The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page N008

8 THE PALM BEACH POST WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2008 University may face fine for neglect of historic house Diana PI. Norton Museum of Art Detractors say PBA lets homes fall apart in order to raze them. Arkona Ct. SP A Vb MILE Palm St. Cranesnest Way A little bit of history The Mango Promenade Historic District includes 136 homes.

A pretty east-west walkway runs through the neighborhood. Mango Promenade Historic Park PI. West Palm Beach District Tuxedo Ln. Kanuga Dr. .2 Austin Ln.

03 Flamingo Dr. Historic house Victoria Dr. Demolished house 0 100 FEET Mango Promenade Sophia Dr. MARK HEMPHILLStaff Artist Special to Neighborhood Post A 1919 bungalow at 1605 S. Olive known as the Farry-Randell House, was demolished on Jan.

21. The owner, Palm Beach Atlantic University, has been accused of letting the building fall into disrepair so that it could be razed. Preservationists are asking the city to fine the university the maximum fine of $15,000. repair. Anthony Ohlson, a stu- dent rent By TIM PALLESEN Palm Beach Post Staff Writer WEST PALM BEACH Palm Beach Atlantic University faces a possible $15,000 city fine over a claim that it allowed a house built in 1919 to deteriorate until it had to be demolished.

PBA got a demolition permit from the city, saying its bungalow at 1605 S. Olive Ave. in the Mango Promenade Historic District was damaged beyond repair by a hurricane. "We found it would cost $500,000 to fix it," university attorney Patrick Whitehead said. "That's a huge chunk of money for a nonprofit university." Nevertheless, the city's Historic Preservation Board will ask a special magistrate on Friday to punish the university for a violation of the city's "demolition by neglect" historic preservation law.

"It's the responsibility of owners of historic homes to maintain them so they don't fall into disrepair," said Rebecca Henderson Young, chairwoman of the the preservation board. "We're asking for the maximum $15,000 fine because the college allowed it to deteriorate," said city historic preservation planner Friederike Mitter, who will prosecute the case. Neighbors in the Mango Promenade district fear that PBA might allow other historic homes it owns to deteriorate so that they, too, can be demolished. The bungalow, which was torn down on Jan. 21, was known as the Farry-Randell House.

It sat along an east-west pedestrian walkway between Olive ing one of the houses, agrees. "We feel that we live in something they don't care to take care of," said Ohlson, whether his The Mango Promenade walkway runs through a neighborhood of homes built between 1914 and 1926 that have the city's first carriage-house garages behind them. Palm Beach Atlantic University owns several houses in the district. Deviney who worries mm Avenue and Dixie Highway for which the entire neighborhood of 136 homes is named. Homes along the actual promenade, built between 1914 and 1926, were the first in West Palm Beach to have carriage-house garages.

The neighborhood is bordered by the Norton Museum of Art on the north and the El Cid Historic District to its south. PBA still owns five residences for student and faculty housing. The university tried to win neighborhood support before Friday's hearing by offering to paint some houses and plant landscaping along the promenade. But neighborhood president Britt Deviney said the community rejected PBAs compromise offer after he looked at the university-owned houses and spoke with students who rent them. "They're trying to put a Band-Aid on a shotgun wound," said Deviney, who now fears the school's other houses are falling into dis- Photo by TIM PALLESEN home with a sagging floor can withstand the next hurricane.

Young said the preservation board shares Ohlson's concern. But Whitehead promised that Palm Beach Atlantic will maintain its remaining historic homes on the walkway as the city requires. "Historic preservation is not at the top of our list of priorities," he said. "But we will do what we've got to do as good citizens." The preservation board's concern was first noted in 1995 when Mango Promenade became a historic "Our concern is not just the college," Deviney said. "If they both succeed, it could eventually eradicate our historic district." district.

The city's preservation planners noted then that PBAs historic homes were deteriorating and that the college performed only "unsympathetic repairs." Neighbors also fear that historic homes owned by the Norton Museum on Cranesnest Way might someday be torn down to allow for gallery expansion..