Gutted by fire, historic house to be restored

Gutted by fire ,historic house to be restored

By BONNIE DeSIMONE

NEWS STAFF REPORTER

An East Ann Street apartment house gutted in a firebombing incident last August will be restored to its original condition this winter.

Meanwhile, police have had no luck in their search for the prime suspect in the arson, which killed one man and left another severely burned. Police now believe the suspect left Ann Arbor after being questioned and released for lack of evidence on the day of the fire.

Residents of 607 E. Ann St. were awakened before dawn on Aug. 18 by the sound of shattering glass. Firefighters plunged through thick flames and smoke to recover the body of 48-year-old M. L. Hargrow, who had been asleep in a second-floor bedroom. His 19-year-old son, Jessie, suffered severe burns.

Jessie Hargrow was discharged from the University of Michigan Hospitals in Ann Arbor on Nov. 2 and entered the special burn unit in Chelsea, part of the U-M Medical Complex, where he is continuing to undergo treatment.

A FAMILY MEMBER said Hargrow’s badly burned hands are taking the longest to heal, but that he was able to come home for Thanksgiving Day.

Arson investigators concluded that the fire was started by someone who threw a flammable object either through a first floor window or onto the building’s porch.

Jerry Lee Edwards, 24, described by police as a “street person,” was held and interviewed for several hours on the day of the fire. Neighbors and witnesses told police Edwards had threatened first floor tenants after an argument over hashish.

But Edwards was released before police obtained authorization for a warrant to arrest him the following day. Chief William Corbett said police were still interviewing key witnesses and waiting for evidence to be processed in the State Police Crime Lab.

“At the point in time that we had him in custody, we simply had insufficient evidence,” he said.

Edwards apparently left Ann Arbor and has not been seen since. Corbett said he was not kept under surveillance due to lack of manpower.

ONE POLICE SOURCE said that Edwards’ former cronies who frequent the Diag are angry with him, and added, “If he comes back to town, we’ll know it. They’ll call us.”

Meanwhile, the house’s owners, Raymond and Sigrid Harary, took stock of its charred remains and went ahead with plans to rebuild.

The Queen Anne-style house, portions of which date from the 1860s, is part of the Ann Street Historical Block which stretches between state and Division streets. It is the first building lying within one of the city’s historical districts to be damaged in a major fire since the districts were designated at various points over the last 10 years.

Under the city ordinance which governs historic districts, the house must be restored as it ap-peared prior to the fire, and construction must be approved by the Historic District Commission.

HOWEVER, THE CITY’S Building Department authorized a permit for an estimated $72,000 of repairs on Nov. 5 without prior approval of the commission.

Building Department head Jack Donaldson said the employees who processed the permit mistakenly thought the owner’s declared intent satisfied the criteria of the ordinance. He said the mix-up would not happen again.

“We did not mean to circumvent the commission,” he said.

Work on the house will start with repair of the distinctive fishtail-style shingled roof. Other details such as the sunburst designs on the facade must also be preserved.

Sigrid Harary said the restoration is expected to run through January, weather permitting.

Historic Commission spokesperson Louisa Pieper said the only question left to be resolved in the rebuilding involves a fire escape which ran down the front of the house. Such fire escapes are considered esthetically undesirable by the commission, which specifically prohibited their construction on existing homes in the historic district.

The house at 607 E. Ann St., above, as it appeared in happier days; at left, on the morning of Aug. 18,1982. A firebomb destroyed the apartments in the front of the house, leaving one man dead and another severely burned.

NEWS PHOTO JACK STUBBS

Portions of the house are believed to date from the 1860s, with the porch and the Queen Anne-style detail on the facade added in the 1880s. The building, converted into apartments after 1938, is the first lying within an historical district to be damaged in a major fire.