WE FORGET over time how our city's historic structures have been lost. Each time I pass by the vacant lot at 1407 Caroline St., I am saddened. So, what happened?

Nine years ago, in 2002, then-owner Danny Mitchell installed a fine, new, raised seam, dark-green metal roof to seal the structure from elements from above. This was an expensive endeavor, and it was a first step in his renovation plans. Unfortunately, the city staff took issue with the pitch of the roof and would not approve it. It appeared to the staff that it might have been a few inches off from the original pitch. So what? It was a well-made, sound roof of appropriate pitch, and it would have taken a surveyor to determine the difference.

This forced the owners to live elsewhere in a motel for years while the dispute festered. In the meantime, either vandals or homeless individuals frequented the house, which resulted in two separate fires doing damage to the structure. When the new roof was finally approved in 2008, the building had further deteriorated during the six years. As a result, other city staff then found it to be in an unsafe condition.

It is outrageous that these bureaucratic obstructionists foiled the renovation of this building.

Fredericksburg has sometimes billed itself as "America's Most Historic City." What makes a city historic as opposed to just another old town in one of our 50 states? History is made by the inhabitants and their habitations of long ago. It was during the John Adams administration that 1407 Caroline St. was constructed, as The Free Lance-Star pointed out.

The structures present at that time are evidence of that period of design, with framing, bricks, mortar, and siding. It has been stated that nothing historic remained of this building except some of the foundation and some of the chimneys. I submit that there was, in addition, the framing and some of the siding. Some may have been replaced during repair over the years, appropriately, with similar beaded siding with equivalent spacing, thus leaving a stately old and fine architectural gem in the 1400 block of Caroline Street.