Old feedmill

My wife and I bought a old water powered feed mill in 2000. We turned it into a antique shop and did well with it till the antique market went away. We had a major flood back in Sept. and had a little damage to the building. The mill is in a small village with a lot of tourist business. FEMA has come along now with the flood damage and said all buildings have to be up to code. Of course no money help from them, just enforcement of the building codes which might be a lot of money. We have had the building for sale and no takers. I guess it might be time to have the building destroyed. We can sell the building for the lumber value. There are some 14 by 14 inch by 32 ft oak beams and a lot of 3 by 12 inch oak floor joists along with all the hardwood flooring. It is a hard decision to have this landmark of a building destroyed. It was built in 1869 but burnt in 1937 and rebuilt in less than 100 days after the fire. I write this just to get some of your thoughts on what you would do. Thanks

Can you have it declared as a historic landmark?

Then you might get some relief from building codes or get some money for updates.

Good luck
Rich

Would help to know where your mill is located. What to try to do varies widely between states. Many states have programs for historic buildings. So post us the where/what and we can maybe be more help.

The mill is in a small village about 20 miles west of Wisconsin Dells. Thanks

I agree with others, look into some historic building preservation organizations that can help get around catch all regulations for building codes.

Get some exposure, see if the local TV station will do a story on it.

Do you have a real estate agent? If so, you may need to express the need to move this property, or look into another agent with more exposure in the historic building market.

The mill is in a small village about 20 miles west of Wisconsin Dells. Thanks

If you are interested in preserving the building with out bringing it up to code maybe getting it registered as a historic site might work for you. If you do a search there is lots of info. I know some people who think it is too restrictive but that might work to your benefit. Might be worth checking out at least.

I hate to say it but with your recent change in political control at the state level in WI, I think your going to see more regulations not fewer. Still you need to be looking at state/federal programs to preserve historic buildings. One that comes to mind right away is The National Register of Historic Places. Buildings over fifty years old can qualify.

Really study anything you do find. Putting some thing on the National Register of Historic Places can be a double edged sword. It very well could stop zoning changes from impacting you now but it will also limit what can be done to/with the building in the future. I think it also can get you some tax breaks too.
Nation Register Listing information

be a shame to tear it down. tell FEMA to stick it. maybe get the local TV/ newspaper/historical society's ear for some help from the public to preserve it.

If pushed to no other choice, call Barn Wood Builders, from your description Mark Bowe would be interested in the lumber.

Don?t know if it will be of any help, but you could contact the Society for the Preservation Of Old Mills
SPOOM

Do you have the old grist millstones I buy and sell them but it's a long way from NC you may be able to sell them I sold one recently that was 39in.diametermand 19in.thick for 3500.

I am in Canada so I really don't know much about the rules down where you are.

My questions may sound stupid, if they do I apologize, I am just curious.

My impression was that the role of FEMA was to provide disaster assistance.

What are the repercussions of not doing what they say?

Will they just not assist you if future damage occurs?

Can you not get insurance without a rubber stamp from them?

Do you care or do you need their approval to adhere a lenders rules?

Or are they the power that ensures buildings are up to code?

Being in a small village does the village have it's own codes to follow or are they governed by a one size fits all code at a municipal, state or federal level?

You mentioned you had been using it as an antique shop, is there different levels to adhere to for a building open to the public versus a privately held property?

My thinking is if something was built to code even if it was many many years ago then that is the standards it is expected to maintain and is grandfathered at that status with the exception of any substantial new renovations or rebuilds which would need to be up to current standards.

If every building on my place all of a sudden was required to be up to current code they would almost all have to bull dozed down along with most of the buildings in the area and in town.

Really sad that North America can't seem to let history survive. Look at the U.K. where they have many buildings that are centuries old and still in use. How do they do it?

You might ask the FEMA people how much bad publicity they are willing to endure just to push their agenda when it could be that they are not on as solid legal footing as they pretend. I would contact my congressman to see what help they might provide. By the way, how much would the codes cost and are they really what you would do regardless. Hope you get it back up and running without undue burden.