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This website is based on the research of one concerned citizen and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the people or organizations quoted here. |
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Save The Murphy House Group.
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Slated for demolition on
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Contacted 04/20/11 Bob, who is a friend of mine, seemed to have given up on the idea of saving the house, but he set me off on the right track by forwarding to me emails from various people who had blazed the trail ahead of me. He encouraged me with these words:
Thank you for your interest. I attach
my prior email exchange. I estimate a minimum $300,000
is needed to temporarily stabilize the Murphy House.
Nemours, the owner, has not allocated these funds. Now
others need to take leadership. The email below provides
you with the names of others who care and can join you. Mike Castle - Former Delaware Governor and U.S. Congressman Contacted 06/xx/11 Mike responded quickly to my plea for help, called my home and gave me his direct line to his desk. I was very impressed with that, but when he spent over a half hour discussing possibilities with me, I felt he helped out a lot. A fine gentleman who has the best interests of Delawareans at heart. Mike also felt that the deed restrictions could be enforced. He gave me what I felt was the best suggestion yet for use of the house: as a reception area for the hospital complex, for visitors to get information about the various buildings and services in the hospital area. The Ron McD house is down the street, the Nemours mansion grounds, and various agencies within the hospital can all be represented by this information center. Also, the house sits exactly on the path of the Greenways of Delaware and can be used as a stop for runners, walkers, and bikers on the trail. Mike wanted to see details of the deed and agreements, which I sent to him. He suggested that I see a lawyer who specializes in property law who would be willing to pro bono some time on this project. John Cartier - New Castle County Councilman Contacted 04/25/11 John sent me an email back in response to mine: I am happy to participate in an effort to try to save the Murphy House. However, we don't have much time and limited county government powers and resources, but I will always try to help preserve the community's historical buildings from destruction. Again 07/07/11:
Hello Mr. Hoover, Debra Heffernan - Delaware State Representative Contacted 04/13/11 met 05/24/11 Debra was very excited to help out with the project. We met in person and also spoke on the phone and discussed options for use of the house. In addition to some very good suggestions for use, she made the very important point that in the plan to save the house, we should have a deadline for finding a use, so that the house does not follow the example of the Weldon House which was saved, but still does not have an occupant years later. Debra also suggested contacting the Ronald McDonald House to see if they could use it as an annex to their facility, since they are just down the street. 07/07/11 email:
Larry,
Blaine Breeding
Blaine,
Jack Markell - Governor of Delaware State Gov. Markell's office sent me back an email in response to mine stating:
Thank you so much
for contacting Governor Markell with your concerns for
the Murphy House. You raise some interesting
points in your letter and I would like to share this
with the Governor and his Executive Staff for
consideration.
Robin
Brown - Reporter, News Journal - Wrote article on the
house. Link to article.
Dan Griffith - President,
Preservation Delaware (continued) Mary DeNadai, FAIA, Senior Partner, John Milner Architects John Milner Architects is the de facto firm for historic preservation and restorations. They were the company to oversee the restoration of Nemours Mansion and Gardens. They were hired by Nemours to do an assessment on the Murphy House, to give an estimate of the cost to restore it for office use. I called them to see if they could offer any renderings of a finished restoration and talked to Mary, who is John Milner's senior partner, for some time. She was interested in seeing the house restored but gave me a dose of what it would take to do so, about $800 K in their opinion. This was to turn it into office space up to code. It could be used for something else that didn't have such stringent code requirements. She offered to help if there was anything concrete that she could do and wished me good luck. Debbie Martin, Preservation Planner, City of Wilmington Debbie responded to my email with her own, recommending me to Preservation Delaware:
Mr. Hoover: I am happy to
know of your concern for the Murphy House. Although it
is out of my jurisdiction, I am following it through
Preservation Delaware. It is my understanding that the
Memorandum of Agreement that was signed (for the
preservation of the property) is still in effect,
despite DelDOT's attempt to extinguish it. John Carney - U.S. Representative, Delaware One of Rep. Carney's staffers, Larry Morris, responded to my email. He was gracious enough to get involved by making some phone calls to various State agencies. He talked to Steve Turley and Bob King at DELdot and they reported that DELdot has nothing to do with enforcing the deed restrictions. (Makes you wonder why anyone bothers putting deed restrictions in place if no one can enforce them).
Paul Bechly, Citizen member of the
Blueball Project - Recreation and Historic Preservation
Committee Larry,
I think you have done
excellent work with your Murphy House website.
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Contacted 05/09/11 Tom gave me a lot of help and encouragement. He met with me at my home for two hours going over the documents that I had assembled, and gave me good advice. He seemed to think that the deed restrictions could be and should be enforced. He came up with some excellent suggestions for use of the house, including letting a non-profit agency involved with the hospital renovate it or rent it and use it as an outpost office. He also suggested seeing if the Ronald McDonald House could use it as a respite house for parents visiting their children in the hospital who may be waiting around for long days. Tom had his aide, Grant Firestone look into the possibility of using some of the $35 million that the Markell administration allocated for restoring Delaware's historic properties. U.S. Senator Chris Coons' Office Contacted by Amanda Morninghoff on 06/03/11 Amanda, who is on Sen. Coons' staff called me and she expressed that Sen. Coons was very interested in historic preservation and may have some ideas for saving and/or use of the house. As of July 4th, I haven't heard what those ideas are, but I hold hope that they will contact me again soon. Grace Gary, Executive Director of Nemours Mansion and Gardens Contacted 04/2011 Grace represents the interests of the Nemours Foundation. After meeting her, I could quickly see why she has such a position of responsibility. I've never met such a gracious, honest, knowledgeable, and helpful executive as her. She played straight with me concerning Nemours' intentions and offered me every opportunity to conduct my research and to find a use for the Murphy House. I met with her several times including at my home, at the mansion, and for a tour of the inside of the Murphy House. She is an Architectural Historian and certainly knows her business. In a nutshell, she gave
me Nemours' position: The house, they feel, has
lost it's "context" to the area and is not worth
spending the large sum of money it would take to bring
it up to modern code for office use. It has a
narrow stairway leading to the second floor, it has
small rooms, low ceilings, and would need all utilities
redone. Nemours would rather spend their resources
on the hospital for saving children's lives, rather than
on restoring an old house. She has to
answer to the Board of Directors of Nemours with
decision making that pertains to the good of the
organization as a whole. There are other
properties within the wall that also need work to
preserve and the William Murphy House is not top on the
priority list. Christine Quinn - New Castle County Historic Preservation Planner Contacted 04/25/11 Called me 05/25/11. Christine said she was all for saving the house but is pessimistic as to being able to. She said she can't take sides due to the nature of her job. She said the Historic Review Board declared it as historic, thus the nine months to wait for demolition. She referred me to Preservation Delaware. Email 07/07/11:
Larry, U.S. Senator Tom Carper's Office Contacted by Josh Magerik, Projects Director on 06/09/11 Josh contacted me by email. He called Amanda Morninghoff of Sen. Coons' office and together they suggested that I: " submit a letter to both Nemours and DelDOT requesting a delay in demolition so you can work on raising the financial support needed for the renovation work." Pam Cornforth - Executive Director, Ronald McDonald House Contacted by 06/01/11 met 06/02/11 at R McD
Pam contacted me immediately
after receiving my email and she very graciously
scheduled an appointment for the very next day. We
met at the Ronald McDonald House and I told her my plan
to save the Murphy House and presented her with the
suggestion that her organization may be able to make
some use of the building. I suggested a Respite
Area or an annex to the main McD facility. She
told me that she was at capacity at times of the year
and they have to turn over 1,000 families a year away
Their current facility has about 50 rooms.. They looked
at renovating the Bird-Husbands House when it was
available a few years ago and decided against that since
it was too expensive. Greg Lavelle - Delaware State Representative 11th district - Murphy House is in his district. Contacted 05/24/11 Greg called me in reply to my email. He seemed to take the realistic rather than the idealistic approach. He was concerned about costs and where the money would come from. Dan Griffith - President, Preservation Delaware Contacted 05/25/11 and 06/23/11 Dan is my biggest hope for saving the house. His organization has done the most to help preserve the house. I talked to him twice on the phone, he even took my call early one morning when he was in California. Dan gave me links to DELDOT documents including the deed restrictions and agreement between interested parties in 2001. He is trying hard to enforce the covenant from DELDOT and there were 5 parties who signed the agreement to preserve the house in 2002 when the whole exchange idea was conceived. He suggested I contact Bob Vaalahara of CCOBH and Mark Chura of the Greenways His email to me explains a lot: Dear Mr.
Hoover, Follow up email 07/08/11 Larry Terry Graham, Executive Director of Preservation Delaware I emailed Terry, who emailed me back and recommended me to Dan Griffith: Mr.
Hoover,
W. Barksdale Maynard, Architectural
Historian and author of several books on the subject
including "Buildings of Delaware" Thanks for writing,
Larry. I thought about you when I read about the death
of Mr. Tafel. It was such an exciting experience to meet
him and I appreciate your including me. Shailen Batt, Delaware Secretary of Transportation I sent an email to the head of DelDOT and got an instant response: Larry,
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