It's an old house dating back to the 1880's and it belonged to an historic family and has historic designation. Yet all of that is not enough to save it from demolition.
Sadly this grand old lady of a house will be torn down to make way for . . . are you ready for this ? . . . a Racetrack gas station !
As I took these photos and thought of what was being lost, I found tears forming and cascading down my cheeks. Such a loss . . . a page gone from the history of Manatee County . . . a grand house that no future child will ever see or have knowledge of. How can nobody care ? The truth is that Manatee County is eyeing the taxes that they'll be getting from Racetrack and our politicians feel that money trumps history any day any time !
Photos above and below show the historic information plaques and stand proudly outside of the Historic Reasoner Homestead.
The Reasoner brothers were pioneer nurserymen, started one of the first mail order plant catalogs and introduced many new plant species into the country.
The property abounds with palm trees and gigantic ancient oaks, dripping with Spanish moss. A yard that was once immaculate is now neglected and overgrown with brush and weeds.
I suppose these enormous old oaks will be sacrificed to make way for another concrete paved gas station. We already have 3 other gas stations all within half a block from this historic house.
The grand old house has been boarded up and is falling into disrepair.
I always dreamt that, had I the money, I would have purchased this beauty, restored her to her former glory and turned her into either a B & B or perhaps a tea room. But it was only a fantasy. The property sits within a prime commercial area and Racetrack paid 1.2 million for the property.
When the Grand old Lady was built she was out in the country and was the pride of Manatee county. She was Manatee's finest, largest, grandest residence. But time plows its way through history, the city built up around the grand Lady and the present owners found they could no longer afford to pay the property taxes. Unfortunately the county sat back and didn't lift a finger to try to preserve this bit of history.
Good Bye old house, so long to your past and the very history that helped to make Manatee County, Florida what it is today.
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What a damn shame. These cities, towns and counties are so money driven that they just don't care about anything else. :( I bet this place was quite a site in its hey day. I would love to explore and take a metal detector around the property. I'm sure whatever is dug up during demolition will be discarded.
ReplyDeleteSo true JoJo. It is a damn shame and I feel so helpless, unable to do anything about it as I don't have the money nor the influence and my little blog only draws the attention of a handful of readers. :(
DeleteAll I can do is wring my hands, shed a few tears over an irreplaceable loss and watch as this piece of history is forever erased.
So many of these amazing properties are losing the fight against "progress"... it sure is a challenge to maintain these beautiful gems. A real shame :(
ReplyDeleteIt is really sad, especially when we look at the many very ancient ruins and buildings that populate Europe. They have preserved such a large slice of their history and view these places with pride and honor. White here in the USA our leaders can only view the bottom line - and that is how much money can we make off of it ?
DeleteMany of my local neighbors have said they will boycott the Racetrack station once it is built. So will I.
It makes me so sad to see these buildings going into disrepair and a tea room or B.& B. would be awesome. Here in Oregon we have our fair share of buildings that have been deserted for years, eventually to fall down. Sometimes though, in a situ like yours, the house is usually put on the market by the lot owners for anyone to move it to a new location, I am surprised nobody has done that. Esp. given its historical importance.
ReplyDeleteHope you have a lovely weekend, cheers, T. :)
Thanks for dropping by T.
ReplyDeleteThe present day Reasoner family did offer the home for free to anybody interested in having it moved. There were a number of interested parties but once they began checking into the overall costs involved, they did not pursue it.
1st the home is very old and since it has not been kept up it is in fragile condition. The movers informed those interested that there would be some serious structural damages done to the house, both in preparing it for moving and the actual move itself.
2nd there would have to be considerable permitting and both the city and country would require that obstacles such as electric lines, traffic signals etc. be raised or moved so that these utilities would not be damaged during the moving of the house.
3rd the bottom line that deterred most of those interested in saving the house was the exorbitant cost that moving the home would incur - something close to $100,000 and then the home would still need many thousands more to repair damage incurred from the move and the restoration costs . . . and then of course there's the value of the land where the home would be moved to.
I can well imagine that all of this would have intimidated all but those who have a lot of resources and a whole lot of money. Unfortunately I have neither. :(
That is sad when a piece of history is lost for the cause of money. Even harder when it's lost for a gas station. :/ :(
ReplyDeleteTrue. If it had been for a school or a library it would be so much easier to accept. But a gas station ? That's adding insult to injury.
DeleteSuch a shame! We have a similar situation in Bulgaria right now - the house of one of the nation's most famous poet is getting ruined because no one takes care of it. Recently, we visited one of the ancient capitals of our country and there were only low stone walls surviving more than 1300 years. The question is what will we leave for the future generations?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear that this is becoming a global trend. It is sad because we are a sum of our past and society today is what it is because of its history. This history should be preserved and treasured for future generations.
DeleteWhat a stunner of a house, too bad it won't be around for much longer for people to enjoy.
ReplyDeleteHow very sad. It's not only a shame about the gas station, but also that the taxes and cost of restoring and maintaining these historical buildings and sites is so high. I feel your sorrow over this :(
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame! You can see how gorgeous it must have been in it's day. I see properties like that and I can just picture what could be done to restore it, but alas who has the time or money. (not me sadly) And all for a gas station. :(
ReplyDeleteWithout someone to purchase and restore them, these houses are coming down all over the place. When i lived in Chicago, we seriously considered buying a grand old lady that was simply amazing! She needed a lot of work, but she even had a ballroom and the original floors! We ended up moving out of state, but I still think about that house!
ReplyDeleteThis is actually really sad. I hate to see that money continues to have more influence and power than anything else. If only someone had actually thought of a way to monetize this historical site, maybe some politician could have been convinced it was worth saving because it too could generate revenue (of course money is far from the most important thing but being able to convince a politician to keep something would involve convincing them it had some time of monetary worth to the community). I am surprised that as a historical site it isn't under some sort of government protection???
ReplyDeleterae of love from berlin
Dropping by to tell you I'm back! The name of my blog has changed though... "Artist - Sonya M. Jones...Reflections of My Art and Soul."
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame about these buildings. I treasure history so much. Especially historical landmarks. It's a damn shame to see them totally destroyed. sigh...
that makes me so sad.... when I fond out my grandpa's house, from the early 1900s had been demolished, it was like a piece of history had been erased
ReplyDelete