By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
If the Blackmer House is to be saved, absentee owner Jonathan Blackmer still insists that part of it will have to be a public museum devoted to movie and stage memorabilia connected to his actor parents.
In that respect, not much progress has been made toward saving the house at 112 S. Fulton St. from demolition.
The 1821 house is tied to the late actors Sidney and Suzanne Blackmer and also to the city’s early development.
“We have a double history there,” said Judy Kandl, a member of the Salisbury Historic Preservation Commission.
The HPC received an update Thursday on efforts taken to find an alternative to demolition since last October, when Blackmer asked permission to tear down the house.
Hamstrung by N.C. general statutes giving it little choice, the commission approved a certificate of appropriateness for Blackmer’s demolition request last fall, but the law also allowed for a 365-day delay.
The grace period is designed to give the commission and community time to explore options in possibly saving the historic house.
A HPC committee of Kandl, Jack Errante, Ronald Fleming and Susan Hurt met Feb. 20. The committee decided it needs more information about the condition of the structure, which was seriously damaged in a 1984 fire.
It also discussed getting an appraisal and a thorough exterior and interior evaluation of the house.
Meanwhile, Historic Salisbury Foundation has committed resources toward coming up with a preservation plan, according to Senior Planner Janet Gapen.
Earlier this week, Gapen also spoke by telephone with Jonathan Blackmer, who lives in Virginia.
Gapen said Blackmer remains adamant that he doesn’t want to sell to a private party and see the house returned to a single-family residence.
Blackmer is willing to meet with anyone interested in putting the house to public use and devoting at least a portion of it to a museum for Blackmer memorabilia, Gapen said.
Blackmer expressed the same sentiment last October.
Gapen said Blackmer has concerns about granting access to the inside of the house for safety reasons. He had a private contractor, Al Wilson, assess what it would take to restore the house, and Wilson gave him a figure of $390,000, Gapen said.
Hurt said she was left with two questions.
What’s the feasibility of finding the particular kind of buyer Blackmer is looking for, and what kind of role, if any, should the HPC play in finding a buyer?
Gapen suggested that the subcommittee gather as much information as possible and try to keep open the communications with Blackmer.
HPC Chairman Anne Lyles expressed optimism that something can be worked out, such as devoting the first floor of the home to a museum and the second floor to offices.
“There are possibilities there,” she said.
While Blackmer said in October that he would be agreeable to salvaging materials from the house before its total demolition, Lyles said it’s probably premature to talk about that.
“We’re still thinking it’s going to be saved somehow,” she said.
Sidney Blackmer purchased the home in 1931. Suzanne eventually passed its ownership on to her son, Jonathan.
Sidney Blackmer died in 1974; Suzanne, his second wife, in 2004.
Jonathan Blackmer said last fall he has significant memorabilia from his parents’ lives that could be part of a museum. He said he could not afford to restore it as a residence.
Sidney Blackmer appeared in about 160 movies and has a star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
He won a Tony in the Broadway production of “Come Back, Little Sheba” and had a role in one of the first significant films, “The Perils of Pauline,” in 1914.
Suzanne Blackmer also performed on Broadway and in numerous films.
John Fulton constructed the house. It was part of Salisbury Academy and used as a residence for girls from out of town. When Fulton died in 1827, the city honored him by changing the name of the street past his house from Academy Street to today’s Fulton Street.
The house became a school again in 1851 under the guidance of 14 men, including John Ellis, who would become N.C. governor.
William Overman, the father of U.S. Sen. Lee Overman, had bought the property in 1848, and A.J. Mock bought it in 1863.
Sidney Blackmer purchased it from the Mock family.