A historic 5,000-square-foot home in Palmetto is being offered to anyone who wants it - for free.
There's a catch, though: whoever gets it has to move the home off its property.
The Cone Corp./Cone and Graham Inc. of Tampa, which is developing the property, plans on building a new RV park on the 90-plus acres off of Bayshore Road. They say the home built in the 1927, is in bad shape and not worth anything.
At first they said they planned on knocking it down. When concerned residents spoke up and disagreed, they said they’d give it to anyone who wanted it, provided they come out and removed it.
“It’s a beautiful house,” said Cathy Slusser, Director of Historical Resources for the County Clerk's Office. “It’s so representative of our community’s history, of that time frame in the 1920s when things were much slower and grander than putting things up very quickly."
Slusser says losing the home would be a loss to the community. She said buildings in worse shape have been saved.
"Take our Manatee River Hotel that so many people wanted to tear down,” she said. “Now we’re celebrating what a beautiful building it is. This one could be the same.”
Although the home is listed on the Florida Master Site File as the Strickland house, it is not on the National Register of Historic Places.
Slusser said for that to happen, the property owners would have to add it. However, she said doing this would not save the home.
Slusser said since the property belongs to the developers, they are free to do as they wish with it. She is hoping someone will come forward and offer to move it.
She hopes the developer building around the old home instead of knocking it down.