January’s cold wind whipped against Canaan House, slipping inside its many broken windows. By next summer the former state hospital residence treatment housing will be gone.

Prep work to raze the three-story building where patients once lived at the Fairfield Hills psychiatric facility began on a bright but cold January 20. Standing in the tall building’s shadows were just a few men working to set up a generator and to prepare the site for upcoming activity. Canaan House is to the immediate southeast of Newtown Municipal Center; to its east is NYA Sports & Fitness Center.

Project costs for demolition and abatement to come from the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) are $2.5 million. The town awarded the bid to demolition contractor AAIS Corporation out of West Haven. The job should be finished by May or June, said Land Use Director George Benson. Both he and Grants Coordinator Christal Preszler had seen the crews arrive Wednesday morning.

With the building down, “It will open up the campus and be more attractive,” Mr Benson said.

“It will change the landscape,” Ms Preszler agreed.

The area could find a future use for parking, but no particular plan is in place, Mr Benson said.

The town and state have already cleared out anything of use inside the building, including any old records. After the state closed its Fairfield Hills facility in the late 1990s, the town for several years had used Canaan House for some town departments. Any leftover furniture or other items of use were removed, Mr Benson said.

Recalling the building’s interior with its residential corridors, nurses’ stations and common areas, Ms Preszler said, “There was a lot of delamination and things that once were nice are no longer, just from the passage of time.”

The demolition company must first do interior and site work before it begins razing Canaan House.

According to fairfieldhills.org, Canaan House, built in 1940, is 208,888 square feet. There are three stories with an attic and basement. The building is heated, air conditioning was installed in 1990, and it contains elevators.