Friday, June 29, 2012

[DESTROY OUR] CAMPUS HERITAGE GRANT??

The two houses you see in this post were both built in Youngstown, Ohio.  The older, towered house -- known as the Thompson-Sacherman House -- was built from a design by Palliser, Palliser & Co., a firm that began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, but soon relocated to New York City.  They became very well known, nationally, due to their publishing of numerous plan-books.  People acquired plans from them via the mail and thousands of houses, and other kinds of structures, were ultimately built from their designs.  The Georgian Revival house, known as the George Peck House, was built from a design by Alfred Hoyt Granger, most likely sometime in the mid-1890s.  Granger was a very progressive architect who began his career in Cleveland, Ohio, and continued for many years in Chicago.  These houses, in recent years, became the property of Youngstown State University.  In 2004, the university applied for and received a grant of $100,000 from the J. Paul Getty Foundation, a grant known as a Campus Heritage Grant whose purpose was designated "to assist colleges and universities in the United States in managing and preserving the integrity of their significant historic buildings, sites and landscapes."  These two houses were the primary focus of the university in surveys, a preservation master-plan, and other related programs, all funded by the Campus Heritage Grant.  Earlier this year, after claiming that no use could be found for the Thompson-Sacherman House -- which was an outright falsehood since the university's Department of Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences had repeatedly informed the university of its desire to use the house -- and eventually claiming that the renovation of the house would be "too costly", the university had the house demolished.

About a month or so ago, the university pulled out the "too costly to renovate" excuse again and announced that the Peck House will also soon be demolished.  What "wonderful" outcomes from the Campus Heritage Grant.  THEY OUGHT TO BE FORCED TO REIMBURSE THE GRANT-MONEY TO THE GETTY FOUNDATION.

NOTE:  The University demolished the Peck House in August, 2012.

1 Comments:

Blogger Tim Ferris said...

When they talk about "too costly," do they ever present a study to justify their opinion?

6:31 PM  

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