The owners of a historic, partially collapsed Dupont Circle row house hope to raze the building rather than restore it, infuriating area preservationists who say the property was not maintained and left to deteriorate.
“If you tear it down or even demolish it carefully, you’ve got this gaping hole in what was an ensemble of buildings that probably won’t be fixed in my lifetime,” said Richard Busch, president of the Dupont Circle Conservancy.
The 10-bedroom, circa-1900 home at 1841 16th St. NW, owned by George Washington University professor Amy Mazur and neurologist Dr. Joe Liberman, is located in the Sixteenth Street Historic District. In June 2008 a portion of the second-floor interior brick wall fell in on itself, and the third floor started to topple.
The six residents of the home at the time were forced to permanently evacuate, and neighbors were put out temporarily. Past tenants of 1841 reported that the building suffered from obvious defects such as cracking walls and exposed wires. The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has declared the home an imminent public safety threat.
Mazur and Liberman wanted to raze the $1 million property last summer. DCRA is still debating whether to issue the permits.
“Under the law we’re obligated to give the owners time to come up with ways to try to save it,” DCRA spokesman Michael Rupert said.
But in the end, Rupert said, the owner “will have the opportunity to make that decision.”
The Mazur/Liberman home in Cleveland Park is valued at $2.4 million. The couple could not be reached Monday for comment.
The 3,254-square-foot Dupont home is the “cornerstone” of a series of row houses designed by architect Nicholas Haller, Busch said.
“You should not reward these millionaires for demolition by neglect,” said Rebecca Miller, executive director of the D.C. Preservation League. “These are people who have clearly just flouted the law, and they should not be rewarded for it.”
There are conflicting figures on the cost of tearing down the home versus saving it. DCRA contends that simply stabilizing the building would cost upward of $600,000, four times the price tag for demolition. But a study commissioned by the preservation league concluded that both projects would run about $150,000.
In an e-mail to DCRA Director Linda Argo, Ward 2 D.C. Councilman Jack Evans urged the agency to shield the home from the wrecking ball.
