University to tear down old home

Southeast Missouri State University plans to demolish an approximately century-old brick house to expand a campus parking lot, a move that local preservationists say goes against the very philosophy of the school's nationally known historic preservation program.

"It is embarrassing to me," said historic preservationist and Southeast graduate Terri Foley of Cape Girardeau, who has made a career out of trying to save buildings.

The university, she said, has an outstanding preservation program. "However, the university itself tends not to uphold the values of historic preservation," Foley said.

The university prefers to tear down buildings rather than save them, she said.

But Southeast officials contend it would have been too costly to fix up the house at 828 North St. "We couldn't keep offices there given the condition of the building," said Dr. Dennis Holt, vice president of administration and enrollment management.

"It would have been quite an expensive task to try to maintain or renovate it," he said.

Southeast plans to raze the 2 1/2-story house to expand an adjacent campus parking lot. The site will be graveled to provide 16 parking spaces.

While the university always can use added parking, Holt said that wasn't the main reason why school officials have opted to tear it down.

"It just simply wasn't feasible to try to maintain the building," he said. Federal handicapped accessibility requirements also would have added to the cost, said Holt.

The university opened bids for the demolition work and parking lot project on Wednesday. A St. Louis company, O'Bryan, submitted the low bid of $39,500. The price includes razing the house as well as constructing the parking lot and landscaping.

The building is expected to be razed in August, school officials said.

Several evergreen trees will be preserved. School officials said a boxwood hedge and dogwoods would be planted along the east side of the property to screen the parking area from a neighboring home.

"It will be nice," Holt said.

But Dr. Steven Hoffman, who coordinates the historic preservation program at Southeast, said he hates to see the old house torn down. "It does make me sad," he said.

Universities, he said, often tear down old buildings to expand their campuses. "They expand and destroy the community near them," Hoffman said.

Southeast officials support historic preservation as an academic program. "As far as the university having a preservation ethic at the highest level, it really doesn't," Hoffman said.

University officials typically don't ask for the advice of historic preservation program officials at the school. The university has no procedures in place that would even require the school to have preservation students document a building's history and architectural features before proceeding with demolition, Hoffman said.

Holt insisted the university cares about historic preservation. He said it's at the heart of the university's plans for the new River Campus, where the historic seminary building's exterior is being preserved.

But Hoffman said university officials need to look harder at ways to preserve old houses rather than simply tear them down for parking. "I think the university could be a lot more creative in how they use these spaces," Hoffman said.

"Once you tear it down, it's gone," he said. "We are not making old houses anymore."

Hoffman said every old building can't be saved. But he said replacing the house on North Street with a parking lot will detract from the neighborhood.

"The quality of life is going to be diminished when it is demolished and turned into a gravel parking lot," Hoffman said.

The home, owned by the university foundation, housed the Capaha Arrow student newspaper for about 15 years.

Southeast's foundation acquired the house in May 1987. Before the foundation acquired it, the house was an apartment building, said Capaha Arrow adviser Dr. Roy Keller.

The building has been vacant since September 2003, when the campus newspaper relocated to a house on Normal Avenue that once served as a center for earthquake studies.

'Nothing impressive' inside

Keller said the Capaha Arrow occupied the first floor of the North Street house as well as a small part of the second floor which housed the newspaper's darkroom.

"The outside of it was quite impressive," Keller said. "There is nothing impressive on the inside of it."

The North Street house was once the home of a prominent university professor, H.S. Moore, who taught at the school for 54 years. He died in 1955 at the age of 82 after suffering a heart attack, newspaper records show.

He taught a variety of courses, everything from American history to French and German during his career at Southeast.

Not on the list

Foley isn't sure of the exact age of the house. But she's sure it dates back to at least the early 1900s. The house sits on a sandstone foundation, which typically wasn't used for house foundations in Cape Girardeau after about 1900, she said.

"It is not a bad house," Foley said after viewing the exterior.

But she said legally there's nothing to prevent the university from tearing down the house.

The house isn't on the city's list of local landmarks.

But another century-old house owned by the university, the former Huhn-Harrison house at 340 S. Lorimier St., is on the list of local landmarks designated by the city council.

In the case of the two-story brick house, the exterior features are highlighted for preservation in a city ordinance enacted in 1996. The now-vacant house is one of 18 structures that the city council has given landmark status.

As a result, university officials have to obtain approval from the city's historic preservation commission before they can make changes to the brick, roof, windows, dormers or front porch of the home at the corner of Lorimier and Morgan Oak streets.

Brenda Schloss, senior planning technician for the city, said the university has to abide by the city regulations or request that the city council remove the house from local landmark status.

The house is also on the National Register of Historic Places, but that designation doesn't carry the regulatory teeth that is provided with local landmark status, city officials said. The house was placed on the national register in 2002.

Southeast officials said they have no plans to tear down the house, built in 1905 by hotel operator Rudolph Huhn and last occupied by B.W. Harrison.

Harrison, who died in September 2004 at the age of 94, willed the home to the university foundation. Harrison also provided the financial gift that allowed the university in 1998 to obtain the former Catholic seminary property across Morgan Oak Street from his home.

Southeast is building its River Campus arts school on that site.

Holt, the vice president of administration and enrollment management, said the house may be turned into a River Campus guest house for artists and musicians. Holt said its exact use still hasn't been determined.

Holt said the university intends to preserve the house as wanted by Harrison. "We know its historical value," he said.

That's not the case with the North Street house, school officials said. "There is a difference between being old and historically significant," he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123