RAZED HOUSE ANGERS PRESERVATION STUDENTS

The razing of an 86-year-old house by Southeast Missouri State University has prompted an outpouring of concern by a group of the school's historic preservation students.

They question how a school that prides itself on having one of the few undergraduate, historic preservation programs in the nation could tear down what they view as an architecturally significant building.

"They have, it seems to me, a double standard," said John Bry, a senior in the historic preservation program and one of the leaders of the group of about 20 concerned students.

"It doesn't seem there is a concerted effort by the university to practice what they teach," said student Jon Colburn. He said he came to Southeast from Concord, N.H., to study historic preservation.

Colburn knows about preservation. "I lived right next to the house Franklin Pierce lived in after his presidency," he said.

Colburn said the destruction of the College Hill house reminds him of a Joni Mitchell tune about paving paradise to put up a parking lot.

But university officials say the poor condition of the house made it too costly to renovate for campus use. The house at 921 College Hill, just to the south of the university's Dearmont dormitory, was torn down Oct. 7.

"The house was really in bad shape inside," said Ken Dobbins, Southeast's executive vice president. He said the site will be cleared and used for parking. The lot will have about 16 parking spaces, he estimated.

The house was being used as an apartment building when it was purchased by the Southeast Missouri University Foundation in mid-July.

"It was a beautiful building on the outside, but inside it was a shambles, and it was due to a lack of maintenance and upkeep," said Dobbins. There were also structural concerns with the basement.

Dobbins said the problems were discovered when university physical plant personnel did a "walk-through inspection."

The university, he said, had originally hoped to convert the house into campus offices. "But when we went in to look at it and assess whether it was economical to repair it, the figures didn't jibe," he said.

It was estimated that renovations and repairs would have cost at least $40,000, said Dobbins. And that still wouldn't have addressed some of the structural issues, he added.

Dobbins said it cost about $3,000 to $4,000 to demolish the house.

Bry, who is from Urbana, Ohio, said he and other historic preservation students were preparing to mount an effort to save the structure. But the building was demolished before the preservation effort could really begin.

"We found out about it too late," said Bry, who views the building's demise as "a wakeup call" for those in the preservation program.

Bry said he and other preservation students want to do a survey of the university's "significantly historical properties" to document what is there.

Dobbins said he would welcome such a survey. "They can do documentation on the homes we have now and the homes near the university that have historic significance," he said.

Bry said the preservation program is "one of the fastest growing on campus." There are 88 majors from 42 states involved in the program. In addition, a new master's program in preservation started up this year.

"I'll admit that as a preservation student that sometimes we've been very quiet," said Bry about the destruction of old houses near the campus.

"But this house was architecturally significant for the city," he said. "It was truly rare for the city.

"When the university starts taking these buildings, it's almost saying the message, `We don't practice what we preach here.'"

The demolished 2-story frame house, built in 1907, featured Queen Anne and Georgian Revival style architecture. "It had twin turrets on the front elevation and fish-scale shingles on all three of its gables," recalled Bry.

It was constructed for William and Rose Lueders. In 1909, it became the home of Warren E. Baker, a railroad freight agent.

By 1920, the house was occupied by the James Woodson family. Woodson was a tobacco salesman, said Bry. In 1943, the Woodsons moved into a new residence in Cape Girardeau and the College Hill home became a boarding house.

Bry and other students say it's not just destruction of the house that concerns them, but the future of the neighborhood -- once one of the city's most prominent residential areas and one closely tied to the university.

"My concern too is about the street, now that this hole has been punched into it," said Bry. "This is a big part of the university's heritage and they are starting to destroy it."

College Hill Place, situated southeast of Kent Library, was platted in 1905 by the College Hill Realty Co.

"You can tell by the granitoid sidewalks platted here that this particular addition to the city was to have a connection to the university and at the same time be one of the most prominent residential streets in the city," said Bry.

"It was a very affluent neighborhood," he said. Those involved in developing the residential area included Louis Houck, a leading citizen who served for many years as president of the university's Board of Regents.

Houck's mansion stood on College Hill. It was designed by the same architect who designed Academic Hall and featured a similarly columned portico, said Bry.

It was later torn down for the construction of the Dearmont residence hall, which opened in 1960.

At one time, there were about 10 homes on the street. Today, five houses remain. Two of them house university offices and another is a sorority house.

Bry said only two homes remain in private hands, including the large Shackleford house, with its green-tile roof. Currently used as an apartment house, it was once home to B.G. Shackleford, who was a professor at the college from 1903-1912.

Bry said the Shackleford home is "the only architecturally significant and probably historically significant house on the street that is still privately owned."

He and other students say they don't want to see the university acquire it and tear it down.

"I guess we are really being hypocrites if we don't stand up for what we are being taught in our classes," said preservation major Wendy Evans of Bowling Green, Ohio.

Carrie Streeter, a preservation major from Wisner, Neb., said the university's action demonstrated "indifference" toward historic preservation. "I don't think they care," she said.