125 e 3rd St. Put out to demo bid

[sheclown]

Psos found out this morning that this house was sent out for bid by demo contractors on August 24. East 3rd street, like Ionia, has been particularly hard hit by the bulldozer.

[iloveionia]

And the house next door is also in jeopardy.  There is a vacant lot inbetween the two.
Miss Fixit has some history on this house. 
Someone important grew up here.
Miss Fixit?
Can you also post the picture? 

This house is one up from the backwards house Billy Moats saved and had moved, but wouldn't pay the extra money to have the house turned around proper.

[ChriswUfGator]

This neighborhood continues to lose history with each passing day. This is just so sad. This has to stop.

[Miss Fixit]

This is the view of 125 East 3rd from 115 East 3rd.  The little girls in the photograph lived in my house on Hubbard Street before moving around the corner to 115 East 3rd.  Their grandparents built my house in 1897; their grandfather was one of Florida's most important railroad men and a confederate war hero.  Based on this photo, it looks like there was never a house sitting between 125 and 115.

I recall that the original owners of 125 East 3rd were Duvals, direct descendants of Florida's first governor.

115 East 3rd was once beautiful, with elaborate trim and gorgeous fireplaces and a really interesting hexagonal entry.  I wanted to buy it and save it but it is pretty far gone after a fire and years of neglect.  I went through it with a contractor about a year ago and we concluded that there was no financially feasible way to restore the house.  It's in worse shape now than it was then.

125 looks awful but I understand that structurally it is not that bad.  I haven't been inside of that one. 

Very strange how code prioritizes these demolitions.  115 East 3rd is in worse shape than 125.  Why is 125 scheduled for demolition first?

[movedsouth]

A lot of it depends on resistance from the owner. Remember the "see through" house van Horn owned on 8th between Pearl and Silver? It was in horrible shape, more or less gutted, siding missing that you could see through and the porch kind of collapsing? It once even had a green "Demolition" sticker on it, about a year or so before it burned.

We blame code for a lot of this, and code certainly has a lot to do with it. But it is a complex problem, and code is kind of taking advantage of the other components being silent. A house can be saved if the owner or the neighborhood speaks out for it. For the house on 8th, the owner (van Horn) intervened with the city. Other houses, for example 1325 Laura Street, Preservation SOS took on and spoke up against demolition. We had a few years where the neighborhood didn't find a collective voice to speak up, and while things look better now, we will still lose a lot of houses.

[iloveionia]

You make a valid point about the owner or the neighborhood speaking up for the houses.
I feel strongly that PSOS speaks for the houses that can not speak for themselves.

There was too long of a time when the neighborhood did not speak for the houses.  It's an outright shame, but we all know we must move forward.  What's done is done.  Learn from it and move forward.

[Timkin]

This neighborhood continues to lose history with each passing day. This is just so sad. This has to stop.

I completely agree, Chris.  Demolition of SAVABLE  Historic Structures needs to cease, regardless of the area of town they are in.   This is beyond absurd.