A local investor, who acquired the Crawford House earlier this month in what many believed at the time was an effort to save the architecturally significant home from demolition, has put the property up for sale for $1.2 million.
That’s $100,000 more than what the investor paid for the mid-century modern home on May 8, acquiring it from a group of developers who had purchased the property in April for $800,000 with plans to tear it down and subdivide the lot.
At the time of the May 8 sale, preservationists, who’d advocated for saving the 62-year-old home because of its unique architectural features and historical ties to two famous architects—Wahl Snyder, who designed it, and Hamilton Crawford, who lived there—breathed a sigh of relief. Now, they’re concerned and disappointed.
Fairleigh Jackson, executive director of Preserve Louisiana, says she was unaware the investor, whose identity she is not disclosing because it was not disclosed on sale documents, intended to put the house on the market so soon after acquiring it and was under the impression he planned to restore it.
But she says she has not been in communication with him in recent days and he has not returned her text messages.
While it’s now unclear that the investor ever intended to restore the home, he did apparently want to preserve the spacious 1.5- acre Country Club Drive lot on which it sits. A restriction in the property disclosure documents attached to the sale listing says a buyer must agree not to subdivide the property.
Local real estate broker Ashley Bugea, who is listing the property, can’t say why the investor decided against renovating the home, but says she is not marketing it as a tear down but as a “wonderful house in a great neighborhood. … and I think we are going to find someone who falls in love with it.”
Jackson plans to meet with Bugea later this week in hopes of finding a buyer who will want to restore the home.
“I’ll do whatever I can to assist in finding someone who wants to preserve the home,” she says.
In the meantime, Preserve Louisiana has filed an application with the parish planning department to have the house listed as a local landmark. If the application is granted, it would be more difficult for a future owner to demolish the house, as it would require approval from the Historic Preservation Commission and the Metro Council.
However, it’s not at all clear the house will be granted landmark status. Because Preserve Louisiana filed the application as an interested third party, rather than as the property owner, it will require a supermajority of the Metro Council to approve the measure, which likely will not come up for a vote until July at the earliest.
