Less than a week after the deadline for proposals to move the house, the city of Washington, D.C., demolished the long-vacant Jesse Baltimore House. (Historic Washington Architecture Inc.)

Last month the city of Washington, D.C., bulldozed the Jesse Baltimore House, constructed by a plumber in 1925 from a Sears Roebuck & Co. catalogue kit.

"There was a line of people who wanted to move in and fix it up," says Mary Rowse, member of Historic Washington Architecture Inc. "It was a very solid house, despite years of neglect by the city. It was probably the most famous Sears house in the country."

The house, which the National Park Service bought in 1959 and later transferred to the city, had been vacant for more than a decade. The Park Service wanted to clear the two-story house, which some neighbors called an eyesore, to widen the entrance to a park. In September, the park service and the city gave the public 30 days to come forward with offers to relocate the Jesse Baltimore House. Rowse says two people submitted proposals to the city.

The city's department of parks and recreation demolished the two-story house the day after Thanksgiving—illegally, Rowse's group contends, because the owner, the National Park Service, had not issued a demolition licence.

"We believe the city was fully aware that they were not within their rights to demolish it," Rowse says.

A federal agency questioned the demolition process three weeks before it happened. On Nov. 7, the federal Advisory Council of Historic Preservation sent a letter to the National Park Service questioning its agreement to demolish of the house.

In October, the city's historic preservation review board decided 6-3 not to landmark the house, clearing the path for its demolition.

Some applauded the decision, including Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher. "The D. C. government has, for once, stood up against a loud minority of residents, this time in the Northwest section of the Palisades, and demolished a decrepit, abandoned Craftsman-style Sears kit house that for too many years had marred the entryway to the neighborhood's premier park," Fisher wrote on Nov. 28.

That "loud minority" included nearly 1,500 people, according to Rowse's group, who wrote letters to the city in support of the house; several others had viable plans to move the foursquare.

"I didn't get very far. The department of parks and recreation never called me back. The department of procurement never called me back," says Catherine Eig, a resident of Rockville, Md., who wanted to move the house to her property. "It just seems like railroading, especially since they had the house down in less than a week after the period for proposals closed."

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