176-year-old house slated for wrecking ball is restored instead
Steve Pardo / The Detroit News
Plymouth — Four years ago, the oldest house in Plymouth was abandoned, uninhabitable and seemed destined for the wrecking ball. Now, the 176-year-old house is a marvel of historical fixtures, antique wood floors salvaged from a Levi jeans production factory and other notable odds-and-ends cobbled from eBay, specialty contractors and auction sites from several states.
“We do get splinters, though,” said Patty Malcolm, whose husband, Mark, bought the house for her as a birthday gift about three years ago.
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Malcolm, 56, noticed the “for sale” sign on the old house on Adams said “land for sale” — a sign that Malcolm knew meant the pending demolition of the structure and the building of a new house.
“I thought, ‘I cannot let that happen. I have to have that house,'” said Malcolm, who lives across town in an 82-year-old Georgian home. “I love old houses.”
Known as “Pumpkin Hill,” the renovated house is now home to Malcolm’s 79-year-old mother, Golda Walker.
She won’t say how much they paid, but said they got a decent deal since the house, which had no heat and no water, was in foreclosure. A vacant lot in Plymouth was listed for about $80,000 at the time, according to city records.
And so begun a three-year demolition/reconstruction project — a project that Malcolm said will end in the spring with landscaping and the installation of a garage.
“We are just thrilled that Patty and her husband bought the house and restored it,” said Wendy Harless, a member of the Plymouth Preservation Network, a group dedicated to saving the historical houses and buildings in the city. “They made it a house that’s functional and usable for somebody in the 21st century — which is the way it should be done.”
Losing historical buildings ends up changing the makeup of a community and soon everything looks the same, Harless said.
“It’s a phenomenon known as ‘generica,'” she said. “If you keep your historic buildings, you keep your unique character that makes you, you.”
In May, people will be able to see the improvements firsthand when the house is featured on a tour sponsored by the preservation group.
A former owner, Sandra Richards, lived in the house for years and celebrated its 150th anniversary. Richards, a history buff who chose a “rustic” life, lived there without a furnace, using kerosene heaters and wood stoves. She painted it orange and brown. She died of cancer more than five years ago and the house began to fall into further disrepair.
One thing that’s still missing is a plaque. The house was honored with the historical site designation in 1987, but it was stolen from its spot outside the home in 2006.
“I really want that back,” Malcolm said.
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