Fate of 757 Center Street Italianate a little Careless

Well damn. The paper has a note about a gas leak downtown, and it's related to the demolition of one of the great mystery houses downtown.

Italianate detail (2011)

The house was clearly quite old, its Italianate detail from the 1870s or 1880s. Citing county records, the paper dates it to 1873.

It had been remodeled a lot, was shabby, and increasingly out of place on Center Street and the parking lots.

Maybe it could have been moved and restored, but maybe it was too far gone.

And it might already have been moved at least once.

757 Center St on 1895 Sanborn

The 1895 Sanborn map does not show a house on the alley with the same footprint. So it was not built there, and must have been moved.

Over the years some basic research never turned up much about it, resolving this was not a high priority, and it remained a mystery. Now it might permanently be a mystery!

Hopefully the wreckers saved/are saving trim, fixtures, original windows, anything that might be salvaged and reused.

This is not the kind of old house that demands to be saved, but it's a kind of old house to which we ought to give more care and attention in the process of demolition. It deserved a better send-off.