Free Historic Home... But There's A Catch
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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - You could own a historic house for free. But there's one catch -- you must give the old house a new home.
The home has sat on Washington Street just a block-and-a-half off of Magnolia Avenue since 1904. But the area around it looks nothing like the neighborhood it was even 40 years ago when it was comprised mostly of houses built at the beginning of the 20th century.
"The apartments right there? They weren't there. It was old houses like this," Lance Dennis said pointing at a tight row of modern, four-story, red brick buildings. "And that's what they're doing. They're getting rid of the old and trying to put in the new."
Dennis has lived in the area and watched the neighborhood of old homes like the one being given away disappear during the past 40 years.
"A lot of them went to slum lords and they got run down," Dennis recalls. "The people that owned the places couldn't have the upkeep so they sold it and got rid of it."
The house waiting for a new home is a tattered survivor. The story is, a father built the house for his young daughter and put in an unusual, witch hat shaped turret because she wanted a castle.
But now her castle is weeks away away from demolition.
"If they don't tear it down they've got to pick it up and move it," Dennis said.
And that's exactly what the property owner hopes will happen. Someone can have the house for free if they have it moved before mid to late April.
A house mover says if it's taken to a lot in a nearby historic neighborhood, it could be moved for between $45,000 and $48,000. Further than that would cost much more. But either way the 100-year-old house would still need a lot of TLC.
"They'd have to gut it out and redo everything in their because the plumbing is messed up. All the floors are messed up," Dennis said.