3916 Kilbourne Road
Demolition and Subdivision
Nearly 30 years after the destruction of M.C. Heath’s iconic Heathwood Hall, the Heathwood neighborhood lost another of its early houses in 2007 when this circa-1929 American Foursquare was demolished in order to subdivide its 2.37-acre tract of land into nine plots for development. This action led to a public outcry by many Columbians intent on preserving what they view as central to the context of historic neighborhoods – historic buildings. Their concerns were matched by other citizens who felt that restricting such development actions would hamper property rights.
More often than not, the destruction of historic buildings results in the loss of not only historic context but also materials that can be salvaged to help maintain other vintage properties. Such moves make both environmental as well as monetary sense. Fortunately, in some instances, the entirety of an historic property can be salvaged by relocating the building to another site, a move that allows for architecturally sympathetic infill in historic neighborhoods that have lost aspects of their context through catastrophic events or through demolition by neglect in which sites are left to deteriorate over time.
