Historic home wins a modern reprieve

The owners of a 1930s-era farmhouse are allowed to install vinyl siding instead of wood.

By BRIDGET HALL

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 18, 2000

INVERNESS -- It may be on the city's list of historic buildings, but for years the two-story house at the southeast corner of Osceola Avenue and Zephyr Street has been an eyesore.

Parts of the Dutch lap wooden siding are cracked, missing or rotting. Some gaps have been covered with plywood planks.

Aaron Silva, 75, who bought the home two years ago with his wife, Dolly, estimates it has been at least 25 years since the exterior has seen a coat of white paint.

"That thing stood neglected for years," said Mrs. Silva, 69. "I used to go by it all the time, and it was getting to be so run down and neglected that we bought it and decided to fix it up."

The Silvas managed to keep the two antique bathtubs that came with the 1930s-era farmhouse, but the termite-infested floorboards had to be covered with carpet or tiles.

[Times photo: Steve Hasel] The owners can't afford to pay the estimated $50,000 to $80,000 to restore the exterior to the house's original wood finish.

The walls were refurbished, appliances replaced and drapes added, until the two-story house was transformed into five plush apartments, which are occupied by tenants.

The outside still sits as it has for years, with worn paint and tattered wooden siding.

As the Silvas quickly discovered, there was a difference between saving the building and restoring it to its original condition.

Saving it would be simple: Cover the outer walls with vinyl siding shaped like Dutch lap wooden planks. The vinyl needs no repainting and costs $13,000.

Restoring it to original condition, however, meant tearing out the old wooden planks and installing new ones that would have to be repainted every two or three years. Estimated cost: $50,000 to $80,000.

When the Silvas first brought their plans for the vinyl siding before the city's Architectural/Aesthetic Review Committee, which must approve any changes to a historic building, the group turned it down, saying it was inappropriate for a historic building to be covered with a newer material such as vinyl.

But the expense of installing real wood was more than the Silvas could afford.

"I'd have to just let it sit there," Mr. Silva said, adding that eventually the house would deteriorate beyond repair.

The Silvas, making the case for a financial hardship, returned before the committee Wednesday with their request for beige vinyl siding with country blue trim.

This time, they came with photos of 10 historic buildings -- including the Crown Hotel -- that are covered with aluminum or vinyl siding.

And this time, they persuaded the committee that the old house should get the vinyl siding, even if such siding wasn't around in the 1930s, because that was the only way the house would be saved.

"If this doesn't go through, that house is just going to sit there and get uglier and uglier and uglier," committee chairman Tom Mayberry said.

The committee approved the siding request, and the Silvas expect the siding to be installed within a month.

Mayberry and the others made it clear that they made this exception because of the Silvas' financial constraints and the dilapidated condition of the home.

"We don't want to encourage others to do the same," committee member Tom Slaymaker said.

Bill Wiley, director of Development Services for Inverness, noted that the other historic buildings with aluminum or vinyl siding had added it before the city created the Architectural/Aesthetic Review Committee seven years ago to evaluate such changes.

"The easiest thing to do is cover historical buildings with vinyl siding," Wiley said. "I don't think that is the intent of what this committee wants to see happen."

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