Baton Rouge family fights to save decades-old home from demolition

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A Baton Rouge home built in the 1950s is at risk of being torn down, but the family living there is urging city leaders to reconsider before demolition.

Robert Rodgers said his house off Mohican Street has been damaged by several traffic-related incidents over the years. Despite efforts to maintain and stabilize the home, he said it’s a race against time to save it.

Keeping the house has been an emotional, financial and physical burden for Rodgers and his family.

Years of ownership and repeated collisions

Rodgers has owned the home for the past 13 years after helping a neighbor in need.

“I bought it from a lady that was laying out there one day and she’d see to her son sold it to me when she passed because she said she wanted me to have the house, okay. Her son told me, said, ‘Well, we’re gonna give you a good deal on the house,’” Rodgers said. “And I’d like to have it to bring her remembrance back, you know, because she loved this house.”

Over the years, and most recently in January, Rodgers said the house has been struck by vehicles at least five times, along with three near-miss accidents near the home. He said the incidents are due to the home’s location by a winding highway.

According to the city, the home is at risk of being demolished.

“But they still want to fault me for it and I don’t think that’s right,” Rodgers said.

Code violations and permit disputes

City leaders have issued code violations for years, saying the house is in the right-of-way of oncoming traffic, according to Rodgers.

“At first, they told me I violated. I said, ‘What are you talking about, I violated?’ ‘You added on without a permit.’ I said,’ Y’all gave me two permits,’” Rodgers said.

“That’s been there years ago because I’ve been in this area years ago, you know. I said, ‘It’s been like that. I ain’t never did nothing, I just bought it like that,’” he said.

Rodgers said he wants to see a change in the road’s curve. He said that is what’s to blame for the accidents to and around his home, not the house.

“It’s this curve, and they need to do something about it, you know. But they want to fault me for it. I ain’t the one who built this house. This house was built like this,” Rodgers said.

As the city prepares to determine the fate of the house, Rodgers said he hopes they can reconsider a home he hopes generations of his family can enjoy.

“The way it look now, it might look like it ain’t nothing to them, but it means a whole lot to me. It means a whole lot to me because I could put my kids in here, but I can’t put them in there like that. And they asking me, ‘How long its gonna take you to fix it?’ How long it’s gonna take you to stop these cars from coming in here?” Rodgers said.

A public hearing on condemning the property is set for Wednesday, June 24, during the East Baton Rouge Metro Council’s meeting, which starts at 4 p.m.

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