Athens City Council’s Planning and Development Committee began discussion on the demolition of a 120-year-old house located at 667 E. State St. at its Oct. 28 meeting. The house, which Mayor Paul Wiehl said once housed a family of Hurricane Katrina survivors, was built in 1893 and remodeled in 1988.
Because of serious water damage from a pipe break last year, the house is currently uninhabitable, Athens Service Safety Director Paula Horan-Moseley said. In 2008, the Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery proposed a lease agreement to council members in the hopes of turning the house into a museum. Council leased the house for five years, but because of the expenses, the house was never renovated.
“They were going to use it as a museum until they figured out how much it would cost to make it (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessible,” Wiehl said. “It would have taken a lot of money to make it acceptable for a public place.”
The Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery has since established a location at 1002 E. State St. Horan-Moseley proposed to demolish the house with a the vision of salvaging some of the materials and removing the shrubbery. She added that the project would cost about $20,000.
“It’s not in habitable condition,” Moseley said. “If it was, you know that I’d be trying to fix it up and put something there.”
But before demolishing the house, council members agreed that the pecan tree that is being impeded by a pine tree on the side of the house must be saved.
Councilwoman Chris Fahl, D-4th ward, wants to save it because it is the only large tree along the street.
“That tree is kind of a monument,” Fahl said. “It’d be nice if there were more shade trees.”
Clearing out the house and shrubbery would leave the Athens Community Center’s solar panels more visible from the street, Wiehl said.
“There was a consensus with our community that we would like to see the community center better,” Wiehl said.
Council members also discussed the possibility of connecting the sidewalks on the south side of East State Street after the demolition, but Wiehl said there are no plans for the property.
ck813711@ohiou.edu
@cassirelly
