Warren County has some historic property for sale — cheap.
County supervisors Thursday set a selling price for the old justice court building at 1019 Adams St. and a neighboring house at $172,000. The move is geared to bring an end to years of wrangling between the county, which had wanted to tear them down, and the City of Vicksburg, which had upheld strict rules in its historic district that stopped demolition.
“That’s how much we have in the buildings,” District 2 Supervisor William Banks said after motioning to sell the structures after the second closed session in four days on the topic. Monday, the board decided a sale was their next step but offered no specifics.
The county’s former justice court building at 1019 Adams St. was completed in the 1870s as a house and was once the law office of John Prewitt before he became a circuit judge. In 1984, the county purchased the structure for $126,000 to be home to justice court, a move that afoul of the city’s historic preservation district regulations that bar razing historic properties in most cases. In 2002, the three justice court judges were moved to 921 Farmer St. and the Adams street property essentially became a storage bin.
Known as the “old Verhine building,” the house at 1015 Adams St. was built in the 1890s and was home to Verhine & Verhine law firm from 1991 to 2002, according to city directories. The county paid $46,000 for the old house, officials have said.
The fate of both buildings has been tossed back and forth among the three boards most often since 2004, the year the Verhine building was bought. In 2004 and 2005, the county sought to raze the buildings. The board put a 150-day stay on each request, but the county took no action.
In April, the issue was revived from dormancy and came to a head last week after the city backed up its Board of Architectural Review’s decision in October to deny the county’s latest request to tear the buildings down. It left the county with two options — take the issue to chancery court or put the properties up for sale.
Supervisors’ decision was broken up into separate motions to sell it, set a price and give a nod to part of state law that governs the disposal of county-owned real estate. The board voted 4-0 on the first and third; the price was approved 3-1, with District 3 Supervisor Charles Selmon voting no. District 1 Supervisor John Arnold left the meeting for a prior engagement, but said later he favored selling the properties “all along.”
“We just want to work with the city on this,” Arnold said.
“We can get (buildings and grounds supervisor) Chuck (Thornton) to stick a ‘for sale’ sign out there telling people to contact the (chancery) clerk,” Board President Bill Lauderdale said, adding calls of interest may also be placed to the board of supervisors’ office.
“You can certainly sell it by owner if you want to, or contact a Realtor to do so,” board attorney Blake Teller said.
Title 19-7-3 of state law allows county boards to sell any piece of property deemed obsolete for county business, in a manner that doesn’t have to include competitive bidding. Part of the statute stipulates the property will “promote and foster the development and improvement of the community in which it is located.”
What the final piece of the law means in terms of what an eventual buyer can do with the properties was undetermined. Teller said it was his opinion the law itself would stimulate interest from buyers who would respect its spirit.
“Whether that changes (post-sale) or have any other affect is out of our control,” District 5 Supervisor Richard George said. “We want our money back. To those who are interested, good luck!”
At $172,000, the price is significantly lower than asking prices at historic properties and other large homes in the historic district, where tour homes and other stately structures are routinely listed for $1 million or more.
In a letter to the county from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the Verhine building is a contributing resource to the National Historic Register District and eligible for designation as a Mississippi Landmark. The agency lists the old justice court building as a non-contributing resource to the same national district, protecting it from demolition.