GLENDALE : Goode House Deal Extended for Year

An agreement to cede a historical building on city-owned property to the Crippled Children’s Society has been extended one year, as the Glendale Housing Authority and the Children’s Society wait for federal funding.

The Children’s Society plans to build a 25-unit apartment complex for disabled adults on the site and restore the 105-year-old Goode House, which would be located in the middle of the project and used as a recreation center.

Glendale officials blamed bureaucratic red tape for delays in building the $3.3-million project, located on North Cedar Street.

Even though the federal government has reserved $1.8 million for the project, funds are not expected to be released for a year because of a complicated approval process, said Madalyn Blake, Glendale director of community development and housing.

The restoration project requires approval by federal, state and local authorities, as well as the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“We are literally holding this project by the hand and walking it through the process,” Blake said.

The city last year pledged to spend as much as $1.4 million in redevelopment funds on the project, including an estimated $400,000 to restore the house, the last example of Queen Anne/Eastlake architecture on its original site in the city.

Glendale officials for eight years have been working to find a way to save the two-story house, which has been vacant and steadily deteriorating. The distinct structure with its unusual architectural appointments was the residence of Edgar D. Goode, a businessman who led the city’s incorporation drive in 1906.

The city acquired the property in September, 1992, after several earlier projects collapsed because of financing problems.