HYDE PARK — The Hyde Park Historical Society is urging homeowners on Woodlawn Avenue to reconsider a landmark district after one of the street’s oldest homes was demolished last week.
The second oldest house on Woodlawn Avenue between 47th and 58th streets, a stucco house built in 1888 at 5549 S. Woodlawn Ave., was recently torn down by its new owners, prompting renewed calls from the historical society for additional protections on the historic Hyde Park street.
Jack Spicer of the historical society said the demolition should remind homeowners that there are few protections for the homes on Woodlawn between 55th and 58th streets, unlike 47th to 51st streets, which fall in the Kenwood Historic District.
“Now there is urgency,” Spicer said. “Now there has been something torn down and it could happen again and again.”
He said the historical society would support any proposal to the city for a landmark district, which protects some of the most significant homes from getting major overhauls or being demolished without public meetings and a sign-off from the city, but would not act until neighbors said they wanted it.
More than half of the residents on the three blocks in 2012 signed consent letters saying they supported a landmark district, but the proposal was never taken to the city.
At the time, the university was in the middle of a wave of construction projects that made many on the street worry that Woodlawn was becoming too institutional and would lose its residential character.
The university agreed to broad protections for its buildings on the 5700 block of Woodlawn Avenue. But those protections are written into a special zoning district for just the university-owned buildings and do not affect other private property owners.
A representative from the university was not available to comment. It's unclear whether the university would support a landmark district.
Spicer said he thinks that if the university faculty who live on the block support the district, the university would as well.
The home recently demolished that prompted the new discussions about a landmark district is owned by Sanjog Misra, a marketing professor at the Booth School.
A landmark district may have slowed down the demolition, but it's not clear it would have stopped it.
Misra said in October he did not want to demolish the house, but an intractable mold problem that was seriously affecting the health of his family necessitated the teardown.
Neighbors on the block could not be immediately reached for comment.
Spicer said there is still interest in the landmark district.
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