It may not have been the result he was wanting, but out of Monday-afternoon's special meeting of the Historic Review Board Tommy Kleckner hopes to see a broader effort on many fronts to rescue houses in a long-neglected section of the city's Historic District.
Kleckner, western region director for Indiana Landmarks, the state's leading historic preservation organization, had hoped to convince HRB members to vote to stay a plan by Vincennes University to raze three houses in the 800 block of North Fourth Street and an abandoned, 100-year-old brick building around the corner at 313 Harrison St.
After touring the sites and much discussion over their conditions and the unlikelihood of their ever being repaired — and over the objection of Kleckner — board members voted 3-0 to allow the university to proceed with demolition. Steve Black, a professor of art at VU and an HRB member, abstained from the canvass.
Coming out of the lengthy discussion, which encompassed not just the four structures themselves but the whole of that section of the Historic District, came a call for a special effort to be made to preserve what remained of the neighborhood's older houses — at least those which could conceivably be saved.
Phil Rath, VU's vice president for finance and government relations, said the university was “on the team” when it came to improving the city's appearance.
“We want this to be a nice-looking neighborhood when we bring in students,” he said. “What we don't want is what we have now with these blighted houses and dangerous buildings — they aren't helping us and they're not helping the city and they're just going to rot to the ground unless we do something.”
Rath said the Historic Review Board needed help from the university and from the city, but most of all from private investors willing to spend their money to improve the area.
“Your job is too big for you to do alone,” he said to the board members. “The city council needs to bite the bullet and ID the houses that are legitimately historically significant and then put the resources behind helping the owners restore and maintain those.”
Kleckner was on board with that.
“I think that's a positive step in the right direction,” he said. “Truthfully, this is the most-unstable part of the Historic District and it's one that needs the most attention.
“My hope is to develop some type of program with the city to save some of these houses and bring some stability to the area,” Kleckner said.
Board president Brian Grumieaux was glad that while the group's official action Monday would result in the razing of more structures in the Historic District, the discussion, itself, had the potential for a more-positive outcome.
“I like what I heard here this afternoon,” he said. “I think that coming out of all this we may be heading in a better direction for the future of the Historic District as a whole but especially for this part of it.
Earlier Kleckner reiterated his argument made last week — that VU was cleaning houses out of the Historic District without an articulated plan for what was to happen next in the area. Indiana Landmarks would prefer that the university find some way to reuse the building at 313 Harrison St. rather than tear it down, he said.
HRB member Cathy Lane agreed that in a perfect world the building as well as the houses on North Fourth Street would be saved.
“I would like to see every property saved,” she said. “But this area is depressed and it's not going to get any better, nobody is going to come here and save these houses or this building.”
Grumieaux, who years ago owned the house at 828 N. Fourth St. as well as building on Harrison Street, said even if the building, which he admitted he loved, were spared from demolition, it's unlikely anyone would be willing to come forward to save it.
“I think our job (as HRB members) is to do what we can to make the community a better place,” he said. “And if we let this building stand, is that going to be the case? I don't think so.”
Grumieaux told Kleckner that, unfortunately, the HRB was faced with decisions like this “all the time.”
“We have to play the hand that's dealt us, and sometimes that means we have to let a house or building go because there's just no one willing to step forward to save them,” he said. “Letting VU tear it down is better than it just sitting here getting worse and worse and becoming a bigger hazard in the neighborhood.”
Rath said neighbors have come forward asking that the houses and the building be torn down.
One of those neighbors, Mark Melcho, who lives a block away on North Fifth Street, learned about Monday's special meeting and walked over to plead with officials to, at the very least, board up the buildings to make them somewhat safer for children in the neighborhood.
“Kids are getting inside it all the time,” he said, standing in front of the house at 828 N. Fourth St. “There are probably 50 kids in this neighborhood and many of them are getting in the house and the ... building — if I was a kid I'd be right there with them.”
Transients were living in the structures at night, and there were rumors of drug-related activities taking place in them as well, he said.
Melcho predicted it was only a “matter of time before there's a fire in one of them.”