SEMO, RESTORERS COMPETE FOR OLD HOUSE

The wood columns of the arched-roof front porch are rotting. Trash, debris and dust are the current tenants of the two-story house, which has been vacant for months.

But beneath the dust, debris and falling plaster, there are still signs of old-fashioned elegance -- from its oak floors to its large wooden moldings painted white.

Mike Thies and Rick Werner want to buy the house at 534 Washington, renovate it, and make it their home. But their dream may be shortlived.

The owner of the house, Todd McBride of Cape Girardeau, has agreed to sell the building to the Southeast Missouri University Foundation contingent upon approval by the foundation's executive committee.

Southeast Missouri State University officials had indicated the house would likely be razed, with the property becoming a vacant lot, which would then be available for future needs of the university.

"It just makes me sick," said Thies as he and Werner walked Thursday through the aging building.

The house, which is at least 90 years old, once served as a meeting place for riverboat captains and Depression-era farmers, said Thies. Harry Truman visited the home on several occasions.

They said the house, while rundown, can be restored.

"It can be redone," said Thies. Said Werner, "It just takes time and tender loving care."

Both men said that if they obtain the house they would do most of the restoration work themselves. Thies said they want to put a stucco exterior on the house, restoring it to how it would have looked in the 1920s.

The two men, who operate a retail business in Cape Girardeau, have some renovation experience: They restored a turn-of-the-century home in Kelso, completing the seven-month project last year.

"I love old houses," said Thies, who enjoys fixing things.

Thies and Werner said it would be a shame to tear down such a building.

"They (the university) are never going to use this property," said Werner, pointing out that its situated east of Sprigg Street, far from the heart of campus.

The property sits on a ridge just east of a vacant lot and a parking lot, both of which are owned by the university.

But the parking lot is underutilized now, Thies and Werner said. They said it's doubtful the university would need the property at 534 Washington at any time in the foreseeable future.

Ken Dobbins, the school's executive vice president and foundation treasurer, said the fund-raising group's executive committee is already in the process of voting by mail on the proposed purchase.

"We are still waiting to receive back some of the mail ballots," he said Thursday.

But Dobbins said the issue's "not set in stone" and he wouldn't rule out the possibility that some agreement could be reached that would allow Thies and Werner to buy the home and renovate it.

Dobbins said he briefly spoke with Thies on Wednesday and asked him to plead his case in writing.

"We are willing to listen to his concerns," said Dobbins. "We do want to be good citizens because we are members of the community."

Said Dobbins, "We were approached by the owner to purchase the property. We did not go looking for the property."

As part of Southeast's master plan, the university foundation routinely buys property adjoining the campus when feasible, said Dobbins.

"This piece of property fits right in to the category of reasonable price and we have land adjoining it," he said.

Dobbins said he was not aware of any other potential buyer when first approached by McBride several months ago.

Thies said he and Werner only began looking at buying the house within the last three weeks.

The two men recently made an offer on the house, which came on the heels of a tentative agreement by foundation officials to buy the property.

Thies, who has pored over courthouse records, said the property carries a lot of history with it.

The site was originally part of the Lorimier Spanish land grant. Henry Huhn, a shoemaker and tanner by trade who ended up in the hotel business, bought the property on the courthouse steps in 1892.

The house dates back to at least 1904, because it's listed in the 1905 tax records, Thies said.

In the early 1920s, Mr. and Mrs. A.R. Zoelsmann bought the house and extensively remodeled it, creating a large dining room.

"The Zoelsmanns held many extravagant and well-attended functions," said Thies. Mrs. Zoelsmann was Truman's campaign manager in Southeast Missouri at the start of his political career in the 1930s.

The house subsequently passed through a number of owners before McBride bought it in 1987 and turned it into rental property. A fraternity was the home's last tenant.

Thies said the fraternity was evicted in January for not paying its bills. The water had been turned off several months earlier, but fraternity members continued to live in the house until January, Thies said.

McBride said the house was in such bad shape it wasn't economical to repair it and rent it again.

McBride said that in seeking to sell the house to the university he was "just making a good business decision."