In a unanimous vote, the Sioux Falls Historic Preservation Board has voted against demolishing a Sioux Falls home.
The board says destroying the historic home in the 400 block of North Spring Avenue would be “adverse to the neighborhood.” The home was built in 1891.
I was kind of on the fence about this, but I think the Historic Board made the right decision. I think if the right person gets involved with the rehabilitation it is possible. I live in a home that was built in 1889 and added on to several times. It’s possible to fix these places up and keep them up. Ironically, it will be probably cheaper to fix the place than to demolish and build new. Over the past couple of years I have seen two historic homes in the McKennan Park district lifted from their foundations and rehabbed. Hopefully the property will get in the right hands.
Easy to say, where’s the money going to come from, right? But that 1889 home with the vacancy around it, in terms of open lots, affords an opportunity to not only restore that home put to give it a full “1889 Presence” – as the Cathedral District looked in the late 1880s with large spaces between homes.