The owner of a Washington Street building that has been an ice-cream parlor and laundromat during its long history was given 30 days Tuesday to take action to keep it from being torn down by the City of Vicksburg.

The building, at 2627 Washington St., is in need of demolition or repair, the Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen declared on the recommendation of Director of Buildings and Inspections Victor Gray-Lewis.

Vickie Bailey, owner for two or three years, told the board she was pursuing legal action against the building’s mortgage-holder or insurance company to obtain funds for a planned renovation.

The board granted her 30 days to begin to pursue her claim through the court system.

The building is in an urban-renewal area that was created by the board Dec. 22. Tuesday’s finding, however, was not made under that plan, City Attorney Nancy Thomas said.

&#8220It is the same process that we use for property all over the city that needs to be repaired or demolished,” Thomas said.

Nancy Bell, the president for the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation, said this morning she believes the building dates to the 1920s.

Former owners of the building said it is known as the Sutton Ice Cream building, for the ice-cream parlor that occupied it until the early 1960s.

&#8220It was that for years and they had those wonderful ice-cream sundaes,” said a previous owner, Josephine Pratt, adding that the sundaes were served in glass bowls as opposed to the paper ones that are more common today. &#8220They mixed them like that.”

After the ice-cream business closed, the building was used as a laundromat called the Sunshine Center, said James McGee, who said he co-owned the building from about 1976 until about 1987.

&#8220It was not an ice-cream parlor when we bought it,” said McGee’s wife, Warren County Chancery Clerk Dot McGee, who co-owned the building. A business called Cloud Sheet Metal and an engineering business were also operated from the back of the building, Dot McGee said.

She said she and her husband had the building remodeled and installed new, self-service laundry machines.

The building has been being used to store restaurant equipment from a former business at 913 Washington St., said Willie Peaches Jr., who accompanied Bailey at Tuesday’s meeting.

The building’s roof is in disrepair and Gray-Lewis said it is unsafe for use unless repaired.

Bailey and Peaches said their plan was to renovate the building.