SMITHFIELD — The town has granted a 30-day extension of a condemnation order that could lead to the demolition of a historic building in Greenville.

Town officials and representatives of the Smithfield Preservation Society conferred for hours yesterday over the fate of the Smithfield Exchange Bank at the Waterman Tavern, a structure whose roots go back to the 18th century. Robert E. Leach, senior architect with Newport Collaborative Architects, who is providing his services free to the Preservation Society, said his side asked for additional time beyond the 30-day period. He said the officials, who included Town Manager Dennis G. Finlay, building inspector Peter Scorpio, Councilman Michael J. Flynn, and Assistant Town Solicitor David V. Igliozzi, agreed to consider the extension but did not say when the decision would be made.

The condemnation order, issued several years ago by Scorpio’s predecessor, specified today as a deadline for completing repairs that would make the building safe.

Scorpio did not return calls seeking comment.

“We protested,” Leach said. “We thanked them for the extension to abate the supposed unsafe conditions, but we said that half of that time could be eaten up” just in obtaining a building permit to perform the repairs. “They still haven’t completed their application review. As we looked at the calendar, we saw there was not enough time to do the repairs. We requested a reasonable amount of time under the state building code. They are thinking about it.”

Leach said the Preservation Society regards the officials as “reasonable people” who will see that the building code provides for “a reasonable amount of time.” He said also that the society will file appeals to earlier letters from Scorpio denying building permits.

He said the society would appeal to preserve its rights because of today’s deadline. He said if the town grants the time the society feels is required the appeals will be withdrawn.

Leach said that the society holds a lease on the building given by the Town Council in 2006 that does not expire until October 2011.

“It will be done before that,” he said of the restoration project. “They gave us five years from 2006, which is when we started getting architectural plans, did fundraising, applied to the National Historic Register. Now all that is done, and the builder is literally standing with tools in hand ready to start. It will be done well before that. We understand the urgency.”

Leach said the society has formed a top-notch team of builders and architects who have performed a number of historic restorations around the state, including the Smith-Appleby House, operated as a museum by the Smithfield Historical Society.

The Exchange Bank/Tavern won listing on the National Historic Register in 2006.

The building once was a far grander thing than its surviving stump, known as an ell. The tavern stood alongside the Colonial highway known as Putnam Pike in the days of stagecoaches, catering to weary travelers and their even wearier mounts. Over the decades, parts of the tavern were demolished, and the dirt highway was blacktopped and expanded. Today, cars whiz past only a few feet from the front door.

Research published by the National Register declares that the Resolved Waterman Tavern was given birth in 1733 and ran undisrupted until 1902.

tmorgan@projo.com