Historic 'Jaeger House' in Treme finds champion on New Orleans City Counil

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Historic 'Jaeger House' in Treme finds champion on New Orleans City Counil
July 24, 2011
By R. Stephanie Bruno
NOLA.com

The North Roman Street house could be mistaken for just another dilapidated building in a proud but struggling neighborhood.

Councilwoman trying to save historic building
Enlarge Michael DeMocker, The Times-Picayune MICHAEL DeMOCKER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNE A pair of crutches and other pre-Katrina items remain in a second floor bedroom inside a 1850's Creole Cottage at 1029 North Roman Street in the footprint of the St. Peter Claver expansion. She is trying to get someone to move and renovate the historic but dilapidated building.

Two stories tall with a double pitched roof and second-floor balcony, it occupies a tiny plot of land measuring just 32 feet wide by 60 feet deep. But the old house caught the attention of New Orleans City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer, who a few months ago launched a personal campaign to prevent its demolition, largely because of its age, exceptional form and links to Tremé's history.

That plight has taken on new urgency, as neighboring St. Peter Claver parish pushes to purchase the land to expand its playground. While the pastor, the Rev. Michael Jacques, doesn't want to see the house demolished, he fears it is a hazard and wants to see the playground expansion move forward.

"My office has been working since March to try to find someone who will move and renovate the house," said Palmer, who has a background in historic preservation. "But all of our prospects have fallen through."

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Named the "Jaeger House," the building at 1027 N. Roman Street was built between 1854 and 1860 by Charles Jaeger on land once owned by the Pontalba family. In the Friends of the Cabildo's architectural series, it is described as "a two-story extension of the Creole cottage," and representative of a house type that would have appeared in the Creole suburbs as early as the 1840s. The architectural inventory notes details including its side gables, double pitched roof, French doors and batten shutters.

Jacques said the house has been vacant since the owner died sometime before Hurricane Katrina, and it has been a problem ever since.

"Vagrants get inside and use it to get onto our property and steal," he said. "There's a bulge in a wall no more than 4 feet from our property and we're concerned the building could collapse. We've been working together with Kristin to try to find an alternative to demolition -- we've tried everything, she's tried everything. Nothing has worked."

The only hope for the building is to move it, a prospect that is fraught with complications. Land would have to be identified and a developer would have to agree to buy it, move the house and then restore it.

Builders of Hope, the nonprofit group that managed the house relocations in the VA footprint, gave Palmer's office an estimate of $50,000 to move the structure and put it on a new foundation, but with a caveat: The house can't be moved much farther than two blocks because of its deteriorated condition and bargeboard construction.

Palmer's office researched vacant lots in the immediate vicinity of the house and found an ideal candidate in a HANO-owned lot at 1834 Ursulines Ave. But that option fizzled when it was determined the lot has been reserved for the construction of off-site housing associated with River Garden, a project that is on indefinite hold.

Currently, the estate of Bufford Magee owns the property. Its executrix, Belinda Lewis Batiste, applied to the Historic District Landmarks Commission this week to demolish the building, and stated that the property had been on the market for several years without garnering interest from potential buyers.

Although moving a historic building in order to preserve it is considered the option of last resort by the secretary of the Interior, the entity that establishes the nation's preservation guidelines, the practice was put to use on a mammoth scale this past year to make way for the new VA hospital.

Jack Davis, a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, believes government agencies could assist in dilemmas like the one involving the Jaeger House by using blight-fighting money for relocations and maintaining a database of vacant lots that can be made available for such projects.

"Relocations and restorations enhance neighborhoods," Davis said.

But for Palmer, time is running short, and she's just looking for an answer.

"I'm not making anyone out to be the bad guy," Palmer said. "We've all tried hard to find a solution. But we're out of resources."