An area historic preservation group is asking Lafayette city officials to create a local historic district that includes a single house on Salem Street.

Members of the Wabash Valley Trust for Historic Preservation are hoping the city council will grant their request to create a local district for the house the group owns at 1827 Salem, said Steve Schaffner, chairman of the trust’s properties committee.

Requesting the house’s inclusion in a district is a requirement of a federal grant the group received last year from the Lafayette Housing Consortium, Schaffner said. The group used the approximately $95,000 grant to renovate the home, built around 1915.

“Our mission is to help stabilize neighborhoods through renovating historic homes,” Schaffner said. “As one house in the neighborhood is repaired and taken care of, other people in the area start to take care of their houses, also.”

The terms of the grant, made up of federal HOME funds, stipulates that the group must sell the house to a low- or moderate-income family.

Schaffner said a local family meeting the requirements has submitted a pending offer on the house, listed for $75,000.

It cost the group $130,000 to buy the house and complete its renovation work, which wrapped up in August, said Paul Schueler, the trust’s interim executive director.

The work included installing new mechanical and electrical systems, rebuilding a failing portion of the house’s rear architecture and installing a new roof, Schaffner said.

He said the Wabash Valley Trust has completed similar renovations to two houses in Lafayette and a third in Battle Ground.

The group has plans to buy and fix a house at 615 Oregon St. in Lafayette, and it is targeting other properties in that area, which is already a local historic district, Schueler said. The group has applied for additional HOME fund grants to help with those projects.

Owners of buildings in local historic districts are required to receive permission from the city’s historic preservation commission before making significant exterior changes to structures — including demolition. Permission is not needed for painting or maintenance.

Typically, the city creates new districts consisting of several blocks of homes in a centralized area, said Brian Bugajski of the city’s development department.

However, last year the city council approved the creation of a district that included just two Fifth Street rowhouses. They had been renovated using a grant similar to the one employed to refurbish 1827 Salem St.

“In the future, if there’s interest from other property owners then we’d look to expand the (Salem) district,” Bugajski said.