Bridges Outreach renovating historic home as part of new home ownership program

Jul. 1—A historic house, once on the city's Blight Elimination Program, will have a new life as a home for one local family.

The local nonprofit Bridges Outreach is currently in the process of renovating the house at 725 N. Courtland Ave., located on the city's near northwest side. It's the beginning of a new program started by the organization, known for its mentoring and youth programs, where it acquires homes, renovates them and sells them for a modest profit to a family served by Bridges or someone connected to a family served by Bridges.

The goal, Travis Taflinger said, is to increase homeownership in the city, with the idea that home owners will have pride in their property, maintain it and, thus, provide the homeowners and surrounding neighborhood more stability.

"At Bridges, we see a lot of bad landlords, and a lot of them that are bad are out-of-towners, and they just don't care about the community, and they don't do a really good job of taking care of the folks," Taflinger said, adding that the nonprofit is expecting to flip and sell one to three houses a year to a Bridges family.

Bridges was gifted the property by the city of Kokomo in June after the nonprofit approached Kokomo Mayor Tyler Moore in January and inquired about city-owned houses that could be utilized for the new program. Bridges was given a list of possible properties, and Bridges' board quickly saw the potential in the North Courtland Avenue house.

And it's not surprising why.

The two-story Italianate-style brick building, according to historical accounts, was built by Rawson Vaile, whose name itself is preserved in Vaile Avenue. It stands out — in a good way — among the other homes in the neighborhood and is located adjacent the Cloverleaf Trail.

Vaile — an anti-slavery journalist, lawyer, teacher, school superintendent and an early settler of Kokomo in 1857 — constructed the 2,000-square-foot brick building in 1875, making it one of the oldest homes in the neighborhood.

The property was gifted to the city's Blight Elimination Program in 2018, but instead of demolishing it, the city, under former Mayor Greg Goodnight, decided to preserve it. The city spent money on brick repairs, tuckpointing on the houses' exterior walls, new doors, fixed up the roof and installed new windows.

"With the trail, Pettit Park school, we looked at this house, too, that has some history here. You've got two options. ... " Goodnight told the Tribune in September 2019. "What's that neighborhood need? Some sort of historic structure that's preserved and something that the neighborhood can be proud of? Or do they need another vacant lot? We were to that point. And we think it's worth preserving."

Even after the city's contributions, the house was still in need of a lot of work. Walls and floors have holes in them where critters and birds have made their nests, and the stair to the second floor has collapsed.

The house was one of two historic properties at the time that the city bought for preservation purposes, along with Douglass School, located at 1104 N. Bell St. That building was taken over by nonprofit Embracing Hope of Howard County, which plans to turn the former school into a community center.

The Vaile house has taken a bit longer to find a new purpose, but it's one Moore said he's excited to see happening.

"I could not think of a better opportunity for that property to be repurposed or a better partnership from which to make it happen," Moore said in an email. "Being able to use the same process that the City has used for years to give properties new life, I am excited to work with Travis and the Bridges Outreach team to support this project. Not only will Bridges be helping kids in our community but entire families now as well."

Workers are busy gutting the place in preparation for the complete remodel, which includes opening up the first-floor front space, creating a main hallway on the first floor, constructing a new staircase to the second floor, putting in new drywall, ceilings and floors, installing all new bathrooms and more.

In all, Taflinger said Bridges expects to spend $80,000 to $90,000 to renovate the house, with construction lasting a few months. A grant from the United Way of Howard and Tipton Counties has made the renovations possible.

Once completed, Taflinger said the house would be sold at a modest profit to a likely first-time homeowner.

"As long as we go over $120,000, we'll get it (our money) back," he said. "We're not investors. We don't need to make money. We just can't lose money.

"The budget is $90,000," he continued. "We hope to sell it for $100,000, and we're hoping it's worth $120,000. ... Our goal is whoever owns it has some equity in it already. That way everyone wins. We're keeping people busy, the neighborhood gets stronger and better looking, and we move on to the next one."

Tyler Juranovich can be reached at 765-454-8577, by email at tyler.juranovich@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @tylerjuranovich.