Site selected to move the Wilkins House
March 20, 2014
GREENVILLE, SC – March 20, 2014 – The Save the Wilkins House Initiative announced Wednesday it has an agreement to move the historic structure in the Augusta Road community – an important step needed in saving the structure from demolition.
The new location would be at the corner Mills Avenue and Elm Street in Greenville — if the Save the Wilkins House Initiative is able to raise the $360,000 needed to move and restore the house that dates back to 1876.
“This is an important step toward our goal,” said Kelly Odom, the group’s chairman. “But we as Greenvillians have much more to do.”
The Save the Wilkins House Initiative also announced it has raised more than $85,000 in pledges and donations to date as well discussed routes the 1,000-ton house will take to its new home.
Wolfe House Movers proposes two possible routes. One would go along Augusta Road, left onto Mills and approximately one-tenth of a mile to the corner of Mills and Elm, which is currently a vacant lot. That entire course would be 0.25 miles. The second route would go through an office development off Otis Street, then onto Mills and to the final site. That route would be 0.2 miles.
Local residents have banded together and with the aid of the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation to form the Save the Wilkins House Initiative, Odom said.
The project’s goal is to move it to a new location and set up easements that keep the two-story Italianate-style home from ever being demolished, said Mike Bedenbaugh, executive director of the Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation.
“Since day one, this effort has been about preserving a treasured piece of Greenville history,” he said.
Community support has been strong and earlier this week the Alta Vista Neighborhood Association pledged its support, Odom said.
The house currently is located at 1004 Augusta Street, and was built for William T. Wilkins, a merchant who made his fortune in New York before coming to Greenville and marrying a local woman, Harriet Cleveland. The house was constructed by local contractor Jacob Cagle.
For more information on the Save the Wilkins House Initiative or to donate money to the cause, go to palmettotrust.org/savethewilkinshouse or learn more at the SaveTheWilkinsHouse Facebook page.
About the Palmetto Trust
The Palmetto Trust for Historic Preservation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the endangered historic places of South Carolina through preservation development, advocacy, education and networking. The Palmetto Trust is the state’s only statewide membership organization committed exclusively to preservation.
