owner of genny's diner faces legal woes

My mother's dearest friend that recently passed sold that house to "him". She was elderly and incapable of maintaining the space alone, and my mom helped her relocate. So sad, she was a collector and had aspirations of opening an antique store there. The structure was in need of repair, but it WAS impressive (and historic) and she hoped for a better turn out. Fair play?

"We'll sell it," Faris said. "We'll do the right thing. We're going to move along. We're strong enough to handle whatever comes our way Monday."

The deadline Faris has to choose an option is Jan. 25. Faris says he has chosen to sell the house.

He owns the building.

He should be able to tear it down if he wants to.

It is hardly historic and was an eyesore even before he bought it.

He owns the building.

He should be able to tear it down if he wants to.

It is hardly historic and was an eyesore even before he bought it.

I disagree. We live in such a disposable society. When a building gets old, we tear it down and put up a new one.

By restoring older buildings we retain history around us, just by walking down the street. What do you want there? A nice new condo? I used to own a building in old louisville, and the construction was amazing compared to modern buildings. Now, when we build, we get (mostly) buildings that aren't even going to last long. No problem, tear it down and build a new one.....aargh.

If anyone has been to places like Prague, you appreciate the beauty of old buildings. In Old Town there, there are essentially statues built into the facades of most of the buildings. You have faces staring at you as you walk down the streets. We simply lack that in the US.

Cheers

He owns the building.

He should be able to tear it down if he wants to.

It is hardly historic and was an eyesore even before he bought it.

I agree. People don't need government telling them they can't get rid of an eyesore. What makes this place "historic" in the first place?

If anyone has been to places like Prague, you appreciate the beauty of old buildings. In Old Town there, there are essentially statues built into the facades of most of the buildings. You have faces staring at you as you walk down the streets. We simply lack that in the US.

I've been to European places like Prague, But, I'm not about to compare cities from the 14th Century to Louisville. Might as well compare an apple to a fish. I LOVE Louisville. And, I Love my German roots. But, I'm not looking at them to put up castles on Preston Highway. I was freaked about the one in Lexington first time I saw it...I agree some people don't take Historical properties as well as they should, but there comes a point where an old building needs to be destroyed. As much as I hate to say it.

What makes this place "historic" in the first place?

Probably age of building and architecture. Many people work to preserve Historic Homes. That's fine. But, this one, I don't see hope for it.

We restored a building that had been missing most of it's roof for 18 months. The arms that hold up the edge of the roof were rotted thru. 17 of 21 decorative corbels were missing. There were no downspouts. It needed hew doors. A window had been removed and boarded up. Unfortunately it was not secured prior to boarding and the entire wall was sagging. The floors were 3-4" out of level. The water pipes were split. The previous owner punched holes in the walls as he was evicted. The HVAC system - literally - blew up.

We restored it. We would not even have considered tearing it down - it was in very good shape.

Historic buildings should be restored if at all possible. And it's almost always possible. It just takes vision. And $. And good craftspeople.

That building next to Ginny's could be a showplace.

If this was the last building of it's kind in that area fine then fight to restore it. There's no reason however that building shouldnt have been razed because until this are gets serious about real public transit we need more parking.

This guy belongs in jail. This house was fine until this guy bought it and trashed it when the city told him he had to fix it. Read the article in Broken Sidewalk and look at how it looked in 2000 when Frank bought it.

http://brokensidewalk.com/2009/12/30/ul ... nue-house/

This guy belongs in jail. This house was fine until this guy bought it and trashed it when the city told him he had to fix it. Read the article in Broken Sidewalk and look at how it looked in 2000 when Frank bought it.

Is there personal animosity between yourself and Frank Faris? I have to ask myself this question after someone believes a person belongs behind bars.

I believe Faris should be held accountable for not following through with the letter of the law. Faris has ALWAYS said his intentions were to pave over this house. He's failed to upkeep the home. That's it. Failure to upkeep on the home and property. He's guilty of it. There is no decision left for him to make. He's going to court.

My only hope is that it is secured and either restored or torn down. After two dangerous fires in the structure it's not woth getting a firefighter badly hurt or killed arguing about history. It is past time to deal with the issue.

the thing that gets me, is that he was aware that he couldn't tear it down due to historic preservation, but ignored this when he purchased this property.

That's not exactly accurate. He purchased the property before it was declared historically protected. I'm not taking sides; just keeping the facts straight. It's an unfortunate situation for everyone.

Now I get it...I think. Clifton was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. However, it was not "protected" till being designated a Local Landmark District back in 2003?



Er something??

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure how all that works either. The story in the hood used to be: he bought the house, a group of people in the neighborhood caught wind that he was going to raze it, the group got on its soapbox, and had that particular house declared protected. (Or was it that the fight for historical protection was just fueled by the news that the house was going to be torn down? I can't remember.) That's all hearsay of course and the article paints a different picture. Like I said, it's all very unfortunate. It was a very lovely house and now it is such an eyesore. Bur does he really deserve time in jail for it? I don't know. What's the right answer? Eminent domain? It's not like the city has any money to fix it up either. Sigh.

http://brokensidewalk.com/2009/12/30/ul ... nue-house/

This site has pics of the house from 2000 to 2006. It looked to be in really good shape in 2000.