NASHUA – The city’s American Legion hall, James Coffey Post No. 3, has been shut by the state organization as an investigation takes place into its operations and the condition of the century-old building that it occupies.

“We suspended their charter indefinitely pending an investigation into the management of the post itself. It’s not our intention to close Post 3 down permanently. We want to reorganize it for the bettermenet of the membership itself … and make sure we have leaders in there that conform to the principles of the American Legion,” said Daniel Yoder, Department Adjutant for the American Legion of New Hampshire.

Yoder declined to be specific about the Legion’s concerns with the post, although he said they were numerous and widespread.

The city’s health department has pulled the food and beverage license for the building at 11 Court St., which has three bars and a full kitchen, and the New Hampshire Liquor Commission has revoked its license to sell or serve alcohol.

“We removed our license and there are certainly some issues in there,” said Heidi Peek, health officer for the city of Nashua.

Peek said the license was revoked after the state Legision pulled the posts’s charter, because “there’s nobody overseeing what’s going on in there; it’s fuzzy who the actual owner is right now.”

Wayne Beauregard of Nashua, adjutant for the Coffey Post, declined to comment Wednesday when reached by telephone. Other officials with the post could not be reached for comment.

Yoder said the investigation began about a month ago.

“It started as a result of several complaints from the membership with how things were being operated there,” he said. “What triggered our movement was being notified by state labor board about some labor practices that weren’t in compliance with state law.”

The James Coffey Post was in the news in May when a bartender, Gelsomina Rubino, pleaded guilty to selling crack cocaine to undercover police officers three times in 2014 while working at the Coffey Post. That arrest was a reflection of bigger issues, said Yoder.

“It was everything mixed together that led us to say, we need to take some action, get the post back to where it should be,” he said. “It just had been ignored for a very long time. The majority of membership didn’t realize how bad it was.”

The post has about 500 members, Yoder said.

The Legion hall stands near the city library and across the street from the Janet Streeter Theater. It was built in 1891 as the city police station, and according to the Nashua Historical Society it held Nashua’s first hospital emergency room in the basement.

After the police department moved to new quarters, the American Legion bought the building around 1965.

Yoder said the building has electrical, plumbing and “construction” problems. Among other things, it is not handicapped-accessible. The Coffey Post did not have an up-to-date assembly permit, required for public buildings where groups gather.

Peek said there was “a lot of deferred maintenance” that needs to be addressed in the building.

James E. Coffey was the first soldier from Nashua to die in battle in World War I.

The American Legion was created in 1919 for World War I veterans and has some 2.4 million members in 14,000 posts worldwide. It is open to anybody who has served in the military and people associated with them, as compared to the VFW, which is open only to veterans who have served in a combat theater.

David Brooks can be reached at 594-6531 or dbrooks@nashuatelegraph.com. and on Twitter @GraniteGeek.