State-Journal.com - Eyesores are coming down

Photo By State Journal/Hilly Schiffer

Philip Enlow rips floorboards from the main house at 311 W. Third St. The house and log cabin, located in the backyard, have been condemned and are going to be torn down. Enlow is going to use the floorboards to renovate an old farmhouse in Scott County.

A homeless man tried to doze in his makeshift bed in a tiny log cabin destined for destruction as the clanging of hammers and saws shattered the peaceful ambiance of historic South Frankfort.

Demolition began Wednesday on the house and log cabin at 311 W. Third St., property long plagued by defaulted mortgages, tax liens, lawsuits, condemnation, vagrants, public debate and even a fire.

Neighbors complained at City Commission meetings that vagrants were squatting on the property. Planning and zoning officials said the carriage house had been used as a toilet. There was talk of a terrible smell.

Commissioners voted June 23 to tear down the main house and log cabin, acknowledging the possibility a carriage house behind the main structure was historic and could be spared.

Even as demolition began, construction officials stumbled on a man who identified himself as Sam Richards and is known by construction workers as "Sh---y Bill." He was dozing in the one-room cabin, soon to be dismantled.

Tony Baute, who owns River City Commercial Services, the company tearing down the structures, said he opened the door of the log cabin Wednesday morning and startled Richards.

Richards said he's been staying on a makeshift bed made of couch cushions covered in a thin blanket since last June.

Richards, said he spends most of his days at a homeless shelter on West Second Street, adding that he didn't know where he'd go. Construction workers said he has one more night before the cabin is torn down.

Richards said he might to try to stay with relatives in South Frankfort. "My mom lives over on Murray Street."

Baute said it's time for the buildings to go.

The property needs extensive renovation, Baute said. His company was originally contracted by the lot's owner, Annette Shuntich, of Cocoa Beach, Fla.

The main house alone needed about $300,000 worth of work to restore it, Baute said.

Baute said he would have torn the back third off the house and started from scratch due to extensive damage from a leaky roof and a fire years ago.

"When you do that much renovation, it's not historical anymore," Baute said.

Alan Salley, who works for Baute, said workers are in the process of salvaging parts of the building before it is razed early next week.

Sally also said the porch, which was not original, will be torn off the carriage house before it is boarded up.

Baute said the vinyl siding will be salvaged as well as the home's floating staircase.

"It's one of the few true floating staircases in Franklin County," Baute said.

Before commissioners voted to tear down the structures, Shuntich said she had lined up a potential buyer from England, her country of origin. For now, Baute said, pointing at a foam mattress on the second floor of the main house, the place has become "a flop house for druggies and bums."

Commissioners acknowledged at the time of the vote the demolition was a temporary salve to the smelly and vagrant-inhabited lot bothering neighbors.

Commissioner Rodney Williams said he hoped the demolition could put a new face on the property for potential buyers.

Roger Stapleton, chairman of the Architectural Review Board, called the house an important part of Frankfort's streetscape.

Hopefully, Stapleton said, the partial demolition would "give investors a new look at the property."
"We hate to do it," Salley said. "But it'd cost too much to save it."