Photo byLinda Harris Jefferson Behavioral Health is willing to give this house on North Fourth Street to someone with the know-how and the bankroll to restore it to its former glory.

STEUBENVILLE — Jefferson Behavioral Health System is willing to give a seen-better-days surplus property on Fourth Street to someone with the time, vision and resources needed to restore it.

CEO Anthony Sheposh said they’d like to see the three-story house, located at 725 N. Fourth St., “returned to its glory days.”

“It’s unique in that it’s in the north end of town, and there’s a lot of revitalization taking place there,” Sheposh said. “I think it has potential, but you have to know what you’re doing and you have to make sure you follow the guidelines for repairing older houses in that area.”

The property, located in the city’s historic preservation district, dates to 1890-1900.

Because of its location, exterior alterations must comply with the Secretary of the Interior’s standards for rehabilitation as well as the design guidelines adopted by the city’s own Historic Landmarks Commission. Essentially, that means preserving its unique historical features wherever possible.

On the flip side, there are property tax exemptions available for qualified property improvements in the reinvestment area.

“I know there have been some people, especially in the northern end of town, who want to see it refurbished and renovated to like it was back in the day,” Sheposh said. “But we don’t have the resources available to us to take on a project like that. (And) to raze the building would cost a lot for us to do, as well. We thought instead of us taking on those expenses, somebody (out there) might be interested in revitalizing the property.”

Sheposh said the property was one of five privately owned, extremely controversial Epi-Center adult care facilities JBH acquired in 2006.

“At the time each housed 18 people who were experiencing chronic mental health issues, long-term mental health issues,” he said. “There was a lot of concern in the community as to how they were operating, the kind of supervision that was taking place on a 24-hour basis with residents living there.”

With encouragement from state and local organizations dedicated to protecting the mentally ill, JBH ended up buying the business — and with it, the five buildings that had been used as Epi-Centers — to better serve the adults who had been living in them.

“The buildings were not in good repair at the time, but there was funding that helped support the stay of residents at the facilities,” Sheposh said. “So it was more than buildings we were buying, we were buying properties that supported people who were in need of ongoing mental health treatment.”

JBH operated the program for two more years while the staff found alternate residences for the adults who were staying there.

Four of the five Epi-Centers were closed outright, and a private concern took over the fifth.

“Of the four that closed, three were sold on land contract and one by lease-purchase,” Sheposh said. “This is the last of them.”

Sheposh figures it’s going to take a “visionary, someone with the wherewithall to know how to put it all back together as it had previously existed.”

“We’d like to get a feel for what their vision is, what they can do and how quickly they can get started,” he said. “It’s probably a long-term project, it’s not something anyone’s going to do in six months’ time or even a year. We’ll probably engage in discussions with the city as well, to see if they have any input and just make a decision from there.”

Sheposh said what they don’t want to see happen is for the property to remain in its current, badly deteriorated condition for much longer.

“That would be a shame,” he said. “Those kind of things are pretty hard to gauge, but we would love to see somebody who has the vision, in particular, and can convey that to us in any discussions we might have before we bind the property to them.”

Locals experienced in historic preservation figure it’s going to take at least $200,000 to restore the house to its former beauty.

Local real estate agent Shannon Price Irvin doesn’t mind admitting she and her husband, David, a pilot, wanted to be the ones to transform the house, but said she had to abandon the idea because of time constraints.

“We believe in the revitalization project so much, we didn’t want to be the ones that let them down,” she said. “I’ve never seen a more beautiful building with more potential. My husband and I have always had a soft spot for that street. We wanted to do it, we pipe-dreamed to do it. But with his schedule, we didn’t think we could do it justice like someone else could.”

Irvin said at one time the inside must have been spectacular: Marble-etched casings around the fireplace on the second level, beautiful wood floors, etching around the window sills, stained glass windows.

“I think there were six or seven fireplaces,” she said. “Everything about it we loved.”

Sheposh said JBH is hoping to find somebody will to take on the challenge in the next 30 days.

“I saw some people on Facebook saying ‘how could we let it get it in this condition, why didn’t they do something about it?'” he said. “They don’t know the whole story about how it came to be in our possession. A nonprofit like us doesn’t have the resources to put into something like that — every dollar we have is committed to providing quality treatment services for people in our community, especially people experiencing drug and alcohol addictions and mental health issues.”

The roof will have to be replaced before anything else. Some of the wood floors are bowed, and Sheposh said there’s no working plumbing, electrical or heating in the building.

Anybody interested in taking on the challenge should contact JBH, Sheposh said, adding they’re encouraging interested parties to make arrangements “to look it over first.”