Hamline-Midway residents are pressing forward with efforts to convince Hamline University not to tear down some of the oldest housing stock in the neighborhood for at least a year.
That would give the university some time to update its expansion plans and determine if it really needs to knock down the houses in question.
Hamline University bought this house at 1549 Minnehaha Avenue and plans to tear it down. Some in the area are relieved. Others are outraged.
Recent demolitions have included Hamline's White House and also a series of nearby properties on Hewitt Avenue.
Unveiled in 2008 but mostly put on hold during the recession, the overall campus expansion plan calls for at least 27 buildings to be replaced.
Advocates have formed a Facebook community, Historic Hamline Village, and are asking for a one-year moratorium on demolition.
A neighborhood committee, the Hamline-Midway Coalition Development Committee, voted this week to support their moratorium proposal. The proposal next goes to the full coalition board before it is presented directly to the university.
Of course, not everyone objects to the demolitions. Some property owners have said they'd be happy to be rid of eyesore properties in the neighborhood. Other residents say the university has quietly amassed a sizable number of homes and failed to invest in their upkeep, a kind of demolition by neglect.
Hamline officials have said that their campus expansion plans were presented to the community in 2008 and should not be a shocker, but they've agreed to meet with residents anyway.
A community meeting with Hamline University is scheduled for the evening of Sept. 17 at Hamline United Methodist Church, 1514 Englewood Ave.
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