Nobody says they wanted Choate House to come down.

Yet, in mid-March, the 215-year-old tavern at the busy corner of Liberty Road and Owings Mills Boulevard became a pile of rubble. Its gabled roof, grand porch and bracketed cornices are mulched together beside a hole where the basement was.

It was an ignominious end for a relic of the days when Randallstown was a busy rural crossroads for merchants heading to and from Frederick.

“Randallstown has lost a royal treasure,” said Shirley Supik, president of the Liberty Road Community Council.

County Councilman Julian Jones agreed, calling the demolition a “tragedy” that “just shouldn’t have happened like this.”

The developer who tore the historic home down said he also wanted a different outcome, that he even offered to pay to move it to a parcel of land he is donating to the county. But by the time Choate House came down, he said, some residents stopped by to thank him for getting rid of an eyesore.

“I was ready to listen to what people had to say,” said Jay Attar, who is developing the 12-acre parcel for 242 townhouses. “But nobody took the time to present concerns.”

Choate House landed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, at a time when Baltimore County had lost a lot of its landmarks. Its uncoursed rubble granite masonry had been popular when the structure was built, because it was quarried locally — a nearby village is named Granite for its one-time product.

Initially built as a tavern, it became a residence by the mid-19th century. The Choate family owned the home through the 1970s. At the time of its listing the house maintained much of its original character. Since then, the property changed hands several times and fell into disrepair.

Attar’s company bought the property in 2024 for $750,000, according to state records. He said it had been for sale or rent for eight years under three different brokers.

It was in relatively good shape as recently as a decade ago, according to Rob Brennan, a preservation architect and the former chair of the Baltimore County Landmarks Preservation Commission.

But being on the National Register was not enough protection. To assure a county property remains intact, it must be on the Baltimore County final list of local landmarks.

The first step to adding a building to that list is for someone — not always the homeowner — to nominate a property. It usually remains on a preliminary list for six months to a year, and then the County Council representative in whose district the property lies calls a hearing.

After the hearing, the councilperson must call for a council vote to move the property to the final list in 90 days. In most cases, because of councilmanic courtesy — a longstanding practice to not interfere in each other’s districts — the council unanimously approves listings. If the councilperson doesn’t put it up for a vote after 90 days, the owner can keep it off for three years before anyone tries again.

Previous Choate House owners did not want it added to the list because landmarked buildings are harder to sell. So, though it landed on the preliminary list in 2019, Jones did not move it forward until 2024, when Attar bought the parcel with plans to put apartments there.

Jones and Attar both say the councilman called with two requests. One, that Attar switch to houses for sale. Two, that he preserve Choate House.

Attar acquiesced to the first, a change that he said cost his company close to a $1 million in planning, drafting and development costs. Regarding the house, he asked Jones to start the hearing process and see if anyone came forward to save it; if anyone did, Attar said, he would stand down.

Jones called a hearing on Oct. 7. No one from the community spoke.

According to Attar, the church across the street expressed interest in taking Choate House but later balked. And the county, he said, never responded to his offers to move it at his own expense to land he was donating for a park. Attar did not provide specific information about whom at the county he contacted.

County spokeswoman Erica Palmisano said the county has no record of any such communication.

On Jan. 14, he requested a permit to raze the building, which the county granted on Feb. 11. By early March, Attar had the bulldozer parked in front of the home.

David Marks, a Republican who has been involved in historic preservation for decades, said that, in his experience, Attar received the permit quickly compared with others who have waited much longer.

Baltimore County has such a huge backlog with granting permits that new County Executive Kathy Klausmeier has said clearing the decks is a top priority.

Part of the reason Attar received it quickly may be because he applied a year prior. The county denied it then because it was on the preliminary landmark list, but it had already done much of the review, Attar said.

Attar is politically connected. His sister is state Sen. Dalya Attar, a Baltimore Democrat. Attar said his sister has “nothing to do” with his business, and county officials said the application was treated normally.

Marks said he only learned about the demolition when volunteers from the nonprofit Preservation Alliance of Baltimore County showed photographs of the Choate House rubble at a town hall meeting.

Marks said he was “shocked”; he thought the property was on its way to the final landmark list.

Jones said he would have appreciated a reminder before the clock ran out.

Marks maintained that councilmen are supposed to keep track of such things.

Jones said he would consider introducing legislation requiring the county to notify a council member before issuing a demolition permit on structures that could be considered historic.

Marks expressed interest in broader legislation that might restrict such demolitions.

The deal reminded preservationists of the Samuel Owings House demolition in 1996.

Developer Howard Brown had bulldozers ready at the 1767 home of the mill owner just as a judge was to hear the preservationists’ case. A last-minute deal between then-Councilman T. Bryan McIntire and then-County Executive C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger III allowed Brown to bulldoze the home on Painter’s Mill Road in Owings Mills and build his office tower. At the time, Owings House was on the preliminary landmark list but not the final one.

When she learned of Choate House’s demolition, Phoebe Evans Latocha, chair of the county’s landmarks commission, could do nothing but express sadness for what could have been.

“We have lost the material culture of a place, how a building looked in its landscape,” she said. “It’s putting history in the dumpster.”