Historic Lexington home was condemned after one side collapsed. Can the house be saved?

A Lexington man is working to save his Victorian home from demolition after an exterior brick wall began to fall last month and the city condemned the house.

Art Mize said the repairs to his historic home on North Broadway are expected to cost roughly $100,000, and his insurance company has denied his claim.

Mize said the company “simply said, ‘too bad for you,’ and things had to be done immediately” to stabilize the house.

An entire side of the house had to be removed, leaving it looking somewhat like a dollhouse.

But Mize said he’s been encouraged by community support, as a GoFundMe account he set up generated about half of what he needed for the initial stabilization work, which involved taking down the rest of the brick wall and putting up a scaffolding system that shored up all three floors.

Now that that’s done, he said he’s working on getting a loan to help pay for the construction work needed to rebuild.

“We’re determined to save the house,” Mize said in an interview Monday.

On Dec. 16, a large section of the exterior brick wall collapsed on one side of the house, which dates to 1890. The fire department and code enforcement responded, and the home was condemned.

“The building was unsafe to occupy with that hole in it,” said Alex Olszowy, director of code enforcement for the city.

The city also required the people who live in the duplex next door to move out because of safety concerns.

A structural engineer evaluated the home, and the city asked Mize to shore it up to prevent further collapse.

Because of safety concerns, Mize said code enforcement officials “essentially said this needs to happen quickly, or we can tear the whole building down.”

Now that the shoring up work has been done, city officials agreed this week that the residents next door can move back into their home.

Olszowy said water probably got in, froze and expanded, causing the mortar to come loose and the bricks to fall. He said the city had previously been in contact with Mize about making some repairs to the house, but at that point the structural problems that have occurred were not anticipated.

“The brick is actually the structural wall,” Olszowy said, which was common at the time the home was built. He said the foundations were also built without footers.

Mize said the foundation of the home needs to be relaid and the brick wall rebuilt. He’s optimistic that he’ll be able to secure the funding to make that happen.

If the repairs aren’t made within a certain amount of time, the city could order the house demolished. Mize would be given the opportunity to have the demolition completed himself, but if he didn’t, Olszowy said the city would begin the process of doing it. In cases where the city pays for demolition, a lien is put on the property.

“We would force a sale after it was all done and it wasn’t paid for,” Olszowy said.

While uncommon, Olszowy said the city has had to do that a few times in recent years.

“It’s kind of a last resort thing,” he said. “The building’s got to be unsalvageable. This one’s a tough one because it’s a massive repair. We’ll give him some time to figure out what his plan is, but it’s not indefinite.”

Mize, who teaches music lessons and repairs musical instruments, said he has owned the home since 2002 and raised his family there. It was also the base of operations for his business.

Thankfully, he said his wife owns another home, so for now, he’s doing repair work from the kitchen table there while fielding phone calls about the house.

“It has occupied every day for weeks,” he said.

Mize credited his faith and prayer for helping him handle the stress.

Otherwise, he said, “I’d have been tearing my hair out.”

Mize said he’s been told that he faces an uphill battle with the insurance company.

“I have paid dearly for insurance, but Liberty Mutual has denied my claim by excluding any problems involving the foundation,” he wrote on the GoFundMe page.

Mize feels strongly about saving the home, which is in the Northside Historic District.

“Lexington’s character is very much constituted by its historic architecture,” he said, adding that it’s what gives the city its charm and makes it an attractive place for tourists to visit.

He said on the GoFundMe page that one of the unique features about his home is an oriel window with fluted copper roof.

“It would be so tragic to lose another awesome historic building here,” he wrote. “I love this building and am heartbroken at the prospect of its demolition.”

He said in an update to the page Monday that he thinks “sacrificing the building is no longer a worry, thanks so much to your rapid responses!”

Mize said in an interview that he’s grateful for the community’s support, which has helped him get through the first phase of the process.

He said he’s been “really affirmed,” adding that he has “a sense that things are going to work out, step by step.”