Friday, July 23, 1999
Historic home torn down quickly
Neighbors still dismayed by school's act
BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A piece of history was crushed Thursday morning as wrecking crews leveled the Piatt-Grandin House at 2167 Grandin Road, Hyde Park.
The pre-Civil War structure, with its mixture of colonial and Italianate architectural designs, succumbed about 7:30 a.m. despite efforts by preservationists and residents to save it.
Edward Tyrrell, headmaster at Summit Country Day School, which owns the property, said the house was destroyed because it was too expensive to maintain.
The school bought the building in 1996 for $695,000, but said it would cost too much to convert it for school use. He said the school was recording an annual deficit of $8,000 to maintain the house. Mr. Tyrrell would not say Thursday how much it cost to demolish the building.
Preservationists, architects and residents are not satisfied with the figures Mr. Tyrrell gave about cost of repairs and total renovation.
“I don't buy his argument,” said Jay Andres, whose specialty is buying and renovating old houses. He said he offered to buy the house and move it to property he owned at Torrence and Herrick avenues, a quarter-mile away.
“The school is crying about the $8,000 to maintain it when they paid a large amount for it just three years ago. I don't think they had any intentions of keeping it. They lied to the residents, and they refused to delay demolition until September when I could have arranged to move it,” Mr. Andres said.
Mr. Tyrrell had said the school would sell the house for $1 to anyone who wanted to move it. “Tentative offers were discussed, but no formal written offer was made,” he said.
Preservationists had posed several alternatives to save the house, including code revisions specifically designed for older buildings, which could have been used to bring the building into compliance at a lower cost.
City inspectors had said it would cost $500,000 to make the building habitable for school use, with sprinkler systems and wheelchair ramps.
Wayne Meyer, manager of the Arcodect Co. — a division of GBBN Architects, downtown, which provides code compliance services — thinks that figure is exaggerated.
He referred to city and state code changes in 1993 that allow for different requirements to bring historic buildings into compliance.
Built in 1860, the house was a symbol for preservationists.
“We lost a jewel. It is very unusual that you can find a wooden frame house at 139 years old still standing,” said Stewart Maxwell, an architect who lives in Hyde Park,.
A city planning commission report in 1968 showed that it was built as a farmhouse with a Colonial Revival design around its gutters and porch. In early 1900, the Victorian era styling was replaced by an Italianate design.
“The house was used as a decorative show house in 1968,” said Mr. Maxwell, who serves on the Cincinnati Preservation Advisory Board. “It could have been renovated and used for that purpose again. With the historic designs still visible, it certainly could have been used as a teaching tool for the school. We suggested many other alternatives other than demolition.”
He said the house was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.
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