The city of Wilson is stabilizing a 125-year-old historic home on Nash Street.
The Lane-Bardin House, built about 1898, has been in disrepair and unoccupied for several years.
On June 15, Wilson City Council voted that the structure must be repaired or demolished.
Jonathan Rogers, community improvement special project coordinator in the inspections department with the city of Wilson, said it will cost roughly $17,000 to stabilize the house.
“This amount will become a lien placed on the property similar to any nuisance or demolition lien,” Rogers said.
Property is owners Robert Nguyen and Ngo Trang, of Auburn, Washington, were informed by letter that the way the historic structure stands currently “may cause other surrounding properties to potentially depreciate in value.”
Rogers said the city is trying to stabilize the house to basically maintain it in its current condition and make sure it does deteriorate any further.
“The city has a repair order from council and is actively trying to preserve this property,” Rogers said.
Two weeks ago, Winstead Builders began stabilization work at the ornate, three-story wooden structure.
Superintendent Tony Winstead said the work will make it possible to safely be inside on the building to do restoration work.
“We’re making it walkable again just to get it safe,” Winstead said. The work includes spot checking and repairing holes and defects in the slate roof and installing extra columns to support the porch overhangs.
Windows have been covered in plywood to minimize the possibility that water and animals can get inside and do further damage.
Rotten sections of the porch have been re-supported with joists and recovered with thick plywood.
Workers placed broad sections of rubber covering over the porch roof to prevent further water damage.
Winstead said J.S. Roofing is a subcontractor working on the project.
Kevin O’Brien, an inspections manager with the neighborhood improvement and constructions standards department in the development services and construction standards division of the city of Wilson, said that the orders to repair or demolish the structure are still in effect. However, the stabilization of the building and winterizing to prevent further deterioration would likely be satisfactory in allaying the city’s concerns about the structure for the time being.
Further work to restore the structure will be necessary to get the house to required minimum housing standards.
A full inspection will need to be completed to determine the scope of the rehabilitation.
The city is only looking to stabilize the property at this time.
Winstead said that a complete restoration of the building would be very expensive, costing about a million dollars he estimated.
Winstead said that water had taken a devastating toll on the building, which was put up before the Wright Brothers invented the airplane.
Rogers agreed that a complete restoration would cost “a pretty penny.”
“We did not establish a time frame for the stabilization,” Rogers said. “We allowed Tony and his team to work at their own pace but keeping in mind that we needed the work done soon before any further deterioration.”