Posted: Tuesday, June 24, 2014 6:01 pm
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Updated: 6:15 pm, Tue Jun 24, 2014.
Daily Astorian
Update 5:43 p.m.: The Oregonian reports that Google Venture’s Kevin Rose has agreed to sell a 19th century house in Willamette Heights that he planned to demolish for a larger home. According to the newspaper, a couple in the neighborhood will pay $1.375 million for the house.
In the heart of Portland’s Willamette Heights neighborhood on Tuesday morning, media gathered on the street below a 19th century house that is surrounded by a chain link fence and scheduled for demolition.
The neighbors have protested the plan, but are unsure what to do after Google Venture partner Kevin Rose announced that construction crews will begin Wednesday to tear down the home he owns, making way for a modern (and much bigger) home.
It wasn’t long after the television cameras set up that people came into the street to speak out for keeping the home.
Rose, 37, bought the house earlier this year with his wife Darya Pino for $1.3 million, according to city records.
Though the house is 122 years old, it isn’t listed on the National Historic Registry and doesn’t have historic significance despite being listed on the Portland Historic Resource Inventory List — a list for potential historic buildings.
Between June 13 through 17, Rose had it removed from the list and then applied for permits to demolish the standing house and build a new one.
In response to the neighborhood upset, Rose said in a statement that the costs of renovation were much higher than the cost of starting from scratch.
“We never intended to deceive anyone, as some of you have accused. We simply wanted to create a beautiful home for our family,” he wrote.
Neighbors started an online petition, which now has nearly 3,000 signatures. Rose offered to sell the house back to the previous owners at no avail. The Oregonian reports the neighbors offered Rose $1.3 million Monday and hadn’t heard back. But the chain link fences may have been all the response they needed.
“It’s not over,” neighborhood spokesman Will Aitchison said. “The demolition doesn’t start until tomorrow morning.”
Layton Borkan lives around the corner and came to support her friends. She moved to Portland from the Bay Area and has seen people tear down old, historically insignificant houses to make way for more modern and accommodating homes. But she said the responses from communities vary — not every neighborhood creates petitions or tries to find a new buyer for old homes.
What have you seen in your city when old homes are bought only to be torn down? And what do you think of the houses that have replaced them?
This story originally appeared on Oregon Public Broadcasting.
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Tuesday, June 24, 2014 6:01 pm.
Updated: 6:15 pm.