RIPLEY, Ohio -- Eli Collins liked the brick two-story at 9 Main St., so much he dropped a staggering $550 on it. Even in 1830, a river view had its price tag.
Fast-forward to January 1997, when 11 couples and two other local history lovers bought two arson-ravaged buildings because they couldn't bear to see the properties become a parking lot.
One of them was the old Collins place.
A quick skip forward to today: The buildings at 7 and 9 Main have been refurbished to local acclaim and are now on the market. Much of the detailing on the facades, including the copper gutters and iron-frame balcony, reflects original design style.
"People said you'd be crazy to pour money into this," local historian and group co-leader Betty Campbell said. "But this is a vital part of our historic district."
The group bought the condemned structures for $20,000, with each couple putting in an initial $5,000. But costs escalated, especially for specialized items such as the three doors at 7 Main, which were a 19th-century design. An additional $100,000 loan was taken out. Those three doors alone cost more than $600, more than the abolitionist Mr. Collins paid for the whole building next door.
The market prices are: $94,500 for the building at 9 Main; $81,000 for the slightly smaller two-story at 7 Main. Both are on 30-by-120-foot lots. The interiors were gutted and partially restored so that the buyer can tailor to either residential or commercial use. Some windows have river views.
The group named itself Ripley Preservation Co. Limited, but prefers "Save Our Buildings" -- or SOBs. Its goal is to break even and in the process contribute to local history. The buildings, which were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, housed four apartments each when they were reduced to brick shells by arson in the fall of 1995. For more than a year, the first-floor windows were boarded up; the upper windows were blown out.
When the 1997 flood devastated this quaint riverside community of 1,800 residents, the buildings -- about a half-block from the river -- sustained minimal damage. The reason: "They were so burned out, the flood actually washed a lot of debris out with it," member Don "Zip" Zipperian, 68, said with a laugh.
"It was fantastic for this group of citizens to take this on," Village Administrator Ken Martin said Thursday. "The village went through the unsafe-building ordinance and was going to tear them down."
Rose Edgington salutes the effort, too. She owns the Main Street Restaurant across the street. "It was such an eyesore before," she said."Everybody has noticed a big difference."
