally insane, the hospital eventually took in patients with a wide variety of problems, including mild to severe mental disabilities, epilepsy, depression, alcoholism and senility. The hospital campus, much of which now houses other state offices as the Waterbury State Office Complex, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.