SALEM — The Ropes house has been saved.
The developer who had planned to demolish the 1896 Queen Anne house on Felt Street, once one of the jewels of North Salem, has had a change of heart.
"Based on the strong interest in the community to preserve that house, over the weekend (the developer) agreed to allow me to submit a revised plan to the Board of Appeal that calls for the preservation of the house," said Scott Grover, the attorney for ICECAT LLC, the East Boston developer.
The announcement came on the eve of tonight's Board of Appeal meeting.
The developer, who bought the property in November for $420,000, had submitted a plan that called for demolition of the five-bedroom house and historic barn and the subdivision of the 1-acre-plus property into three lots.
ICECAT still needs appeals board approval for a variance. However, instead of clearing the site and building three homes, it now plans to build on two of the lots and preserve the large Ropes house on a third lot.
The house went on sale Friday for $399,000.
"I believe his intention is to try to sell it as a separate lot and let somebody else take on the rehabilitation project," Grover said.
Preservation of the house will be a condition of the board's approval, the lawyer said.
After word spread last week of plans to raze the historic house, which has fallen into disrepair after years of neglect, the developer was contacted by representatives from the city's preservation community.
Jessica Herbert, chairwoman of the Historical Commission, met with the developers at Felt Street last week along with several architects to discuss options and ways to save the house. Historic Salem Inc., a private preservation group, also got involved.
"I think it's the right move for the neighborhood," Herbert said. "It's one of the key properties of North Salem, one of the last farms. ... It's an intact Queen Anne Victorian, which is very unusual. It's been neglected, and yet the interior and exterior are still intact. It's a model for restoration."
Herbert wrote to WGBH-TV's "This Old House" to nominate 18 Felt St. as a candidate for renovation this coming season. As of yesterday, she had not received a response.
Although preservationists would like to see a barn/carriage house on the property also saved, the developer has not made that commitment.
"If somebody comes along to buy the house and to move the barn, I don't think (the developer) would stand in the way at all, but he's not agreeing to that as a condition of the (Board of Appeal) approval," Grover said.
The attorney confirmed his client's pledge to save a large copper beech and other trees on the property.
The Ropes estate, which had been in the Ropes family more than 110 years, once was a large property that stretched nearly to the North River. Over the years, pieces of the land were sold off to build other homes in the neighborhood. In recent years, the historic Ropes property has fallen into disrepair. All that remain today are a rundown house, a garage and an old barn.
In the end, ICECAT realized this would be a hard project to get approved if demolition were part of the plan.
"He's a businessman," Grover said of the lead developer. "Based on the reaction he got, I think he realized if he was going to get the approval he was looking for, he needed to compromise on that point."
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