RSS
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube
The Columbus Foundation owns this building on Broad Street and are planning on demolishing it and from what I understand, plant gardens there. It’s a little disappointing that a institution that does so much good would do something so wasteful and, in my opinion, disrespectful. They are building a new building behind the old governors mansion that is going to be LEED certified. You would think that if they were truly interested in sustainability, they would find a way to reuse this structure instead of destroying it. I was told that this used to be home to the Firestone family. It is right next to the Broadwin and across from a block of houses that were slated to be demolished in the 90′s. Casto ended up buying those and saving them and now they are some of the most beautiful homes in the neighborhood.
Word through the grapevine is that the President of the Olde Towne East Neighborhood Association has tried to contact them many times but has not gotten any sort of response. Today a coworker told me that there is now a construction fence around the building and construction equipment sitting next to it.
We lost an equally impressive mansion on Broad Street a few years ago. The church that owned it decided to tear it down and replace it with a gravel parking lot.
I don’t really know if anything can be done to prevent this. None of the papers had much in them about this. We just found out about this in the neighborhood a couple weeks ago so I’m guessing they tried to keep it hushed up until it was too late to do anything about. Sucks.
Here’s their press release:
[url]http://www.columbusfoundation.org/GD/Templates/Pages/TCF/TCFSecondary.aspx?page=470[/url]
The Foundation has said that renovation was estimated at $2.5 million. OTENA asked if there was any way they would consider delaying the demolition to look at other options and they said it was not feasible at this time.
Moving the building was estimated at $500,000. They did say they would sell the building to anyone for a $1 if they wanted to move it.
They communicated to OTENA the structural instability of the building. The copper piping was stolen out of it and when the police came to file the report, the roof had fallen in while they were inside of it.
They have recently filed for their demolition permit.
I often thought it’d be nice to save this building but it appears to be too far gone. Something must be done with that gravel corner lot though, it’s awful.
Does the Columbus Foundation realize that because they “want to stay in the neighborhood” that they are then destroying the neighborhood instead? Move to downtown already and let those beautiful homes be renovated.
Article in the Dispatch yesterday:
Edit: Article was posted online prematurely and the link no longer works.
The death of remnants of former robber barons possessions doesn’t seem like such a loss. What is the attraction to holding on to these structures? Now if they were used to develop community housing, I’d fight for it!
They’re going to replace this with grass and an “arrival court”, a fancy word for parking lot. The CFL have apparently been spayed and neutered while the Columbus Foundation is “reaffirming the Foundation’s commitment to its historic Broad Street location”. By replacing a one-of-a-kind mansion with grass and asphalt? And no one really cares, this is why we’re a cowtown. People will toss away any of what little history and culture we have for a parking spot.
So what are you doing about it?
That’s really not meant to be a smart alec comment, I’m just asking.
The organizations that would typically engage in a civic dialogue about this and other demolitions are on the dole with the CF and fear antagonizing their benefactors.
Both the Neighborhood Design Center and the CLF have active grant applications under consideration, and they’re too chicken to speak up.
Do you know what they would intend to do with the building?
So what are you doing about it?
That’s really not meant to be a smart alec comment, I’m just asking.
After I posted my comment I walked over to CLF to find out why they’re so gutless, but no one was there. Should’ve known they’d be out to lunch. I’m going to find out how to start a petition. If anyone has any experience with that please let me know.
Olde Towne East Neighborhood Association is starting a letter writing campaign if you would like to be involved in that. I can send you a message with the contact information, I don’t want to post the names and numbers on the board.
Just in case The Dispatch removes the article again, here is the text of the article that appeared in Saturday’s paper:
Historic home will soon meet the bulldozer
Saturday, August 25, 2007
By Debbie Gebolys THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The onetime home of Joseph F. Firestone, whose relatives created the world’s largest buggy manufacturer here and a tire empire in Akron, will soon fall to a bulldozer.
Some historic preservationists and Near East Side residents are opposed to the Columbus Foundation’s plan to demolish the 9,858-square-foot house that is on the National Register of Historic Places.
It is to come down this fall as part of an $8 million renovation project announced a few weeks ago.
The Columbus Foundation’s offices in the former governor’s mansion at 1234 E. Broad St. are to undergo a $1 million restoration, President Douglas F. Kridler said. But he said the century-old Firestone house at 1266 E. Broad has outlived its usefulness.
“That’s very sad for me to see, of course,” said architect John P. Gibboney, who owned the building. The Columbus Foundation got the property in 1999 in what Kridler described as a “gift/sale”: “We paid him $250,000 for the house, and he took a deduction for the remainder of its appraised value.”
Gibboney said the building “was wonderful when I left it.”
“They just boarded it up and put a fence around it,” he said.
Kridler, however, said the house was in disrepair by the time Gibboney quit using it for offices about four years ago. But he agreed that the foundation hasn’t maintained it in at least three years.
Holes are visible in the eaves of the house. Windows are askew, and paint is peeling. Inside, piles of fallen ceiling plaster litter the central hallway.
The Franklin County auditor values the building at $388,700 and the 0.3 acres on which it sits at $61,300.
Restoring the Firestone house would cost $2.5 million, Kridler said. “Even if someone had tapped the building with a magic wand and restored the building at no cost, it still didn’t meet our needs.”
This month, he offered to sell the building for $1 to anyone who will move it off Columbus Foundation property. Neighbors and others declined, calling it impractical.
“It’s not a good business arrangement,” said Susan Scherer, who spent five years restoring her house across the street from the foundation. “I’m for rehab and renovation wherever it makes sense, but I don’t think anybody can demand it when it can’t be done.”
Firestone built the house around 1906. He was vice president and manager of Columbus Buggy Co., founded here in 1875 by his brother Clinton D. Firestone and two partners. His widow sold the house in 1917, according to Historic Places documents.
Gibboney said it became a sixfamily apartment house and was converted to offices before he bought it in 1974.
The building was added to the Register of Historic Places in 1987, cited as an example of Second Renaissance Revival architecture and part of a 66-building stretch of architecturally significant buildings on E. Broad Street.
The designation doesn’t prohibit the foundation from demolishing the house. Columbus City Councilwoman Maryellen O’Shaughnessy wants the building to be saved. “I’m very seldom in support of tearing down a building, especially in a historic district,” she said.
She met with Kridler several months ago and “told him to look at adaptive reuse,” O’Shaughnessy said. “All we can do is suggest because we have no leverage.”
Preservation consultant Nancy Recchie said the Columbus Foundation is a community asset, meaning it also has a responsibility to be a preservation leader.
“Why not have the Columbus Foundation be the model and show the city of Columbus how to do it? ” she said.
Steve Shinn, past president of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation, said Columbus Foundation officials met with him in the spring to outline their expansion plans but never mentioned demolishing the Firestone house. Kridler, however, said Landmarks knew for months about the plan but didn’t object until now.
The house, along with a small office building and the former site of a gas station, are to be replaced with grass and trees for overflow parking. The project also includes two new buildings: one for staff workers and another for meetings and events.
Shinn said Kridler “did not seem interested” when he and neighborhood leaders presented Kridler with alternatives to demolishing the house last week. One idea was to lease the building to someone who would shoulder the rehab costs while the foundation retained ownership.
Residents are glad the foundation is reinvesting in the neighborhood, but “We are afraid this is going to set a negative precedent,” said Heather Bowden, vice president of the Old Towne East Neighborhood Association.
“Everybody in our neighborhood devotes a lot of money to renovation, and I wish Columbus Foundation had done that first before demolishing the building.”
Kridler defended the foundation’s decision. “We’re investing $8 million and ridding the neighborhood of the gas station (already demolished) and a noncontributing office building,” he said
“In the aggregate, those are wonderful things.”
I’m all ears. I’m also going to get a hold of the CLF and find out what’s going on.
take a look at the site plan on the Columbus Foundation web site – the mansion that would be demolished could be left standing and it would not effect any of the building additions or parking lots that they want to build. In fact it would fit nicely in the proposed garden. It seems to me this mansion could make a great place for a museum of Columbus history, which sorely missing in this city.
a couple of more things – I can’t find the article on the Dispatch site anymore. Thanks for posting it. They estimate it would cost $2.5mill to renovate. To what? Mint 1906 condition? What would it cost to fix the roof, stabilize any structural damage and mothball it? That could be done for a fraction of the price. Remember, the CF has $1billion. This seems like demolition by neglect to me. If anyone else had done it, the city would have confiscate their property.
Well, I spoke with the executive director of CLF and she was very nice and we’re both on the same page. They just got new leadership and are going to be taking an official position on the mansion in a week and have been speaking with orgs like OTENA and she was also supportive of my starting a petition. She recommended sending comments regarding the mansion to the email at CLF so that they’d have written opinions they can publish showing what people here think about this. So feel to to do so.
could you post that email?
bwest@columbuslandmarks.org
The Board and staff of Columbus Landmarks Foundation welcome your input regarding this issue. Please address your comments to Kathy Mast Kane, Executive Director. The Board will be meeting Wednesday September 5th.
continued…
http://columbuslandmarks.org/preservation/firestone.php
It says to send comments to the executive director, but she did say to send them to the other e-mail, but I guess either one would be fine.
so no petition yet just write in your opinion? Seems like that might just move kinda slow.
I can’t imagine CF ED Doug Kridler reversing himself on the decision to demolish. Here’s the link to his board of trustees:
http://www.columbusfoundation.org/GD/Templates/Pages/TCF/TCFSecondary.aspx?page=20
Ironically, Ann Wolfe also presided over the recent demo of Children’s Hospital’s historic Kent House. She’s not exactly a preservationist…