CAPTIONS:
One: Frank Duveneck’s former home lacks siding on its north side.
Two: The attic floor is giving way, while gaps in the siding and missing window glass leave the attic open to rain and wind.
Three: The hole in the foundation has gotten significantly worse since this 2022 photo.
Four: Rudimentary bracing props up the interior wall on the south side, as seen in the dimly lit photo below.
Empowered by new conservatorship law, Covington trying to stabilize renowned painter’s house before it’s ‘lost forever’
COVINGTON, Ky. – For years, the boyhood home of one of Covington’s most celebrated sons – the internationally known painter, sculptor, and art instructor Frank Duveneck – has been gradually falling apart and fading into oblivion.
But now, after a fight that has stretched on for about eight years, a Kenton Circuit judge has given the City of Covington the legal authority to move in and stabilize the building and in so doing preserve a piece of history important not only to Covington but to the world.
The ruling by Judge Kate Molloy appoints the City as the building’s “conservator,” using a 2-year-old state law called the Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act.
It gives the City temporary control of the property at 1226 Greenup St. in hopes that it can be saved before it collapses.
“We have all the powers, duties, and rights of an owner to possess, control, rehabilitate, and maintain the property, but we’re not the owner,” said acting City Solicitor Frank Schultz.
The building – a privately owned structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places – is vacant and in danger of collapse after years of neglect. Among other things, a wide and widening hole in the foundation has eroded dirt underneath and allowed access to the building to water, animals, and transients; parts of the building are open to the elements; and the south side of the 2½-story structure shows a significant and ominous bulge.
“When you’re inside, you can look out and see daylight everywhere,” said Brandon Holmes Covington’s Neighborhood Services Director. “Our sole focus is to save the building and its history before it’s lost forever. Hopefully we have enough time to accomplish that.”
Already, the City has worked to secure the building by boarding up one massive hole at ground level and changing the locks. An engineer who has done an initial inspection concluded that supports and bracing needed to be erected immediately to keep the building from collapsing. That includes both foundation work and external wall replacement.
Once that’s complete, workers will clean up animal and human feces and other debris and health hazards.
The City will then hire an architect and/or structural engineer to draw up plans to fix the building top to bottom -- its foundation, framework, roof, and “skin” – to make it stable, weather-tight, and compliant with exterior Code regulations. Based on those plans, a request for proposals will be issued to find a construction company to do that work.
Holmes said the City’s 2024-25 budget sets aside $175,000 in federal grant funds for the project, but he fully expected to exceed that amount. The City is pursuing other historic grants and additional funding.
The Conservatorship Act requires the City to issue periodic progress reports to the court. It also allows the City to recoup its expenses, “but we will worry about that later,” Holmes said. “Right now, our focus is simply to act – now that we finally can – before it’s too late.”
The Duveneck House & Studio were listed on the National Register of Historic Places on Sept. 29, 2015, according to the Kentucky Heritage Council.
The main part of the house is described as a 2½-story Italianate wood frame with a single-story rear wing and a single-story attached studio.
The application describes the convoluted history of the building, whose original structure was built by Duveneck’s stepfather in 1861, housed a beer garden operated by the family, and was expanded in 1875. Duveneck the artist grew up in the Covington house and stayed there during long visits while teaching in Europe. He eventually returned to live there full time, painted in the studio built behind the house about 1900, and was living there when he died in 1919.
The building is historically unaffiliated with the building to the immediate south at 1228-1232 Greenup, which was once a hardware store and later hosted neighborhood and cultural events. Like Duveneck’s former home and studio, the building at 1228-1232 Greenup is owned by a non-profit called the Frank Duveneck Arts and Cultural Center Inc.
Duveneck’s former home has been long vacant. According to court records, the Center has taken no effective steps to shore up and/or repair the structure despite years of conversations with City officials and despite citations related to an increasing number of violations of building, safety, electrical, plumbing, nuisance, and health codes.
Ongoing City inspections show – just since 2019 – an increasing number of violations related to a broken foundation, trash and debris, non-working or missing gutters and downspouts, broken windows, an unsafe chimney, and dilapidated electrical equipment. Animals and transients have made the building a home on an ongoing basis. Despite the repeated notices of violations and fines and associated costs totaling more than $16,000, the unsafe conditions have not been fixed. Nor have the fines been paid.
The fight came to a head in the Courts when, after years of fruitless negotiations, the City on Jan. 25, 2024, filed a petition in Kenton Circuit seeking to be named “conservator,” calling the building’s state “deplorable and dangerous.” After a hearing on April 5, 2024, Judge Molloy found enough evidence to justify the appointment of a conservator but gave the Center one last chance, until July 31, to act. After a final hearing Sept. 6, she appointed the City its conservator.
It's believed to be the first time the law has been used in Kentucky, at least on a building of this size.
Frank Duveneck, 1848-1919, was a renowned artist, sculptor, and teacher widely considered one of the most celebrated American artists of the late 19th century and early 20th century.
He painted in the style of Realism, and his work can be seen at places like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Cincinnati Art Museum. He is often called a “father” of American painting, with some of his most famous works being The Whistling Boy, The Cobbler’s Apprentice, Portrait of a Woman with Black Hat, and Lady with Fan. He is also acclaimed for his sculpture, among which is the funereal effigy of his wife, the artist Elizabeth Boott Duveneck.
More about Duveneck can be read at “Frank Duveneck: American Master,” the 2020 book that can be found at the Cincinnati Art Museum shop.
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