It didn’t take long to find an owner for the dollar house on Niagara Street. As a matter of fact, the dollar house now has three owners… three friends who are all about to graduate from the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo. When they learned that there was a house for sale on Niagara Street for one dollar (see original post), they didn’t quite believe it. Joseph DiPerna thought it was a joke at first. But he told his buddy A.J. Hibsch about the house and the two of them decided to take Harvey Garrett up on his offer to see the house. After that initial visit they called a third friend of theirs, Daniel Jeffrey, who soon learned that the two had found a fixer-upper that could be picked up for a dollar… or 33.333 cents each.
It turns out that the three architecture students all have their own unique abilities to contribute to the rebirth of the structure. A couple of them have had a lot of experience with construction and have even worked on a house in similar condition. The plans for this house are to restore the façade to how it once looked, while altering the interior to suit their needs. The plan is to have a one-bedroom apartment on the first floor with a family unit that will most likely occupy all three floors. “When we went to housing court,” they told me. “The building inspector wanted to make sure that we were not planning on removing the façade in order to make it spin [laughing]. We promised that there would be no spinning facades (see background story here). It was Judge Nowak who gave us the thumbs up. We’re planning on living here for quite a while… which means that we’re in no rush – we want to make sure that things are done right.”
This is a win-win scenario for Buffalo. Not only do we get a house fixed up, we also retain three UB grads who will all become major proponents of Niagara Street’s issues and concerns. Let's hope that Harvey has a few more dollar houses to announce in the near future.
Photo: Left to right along with hometown - Joseph DiPerna (Finger Lakes near Ithaca), A.J.Hibsch (Strykersville), Daniel Jeffrey (Lower Hudson Valley)