The first and second floors of 1105 E are all bare studs, exposed electrical wires, spongy floors that sag beneath your weight and the black scars of at least one fire, maybe two.
And if you think that’s bad, you should see the basement.
Which is dangerous, because the narrow stairs descend into darkness, the handrail stopping short.
Down there, a wooden deck is suspended above the dirt floor like a life raft. A wall is buckling, most of it tilting toward the ground but the window angling up.
“This was probably a beautiful home,” Shawn Ryba says from behind the glow of his cellphone’s flashlight. “But it just hasn’t been loved.”
Ryba is the executive director of the South of Downtown Community Development Organization, a new nonprofit created to preserve and revitalize some of the city’s oldest and poorest and densest neighborhoods.
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And he saw the purchase and demolition of 1105 E as a solid and symbolic first step in that effort. But the house has also put the group in a delicate position.
The group raised $15,000 through fundraisers and donations, and its board put up the rest of the $49,000 purchase price. Late last month, South of Downtown became the new owner of the 118-year-old home, which had sat vacant for more than a decade. The former owner had started renovating it but had never finished, and the hollow shell attracted vandals and squatters and five city housing complaints since 2010.
In April, the nonprofit’s Isabel Salas to help create the future of the corner property: After the house is gone, what should replace it?
Another home? A gathering space? A place for food trucks?
“We’re trying to pick people’s brains about what would they want to see this become,” Salas said at the time. “I think that should be the driving force in the conversation, to see what the community wants.”
But during the public engagement sessions, they heard that at least some of its neighbors want the house saved — rehabbed and returned to the Everett Neighborhood as a single-family home.
“One of the things people were really passionate about was preserving the existing homes in the neighborhood,” Salas said this week. “People really love the character of the neighborhood and the aesthetics.”
Already, the stretch of E Street between 11th and 12th is dominated by boxy, slip-in apartment buildings. Just two homes appear to be lived in by families, a third is as stripped and sad as 1105, and a fourth has been turned into offices.
The South of Downtown group was prepared to pay about $20,000 to demolish 1105 E St., but it also wants to honor the neighborhood’s wishes.
“It’s a delicate balance,” she said. “Some people have said that they’ve brought back houses that have been in rough conditions.”
It’s likely not worth it, Ryba said. First, the purchase price was driven by what Ryba sees as an inflated assessed value: $64,200 for a problem property on a third of a lot with little yard.
And bringing the house back to life would cost more than it would ultimately be worth, and the group doesn’t have the money to subsidize the project.
“Private sector people would be doing it if they could,” he said. “But they’re never going to make money on it.”
Still, Ryba and Salas aren’t construction experts, so they’ve asked NeighborWorks Lincoln to take a look and come up with rough repair estimates — what it would take to fix the foundation, to put up walls, to install plumbing and electrical, to strengthen the floor.
And they’re inviting the neighborhood to see for themselves. On June 20, it will host an open house to share the renovation estimates and give tours of 1105 E St., or at least the parts safe enough to hold visitors.
“We want to give people an opportunity to go inside and see what the house looks like,” Salas said. “We want to be on the same page with everyone as far as condition.”
But they have another motive. The house at 1105 E is just one neglected house in a city with plenty of neglected houses, and this is a chance to give the community a firsthand look.
“This is what some houses are like. It’s unfortunate, but this is not unique,” Ryba said. “With the housing shortage, we can’t afford to have houses sit like this.”
The South of Downtown group will decide the future of the corner at 11th and E after the open house. And then it will start raising money to buy the vacant home across the street, one of several it’s identified.
“That’s our next project,” Ryba said.