The Mississippi Department of Archives and History on Friday denied a landmark designation for the Ceres Plantation House during a meeting in Columbus, a move likely to restart debate among port commissioners whether to keep or raze the structure.

The move to designate the antebellum home a state landmark failed on a unanimous vote of seven of the nine members of the agency’s Board of Trustees, said public information officer Chris Goodwin.

Placing the landmark tag on the old house, parts of which date to its construction in the 1830s, would have put authority on any changes to the house or its 41 acres of surrounding property in the hands of MDAH. Altering state landmarks must be done consistent with federal guidelines. A drive to protect the two-story structure earlier this year from the private sector and preservationists following the five-member Warren County Port Commission’s stated desire to tear it down for industrial development.

Two offers taken under advisement by the commission in February to demolish the house are likely to be declined and another round of discussion should ensue, executive director Wayne Mansfield said, adding trustees who visited the dilapidated house in August based their vote on the structure not meeting the criteria for the designation. A report prepared for the state historic preservation agency had described the structure as worth protecting due to its architectural style.

In July, trustees had put off a vote to protect any portion of the site at Ceres Research and Industrial Interplex just off Interstate 20 at Flowers. All but one of 83 pieces of correspondence sent to MDAH during a public comment period showed support for preserving the house, built on land owned by the U.G. Flowers family until 1986 when the county purchased 1,290 acres at Ceres for the industrial park.