The Mandeville City Council is hoping to preserve a piece of its history, but saving that piece may cost the city a pretty penny.

According to archival records, William Jourdan’s home was built between 1851 and 1852, and according to City Attorney David Cressy, Jourdan has lived there for approximately 35 years.

For the last three he has been haggling with his insurance company trying to find a way to save the historic home. However, Cressy said, Jourdan has decided repairing the home, which was severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina, is too big a project for him to handle, and he has applied for a permit to demolish the structure.

Mandeville resident William Jourdan is willing to donate his Lakeshore Drive home built in the mid 1800'€™s to the city if the Mandeville City Council will haul the structure off the property and properly restore it. (Staff Photo by Anne Lautzenheiser)

While the permit has not been issued, Cressy said there is no reason the city cannot approve it, and it appears the home will be demolished and with it a vital piece of Mandeville’s past.

That is unless the city takes Jourdan up on his offer.

Jourdan has offered to donate the home to the city with the stipulation it is moved off the property and properly restored.

Resident Rebecca Rohrbough said it is the city’s duty to do what it can to save this house.

“It would be nothing short of criminal to not save this house,” Rohrbough told the council Thursday night. “It is the responsibility of the council to do that.”

Councilman Jeff Bernard echoed her sentiments, saying one of the city’s biggest assets is its historic architecture.

At the urging of Bernard and former council member Zella Walker, the city contracted with Sally Reeves, an archivist and historian, who provided it with a survey of historic and architecturally significant structures.

In Reeves’ report, she writes that Jourdan’s home, located at 2603 Lakeshore Drive, is a “very historic and a significant structure.” She wrote that while the home has continued to deteriorate since the storm, the demolition of the home would constitute a great loss to Mandeville. Her report lists the home as the “singular Mandeville-style cottage now found in Louisiana.”

On Thursday evening, which, according to Zoning Chairman Nixon Adams was coincidently the 175 anniversary of the founding of what is now the city of Mandeville, the council approved a resolution authorizing Mayor Eddie Price to advertise for bids to move the home.

However, Cressy anticipates it will cost in the neighborhood of approximately $200,000-$300,000 to get the house stable enough to move. But Rohrbough said preserving this historic structure is worth the money.

“We are sitting on a gold mine here,” she told the council.

Mayor Pro Tem Trilby Lenfant suggested auctioning off the home on site as an alternative to the city paying for its move and restoration.

If this is the route the city decides to take, she said, the sale would include the stipulations the home be moved, restored and remain in the city of Mandeville.

Future plans include not only saving this structure, but others like it, as the city works to develop some historic guidelines protecting the homes labeled historically or architecturally significant.

Reeves’s report identifies 450 historic buildings in the city. She will give a presentation on these structures later in the year as part of the city’s 175th anniversary events.

“Our next step is regulations on how to protect and preserve these structures,” Bernard said.