Tuesday, October 19, 2004

Baum House is gone!

Yesterday we turned down Baum Street in Kill Devil Hills, and were shocked to see the old Baum estate home on the oceanfront just about reduced to a pile of rubble! That happened quickly! The property just closed its sale to its new owners on October 14th. They are a local builder and someone from Pennsylvania. According to the story in the Coastland Times, the buyers had been denied a permit to demolish the structure four times. The article also said that the buyers were interested in trying to work something out with the town to preserve the structure, but eventually decided that the tone the town had taken was hostile and sought only to delay them. Payback for the town's attitude was mentioned as the reason for going ahead with the teardown.
While a great deal of our income is derived from the real estate and building industry, I was appalled at this situation. I believe both parties to be seriously at fault, and the worse part is that this injustice is totally irreversable now. History is gone.

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