Just like starting over

For the moment, it’s back to square one for the venerable American Hotel on Main Street in Freehold Bor-ough.

The hotel — which in recent years was a popular banquet facility and restaurant — has been closed since late 2003. A series of financial issues put the owners in a position where they were no longer able to operate the 19th-century landmark.

On Oct. 5 a public auction was held and the hotel and a liquor license attached to the building were sold by the hotel’s bankruptcy trustee to Tran Dinh Truong, of New York, for $4.35 million.

It is probably safe to say borough officials were not thrilled when they learned that the man who apparently purchased a piece of Freehold’s history had at one point been forced to surrender his ownership of a New York City hotel to the government because the building was determined to be a haven for drug deals that the owner could not stop.

Perhaps it should not have come as a surprise when borough officials were notified in November that Truong had defaulted on the purchase of the hotel property and the liquor license.

The bankruptcy trustee is now attempting to arrange a sale of the property and the liquor license to the party who was the second highest bidder on the hotel in October.

Freehold Borough has lost its share of landmark buildings over the years. Often, these structures were razed to make room for new buildings at times when the town’s economic survival may well have been more important than the historic significance of a building.

Municipal officials believe those days should be behind the borough, and so do we. They understand that history is an attraction and a selling point for the community.

In its way, the American Hotel is a reminder of an era that no longer exists, but just because we are past that era does not mean the building, which has been shuttered for two years and fighting the ravages of the elements, should crumble into history. However, that is our fear at this time.

It likely remains a matter of time until a buyer determines that his plan to “save” the hotel will only make fiscal sense if he can demolish the structure and build something new that looks old.

That would be the borough’s loss.

We hope Borough Adminis-trator Joseph Bellina was correct in his recent comment that things have a way of working out for the best, because to lose the American Hotel would be to lose an important piece of one American hometown.

Municipal officials should do whatever they can to facilitate the sale of the hotel to an appropriate purchaser who is willing to save this piece of Freehold’s past.