Standing on the porch at the Friendship House, a look through the front windows reveals a room with a ceiling beginning to cave. The floors are littered with scattered remnants of things left over from six years ago, the last time it had electricity or running water. The porch itself is weak, the stairs longing to give out with every step.
For the past several years, the pale green Victorian home on Seventh Street North has deteriorated. Its owners (and neighbors), the congregation at First Baptist Church, have outlived using it as a senior activity center. And the church has a permit to demolish the historic home.
“It”s in disrepair,” said Sean Parker, pastor at the church. “We did maintain it for a number of years, and it just became cost prohibitive for us to do so any longer.”
Meanwhile, a group of citizens is trying to “save” the home, in hopes of preserving it for future generations. But after more than two years on the market, the church has taken the house”s for-sale signs down and is moving forward with plans to tear it down.
“If we can just save the house,” said Pat Kaye, who owns Camellia Place, an 1847 home at 417 Seventh Street North.
“It”s an 1890 house, Victorian,” Kaye said, emphasizing the historic value of the home.
Thomas Southerland, First Baptist”s business administrator, went before the Columbus Historic Preservation Commission to request permission to demolish the aging structure, which is in a historic district. The board, as they routinely do, asked for a six-month stay of demolition to seek ways to preserve the house, “whether that be rehabilitation, sale or something to salvage it rather than demolish it,” explained Kenny Weigel, building official for the city of Columbus.
Six months later, Southerland returned to the board.
“He said they had exhausted all avenues and still requested to be allowed to demolish it,” said Weigel, who was present at the meeting. “At that point the commission turned it over to the building department, and that permit has been issued.”
A permit was issued March 28.
Joe Boggess, a member of the Columbus Historic Preservation Commission, noted that the church is already planning to move to a new campus on Bluecutt Road, so he didn”t understand why the church would need an empty lot.
“We cannot get any handle on why they want to demolish it,” he said.
Several offers were made on the home; however, the offers on the house weren”t “acceptable to the church,” Parker said.
“The thing in older houses — everybody talks about value per square foot, which is fine with a newer house — when you”re dealing with an older house, condition is the major player, because you can spend a lot of money fixing it up,” said Jay Jordan of JD Jordan and Co., a commercial and residential appraisal company.
Jordan appraised the home some 20 years ago, before First Baptist owned it. The church purchased the home in the mid-”90s, according to Southerland.
“Just looking at the outside, it looks like it needs a good bit of work,” Jordan said.
A prospective buyer said she”s received estimates ranging from $100,000 to more than $200,000 to restore the home.
Kaye also is willing to buy the home, just to see it remain.
“Our mainstay is to save this house,” she said. “And we are a Preserve America city. … I want to keep this street pretty.”
Preserve America is a federal effort to help communities preserve cultural assets. Columbus, which boasts three National Register Districts with about 650 properties, was added as a Preserve America Community in 2009.
Kaye wants to see the Friendship House remain an asset to the area”s historic distinctions.
“It will be taken back to its original state (if it is sold),” Kaye said.
Parker said starting the demolition process was in response to a lack of prospective buyers.
“We didn”t have any interest, so we decided that the best option at that point was to demolish it, and it was only after we got the permit to demolish it that we had any interest,” he said. “It”s not like we wanted to demolish it from the beginning. That was not our intent or desire.”
Neither Southerland nor Parker offered a timeline for the demolition, but Southerland said it would be “soon.”
Community members have heard the home”s lot would be used for additional church parking. Parker said there have been no plans made for the land. And Southerland said it would sit as a grassy lot “until future use.”
Though Parker said the church had made its decision, Kaye hopes it will be “a citizen of integrity to save the historic home.”
“This is not a vendetta against the church in any form,” she said. “We want to appeal to them not to destroy a Victorian gem.”
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