Buffalo Rising Online

Oct 26th 2005, 12:20am By queenseyes

Following article is from The Allentown Neighbor published by the Allentown Association.

Update: Hold the phone, it looks like there might possibly be a deal pending. We'll keep you up to speed in coming days.

The Allentown Association has lowered the price of the historic Coit House to $119,000. The Board of Directors decided to reduce the price to attract more interest from prospective buyers. A covenant protecting historic elements of the interior will obligate all future owners, requiring them to preserve certain historic elements of the interior. The exterior is protected as a landmark in a historic preservation district. "The protections on the house are not burdensome," said Shon O'Connor, chairman of the Association's Coit House Sale Committee. "The items on the covenant list are really common sense that anyone with a bit of sensitivity would want to preserve, to protect the value of their investment. We were careful to allow freedom to update the kitchen, baths, the back wing of the house, etc." The purchaser will be encouraged to proceed with steps to obtain a tax advantage with the covenant, he added. The board hopes the price reduction will elicit firm offers this fall, but if no purchase agreement is reached board is considering mothballing the house for winter.

The seven-bedroom, three-and-a-half- bath house is the oldest surviving dwelling in Buffalo and was the home to prominent and influential Buffalonian George Coit. In the early 1800s George Coit put the Coit house and his other holdings up as collateral along with three other Buffalonians to create the Buffalo Harbor and win the designation as the terminus for the Erie Canal. George Coit's company built the first canal boats that traveled the canal and Governor Clinton traveled on a boat owned by George Coit the day he declared the canal officially open. It is believed that Governor Clinton was probably a guest in the Coit House during that visit. The Coit House has been the center of several private and community efforts to save it over the years. Originally located at Swan and Pearl Streets, it was moved in 1868to 414 Virginia St. in Allentown to make way for commercial development downtown, By the 1960s a century of neglect had put the house at risk of demolition once again. Community and private support banded together in the late '60s to purchase the house and steward it into the hands of an owner who had the means to bring it back from years of neglect. The Allentown Association purchased the house in 1999 to restore it and convert it into a house museum. Though much work was done to the Coit House over the last six years, a lack of funding has forced the Association to offer the house for sale.