Asked and answered.

[strider]

The cars are not sitting around rusting.  They are actively being worked on.  In fact, I have been told that they are destined to be shipped over seas at a profit. 

They just don't seem to get the idea of historic houses.  Perhaps someone needs to school them as to the financial tax benefits of historic restoration - tax abatement for residents and perhaps tax credits (sell-able even) for commercial restoration efforts.  Going for these types of benefits are the only times the Historic Department has any say in the interior of the house and the requirements can be pretty strict. And this house would fit those requirements very easily.

Unfortunately, there is nothing that legally be done to stop this.  It is their right, even if stupid.  What do we expect?  Municipal Code Enforcement is still tearing historic houses down for no good reason.  There are still a few in the community and city that celebrates the loss of historic houses, profiting from gutting one fits right in.

[avs]

iloveionia said HPC knows about it and it is against historic code, if that is true then code enforcement should be contacted and they should be sited. 

Why is code bothering me and my hens and not dealing with real stuff like this!!???!!

[Ocklawaha]

The house was recently purchased and NOT condemned.
28k purchase price.
It closed a week ago.
The new owners need a polite lesson on old homes.

I love ultra modern, but I also have a love of historic buildings. There is no rule that says "If you buy a historic building you can't remodel the inside..."  The R.A.P. house remodeled in the 1980's included an ultra modern bathroom. Who is to say that these new owners if not intent on demolition, might indeed be remaking the interior in their personal style?  In a historic district, as long as the exterior is vintage, the interior doesn't matter that much.

Of course they might be determined to bulldoze the whole thing, in which case as Timkin has suggested, taking the historic parts of the interior out to be reinstalled and preserved in some other house isn't so bad. We've seen entire homes knocked to atoms including some of the most remarkable features. Breaking knee caps for that one is probably justified rage, but until we know intent, we are getting a little ahead of ourselves. It's simple, if the bulldozers show up, THEN get out your lead pipes.

OCKLAWAHA

[avs]

In the past, the first step toward a home's deterioration is the sellig of the trim and historic stuff inside.  It may well be legal, iloveionia probably know what code says best about this, but it almost always leads to a more and more stuff coming out and then before the owner knows it they can't afford to rebuild the interior.  Then the house gets abandoned.  This has happend to more houses than can be counted in SPR.

[iloveionia]

They can strip the inside and make it modern.  Yup, they can. 
Forget the tax credit, they won't get it.
Removing interior historic elements will prevent this.
They can NOT remove windows without a COA.  They can NOT replace windows without a COA.  They can not close up existing window openings PERIOD. 

This is a planning department issue: potential permits and COAs via HPC. 
MCCD has no standing in this situation.

I have a dozen pictures of the inside of this house.  Gorgeous.  GORGEOUS!  PM me with your email address and I will sent them to you. 

[Timkin]

In just the few pictures I saw posted, the house looks really nice.  If it was going to be my residence , it would remain much like it is, inside and out.   The idea that pieces of it are being removed, to me at least sends up a red flag.. Ok.. for NOW they are looking to do a total renovation inside and modernize it.  While I do not agree with that, I do not see how it could be stopped. Accordingly, I do not see how they can be stopped from removing pieces of it and selling it. 

Because we have seen this very scenario and others play out in Springfield, only for the home  ( or Apartment building ) or what have you to end up a pile of rubble being hauled off, this alarms me. 

SOMETIMES it is necessary to do a total renovation inside , in which case, most  original features are not spared.  My Grandparent's former residence in Venetia/Ortega  was in so bad of shape structurally that it was necessary to gut the house completely ,top to bottom and even totally remove the roof system ,so as to shore up, and eventually do total repair to the crumbling foundation of the home... I saw the floor joists of this house personally ...huge ,true 2"X 12" Floor Joists that were literally like sawdust  barely holding it together from a combination of water damage, and subterranean termite damage.   I have always marveled that the structure never collapsed, but it was unquestionably , at the time we sold it, very close to.   

Because the next owner, committed to saving the home had to do what he had to do ,to shore the house, posthaste , there was not much time to save Crown Mouldings, Oak Floors, trim, doors , or anything else..  They had to work fast and carefully at the same time to keep the house from collapsing.  ( It is a  fairly nice sized 2 story home.) 

When I toured the house in 2008,  The only two recognizable features left in the home that were in fact original to it, was the Staircase , and an access door to the attic of the home.   Everything else I vividly remember about the house was replaced with modern.     Even though it looks nothing like it did then,  The owner and the subsequent owners have done a stunning job on modernizing a historic house.   The Outside looks much as it always did, except that there was an addition built onto the house on its back between the house , and the detached 2car garage.

My point is , sometimes one has no choice but to modernize .  In this house , I cannot see in pictures, where it is crucial, structurally to do that.

[iloveionia]

A neighbor posted the travesty on facebook and the owner of the home responded saying it was a lie and they had not posted items for sale that a neighbor out to get them did. 

While I don't believe the story, it doesn't matter.  Hopefully the home will not have it's historic interior elements removed. 

[Timkin]

That seems a pretty far-fetched story.  Why would a neighbor even go to the trouble?

[sheclown]

 

[Timkin]

agreed ..

[AmyLynne]

That seems a pretty far-fetched story.  Why would a neighbor even go to the trouble?

Maybe they don't like the cars all over the front yard.

[Ocklawaha]

That seems a pretty far-fetched story.  Why would a neighbor even go to the trouble?

We've got one up the street here in the WGV that has done such stunts as putting a sprinkler on the fence to wet down another neighbors BBQ wood stack. So far we've not got cross-ways with her, but everyone on the block has a story or two.

Like I said, for me modern would be a choice I would balance with how much the historic interior popped, one or the other, but I can promise you not a single splinter of the historic outside would be altered.

OCKLAWAHA

[Timkin]

That seems a pretty far-fetched story.  Why would a neighbor even go to the trouble?

Maybe they don't like the cars all over the front yard.

Now, there is an Ordinance about Untagged, inoperable cars , no?   Perhaps tarp them and put them in the back or out of plain sight?

[Debbie Thompson]

That's true. That lot is 200 feet deep and it's a triple lot. Lots of room out back. We looked at that house several years ago, and saw the size of the yard. In fact, although we loved the house, we didn't want to deal with the big yard.

[Timkin]

Sounds like an incredible buy for the price.