WPLN News Archive; 08 Lessons from the Jacksonian (Anita) 1 25 99; News Archive 1/8/99-2/5/99

if you'd walked in the lobby of the jacksonian a couple of weeks ago you would've seen workers leaning hundreds of doors up against the walls sets of french doors with crystal nods from the forty seven apartments in the structure built in nineteen seventy it slowly being torn down for a planned walgreens drugstore his properties owned commercial hits land far outstripped the value of the building in its present condition developer doug rauch writes father law owned and ran the jacksonian apartment building for thirty years but shortly before his death he put it on the market where it's at almost invisible for nine nights when walgreens came along with an offer for the prime corner spot and westin here's why the land was worth three billion dollars they made the deal after the metro board zoning granted a variance of the drug store opening the way for demolition of the jacksonian mayor phil bredesen publicly admonished the group the metro council passed a resolution in support of finding a way to save the building and thousand signs saying project petitions to no avail what roger plans is a replica of the jacksonian using its original mantles mahogany doors and outside stone works for twenty unit condo

building just down the street at the old holy trinity lutheran church site pressure cause of a rebirth of the jacksonian and restore peace and put them in the end as a curve the last one poplar grove are a fireplace in the lobby of the new jets and i know that this doesn't solve everybody's problems of somebody is doing something about what happened and this is important that i think that somebody who is not boiling over here and say run get the money and go but as rochford is painfully aware and that's exactly what many preservationists think when this building is gone to school and despite the fact that someone says they will rebuild a replica of that bill kelly is metro's historic zoning administrator to say that the demise of the jacksonian came as a surprise to the city's historic zoning commission would be an understatement kelly after all was a resident there to notice we got was this building that says berenson who was the director

would go on lobbyists special mean it seems the jacksonian eligible for the national historic register had slipped through the cracks when metro conducted a survey of some twenty five thousand properties ranking them is eligible for the national historic register on it or just a worthy of conservation the jacksonian didn't make the list building constructed in nineteen seventeen has been under threat for years says the city changed the area's owning from residential to commercial in nineteen thirty perry kelly says they were shocked the commission has concentrated its efforts on getting entire district zone nashville has some southern districts with historic or conservation status now jill kelley says they'll probably move toward designating individual buildings as local landmarks there's currently only three in davidson county coming up the jets and we see that we need to do this you can't discount on the owners of buildings to take care of them and we have a lot of buildings that are all now traffic or select the pressures all but giving landmark status is difficult mr mcdonald was the historic zoning administrator

immobile alabama it's really kind of a catch twenty two to have only confirmed to lifting the building of a landmark then you'll really need a list building of landmark the golden your water or the building it was there were who were marking their co owner maria going to tear down before their regulation double now directs the very successful historic savannah foundation in savannah georgia it's a revolving account of privately raised money the foundation buys endangered historic buildings markets and sells them to a buyer who will finish restoration and the money made by the sale goes back into the account in this way mcdonald says the preservation community can often change and owners mind giving him or her a chance to be a local hero by saving historic structures we know about forty two thousand dollars in after a vote for small fight but we are willing to loan secure line of credit from a buying can put our

organization for occasional odd flavor story building that's what we're all about and what i want to do that there is no such revolving fund in nashville and kelly says barring some organized move in that direction the historic landmark in effort is probably the next step the historic zoning commission hopes to present the idea to the metro council and again landmark in historic buildings owned by metro kelly says the process would take quite some time for national public radio i'm anita bug well no