Commissioners vote unanimously to help move Brandon's Galvin-Jaudon house. It is more than a century old.
By JANET ZINK
Published January 16, 2004
TAMPA - With a wrecking ball ready to swing, the Hillsborough County Commission on Thursday decided to spend $50,000 to save a small, unostentatious piece of Brandon's history.
Commissioners voted unanimously to budget the money to move the Galvin-Jaudon house, which was built more than 100 years ago at 201 Victoria St. by one of Brandon's first residents, an Irishman named Daniel Galvin.
The commissioners' first choice for a new location for the Galvin-Jaudon house: next to the 25,000-square-foot county service center to be built on Pauls Drive.
Two other locations for the house also emerged at Thursday's meeting.
Byron Dean, president of the Brandon Historical Association and previously a supporter of keeping the house where it is, offered property he owns on Kings Avenue. Dean said he would turn the house into a museum and meeting space for the Brandon Historical Association and other community groups.
Brandon attorney Chris Tompkins also volunteered to accept the house on a Kings Avenue parcel he owns and turn it into office space for a nonprofit organization.
All three proposals, because they involve nonprofit organizations or government entities, would make the house eligible for state funding for restoration, said Parviz Moosavi, who heads the county's historic preservation efforts.
"This has been our hope from the beginning, that a solution would be worked out for the house to be relocated," said the Rev. Tommy Green of First Baptist Church of Brandon, which owns the land the house sits on and wants to build a family recreation center there. "I couldn't be more pleased."
The Galvin-Jaudon house, one of Brandon's oldest remaining buildings, has been at the center of an 18-month controversy between the church and local preservationists.
The church bought the property in July 2002 after it got assurances from the county that the house would not be designated a historic landmark.
When preservationists heard the house was in danger of being demolished, they urged the County Commission to step in and give the house landmark status. But the county refused to reverse its ruling for fear of lawsuits.
After several plans to move the house fell apart, First Baptist received approval Oct. 20 to tear it down. Church leaders said they would wait 90 days before calling in the demolition crew to give preservationists a last chance to move the house.
The County Commission's decision Thursday came two days before the end of the church's 90-day deadline.
County real estate director Mike Kelly said he needs to make sure it is feasible to put the house on the county service center site.
In the meantime, he will try to find another county property that might be able to accept the house.
"The attitude of the board was to try to find a location that is under public ownership," Kelly said.
