The high price of preservation

People who buy historic buildings might be saving a piece of the past,

[Times photo: Ron Thompson] Ron Albritton prunes a bush in front of his restored home on Ella Avenue in Inverness.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 9, 2001

INVERNESS -- Although historic, the folk Victorian house at 227 N Ella Ave. was no treasure when the Albrittons bought it three years ago.

The two-story white house, the oldest home built in Inverness that still stands, had been vacant for the past decade. Its carved porch railings were covered with plywood sheets and overgrown vines. Mice and squirrels had taken over the 2-foot gap between the original ceiling and a false one.

The 1887 home had no central heat, no air conditioning. And the electrical wiring predated World War I.

"It was really ugly," said Ron Albritton, a semiretired property insurance adjuster. "We didn't know what we really had until we started the work."

As Ron and Glenda Albritton peeled away the layers, they found doors under plywood coverings and wooden floors beneath the carpet. They brought back the original bathtubs, sealed the original windows with caulk and added insulation where they could.

One year, several subcontractors and an untold amount of money later, the Albrittons transformed the eyesore into a gem.

"We were really pleased. It's a homey old place," Ron Albritton said. "The yard was already established and the azaleas have been here for years and years, so things like that kind of pay you back."

Recent reports of another ailing historic home, the house at 105 W Grace St. that will be demolished if no one decides this month to move and restore it, piqued the couple's interest. But after visiting what is left of the rotted building, probably built around 1910, they decided the house was past the point of restoration.

"It was a nice old house, but it would cost a fortune to move it. For the same amount of money, you could build one a lot better," Albritton said. "It's nice to save old properties, but they have to make some sort of economic sense."

Small justification for a big project

There is no way around the bottom line: The costs of restoring a deteriorating building can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. If community leaders want to encourage people to restore such buildings, the support needs to start with tax breaks, Inverness merchant Winston Perry said.

Last year, Perry and his wife, Andrea, bought the 1926 Valerie Theater across from the historic courthouse. The couple will have a brainstorming session Friday to come up with possible uses for the cavernous movie hall that was once the hub of downtown activity.

Early estimates put the Valerie renovation costs between $250,000 and $300,000. And the reward for pouring that much money into a building that the property appraiser values at $11,567?

A higher tax bill, after the improvements boost the building's value.

"Nothing that exists in Citrus County encourages people to restore these buildings except for the (Citrus County) Historical Society saying, 'Yeah, do that,"' Winston Perry said. "That and 25 cents will get you a stick of gum."

State law allows local governments to give tax breaks for up to 10 years on restored historic properties as a way of encouraging the private sector to save important structures. The tax break would apply to the value of any improvements the owner made; local officials can decide what percentage of the restored property's value would be taxed.

Perry has asked Inverness officials for such a tax break. City Manager Frank DiGiovanni explained the issue in a Sept. 6 memo to the City Council and said City Attorney Jim Neal would examine the idea. "We're looking into that right now, and at some point, this will be addressed by council," DiGiovanni said Friday.

It is a proposal that would be applauded by Marc and Mary Ann Wigmore, a couple who recently turned the 1910 folk Victorian house at 811 W Zephyr St. into a bed-and-breakfast. After finishing about $125,000 in improvements last year, the Wigmores saw their property tax bill double.

"You'd kind of like to think you'd get some reward for saving a house that's of some benefit to the community," Mrs. Wigmore said. "You're not doing it for that reason, but it would be nice."

Making renovations into good business

Don't tell John Godowski that dilapidated historical buildings are too costly to move.

In 1984, the retired Air Force colonel moved the 100-ton Inverness train depot across the train tracks to turn the 1892 white clapboard building into a cafe on N Apopka Avenue.

Like the Grace Street house, the depot was slated for demolition as part of a volunteer firefighter training exercise. And like the Grace Street house, part of the depot's historic significance traced back to its use by County Judge E.C. May.

With the lowest professional mover's estimate at $80,000, Godowski decided he would be better off moving the depot himself. So he bought four modular home frames, 110 mobile home wheels and learned how to weld.

After Godowski loaded the building on the frame he built, other men used a dump truck, a bulldozer and a front-end loader to nudge the depot across the tracks.

"They had $10,000 bets in town that it couldn't be saved," Godowski said, chuckling. "The depot got moved, not only by me, but with the help of some selfish guys on a bet."

The Inverness Depot Cafe closed its doors in the mid 1990s, and the building has sat vacant ever since.

But historic buildings have made good business sense in other parts of town. Realtor Linda Bega has refurbished two historic houses on Main Street: one is her office at Landmark Realty, and the other is used by the Citrus Times.

"They create a very pleasant office atmosphere. The old buildings are in the heart of downtown, so the location is fantastic," Bega said. "You don't have a cookie-cutter building, and that is a draw to the public."

The key is finding a building that can be restored within a reasonable budget, preferably one that does not require new wiring or insulation, she said.

While the house at W Grace Street would need a complete makeover, from new floorboards to new shingles, Bega hopes someone can save it. Bega sits on the city's Architectural/Aesthetic Review Committee, which voted Aug. 30 to delay demolition of the house for 30 days to see if someone would move and restore it.

"You can't just look at demolition as a first response," Bega said. "It's got a history, and we should definitely look into saving it."

-- Times files were used in this report.

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