The Little House v Goliath

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This is one of those stories that I just hate.

Mostly, because they always seem to have the crappiest endings.

This one is just getting fired up, and I guess I'm an unhealthy combination of romantic and Luddite at heart - I just love old stuff, especially if it's really old.

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Like this house.

This one-hundred-and-twenty-four-year-old house in Phoenix, Arizona.

Arizona State University decided, as so many of these universities do, that they needed a new, fancy schmancy medical building. The university powers that be, along with the city, decided that this one corner in the downtown area would be a really great place to put a massive 'five-story, 170,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art medical building' to house research, a brand-spanking new medical school, and all the associated bells and whistles.

...On April 9, ASU broke ground on what it’s calling the “ASU Health headquarters” at 620 N. Fifth Street. The building will house the John Shufeldt School of Medicine and Medical Engineering, ASU’s new medical school that was announced last year.

According to ASU, the new ASU Health headquarters will be a five-story, 170,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art medical building dedicated to research, teaching and the future of Arizona’s health. With a $200 million construction price tag, the headquarters is scheduled to open in the ASU’s 2028 fall semester. It will be located on the lot situated between North Fourth Street and North Fifth Street, and East Pierce Street and East Fillmore Street.

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They held the groundbreaking ceremony at the site, and, beside the university president, all of the luminaries of Arizona elected officials were there, from the Phoenix mayor to the governor, to celebrate the big deal.

Another fellow was there, too, whom nobody paid much mind to, and, upon further reflection, maybe they should have.

...Among those at the groundbreaking ceremony were ASU’s President Michael Crow, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and Gov. Katie Hobbs. So Barry Schwartz, whose home happens to be in the way. Schwartz, who is the current tenant of the Louis Emerson House, said he approached Crow and asked him what would happen to it. Not knowing who Schwartz was, Crow replied, “We’re going to demolish or remove it.”

89-year-old Robert Young, who owns the Louis Emerson House, was pretty upset by the cavalier answer his tenant of eight years had received, and even more so by the eminent domain filing for 'immediate possession' filed by the Arizona Board of Regents right after the ceremony.

...ASU has secured all the parcels on the plot except for the Louis Emerson House, and now it’s made moves to do just that. On May 22, the Arizona Board of Regents, which governs the school, filed a condemnation action lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court. Using eminent domain, ABOR requests “immediate possession” of the Louis Emerson House and the land it sits on.

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Mr. Young has owned the 124-year-old home for fifty years, was married on its front steps, and actually had to shift it over 'a few dozen feet' to avoid demolition due to a street realignment in the '90s. The home is on the city's own Historic Property Register and is one of the few homes left standing that are older than the state of Arizona itself.

Which is actually pretty cool.

...The Louis Emerson House was once one of many houses in the sprawling neighborhood of Evans-Churchill, but redevelopment from the 1960s to the 2000s eliminated virtually all the homes. Preserve Phoenix treasurer Roger Brevoot said the Evans-Churchill neighborhood was one of the earliest and most prominent neighborhoods where “the movers and shakers” of Phoenix lived.

“This is one of a handful of maybe three or four houses from the pre-statehood era that remained to reflect the first edition subdivision in downtown Phoenix,” Brevoot said. “We have precious few turn-of-the-century houses in the city of Phoenix surviving.”

As he says...

...“Why would anyone want to tear this down? It’s like a statue,” Young said.

The history of the house and the neighborhood it was once part of is really neat as the dickens if one cares about that sort of thing.

The early plans still online for the facility indicate that the Louis Emerson House would not be part of the university's property. What changed?

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WE DECIDED WE NEEDED THAT 

...Visuals published online by the University continue to show the Louis Emerson House parcel carved out of the ASU Health headquarters footprint. However, a University spokesperson said in a written statement that it became clear that the lot is needed for the project after a thorough planning process.

"The university has made several offers to the owner to purchase the parcel, including offers which allow for the house to be moved, that have not been accepted," the spokesperson stated. "The university is moving ahead with the project and is evaluating options regarding the Emerson House."

...Saneeya Mir, a spokesperson for the Phoenix Planning and Development Department, said in a written statement that the city was working with the University to construct the ASU Health headquarters on a pair of parcels, not including the one on which the Louis Emerson House sits.

"The Louis Emerson House is not included in the current proposal submitted by ASU to the City," Mir stated. "The property would need to be acquired by ASU if they were interested in redeveloping it."

So...do they really 'need' it?

ASU tried to lowball Mr. Young with their first offer, and then knocked it close to a million dollars on their second, but the point wasn't the money - it was the irreplaceable house. 

Would they move it instead?

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Nope - too expensive.

Well, then, said Mr. Young, we're happy to stay right here. And he's kept paying lawyers to try to do so.

The case is gaining some national attention... 

...with John Rich now working to get in touch with Mr. Young.

Mr. Young's tenant, the fellow who got the demolition news at the groundbreaking, has embraced being the historic house's caretaker for the eight years he's lived there, and shares its unique history with the community during events. He is not a fan of the university's people skills.

...Schwartz, the tenant of the Louis Emerson house who has lived there for eight years, wants to make the historic house into a community space. (He declined to share what he pays in rent.) A visual artist, he has created a sort of museum inside the house, displaying photos and other archival material of historical Phoenix. He even built a coffee bar in the house that he opened to the public during recent First Fridays.

Schwartz said ASU has been hard to reach and opaque with its plans for the house. He was only recently served the condemnation action lawsuit early Friday morning. Standing outside the Louis Emerson House, looking at the dirt lot where the soon-to-be ASU Health headquarters will be, Schwartz felt frustrated.

“They’re like the mafia without a face,” he said.

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The city, for its part, is knee-deep in progressive argle-bargle CYA as this rapidly turns into a big pile of public-relations dog poo.

..."We remain focused on supporting thoughtful development and working collaboratively with partners to ensure projects align with community priorities and applicable historic preservation processes," Mir said in the statement.

University healthcare juggernaut versus the little old man in the cottage.

Stayed tuned.

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