The Crestwood Board of Aldermen will hold a special meeting tonight — Tuesday, March 30 — to discuss moving a historic log cabin from Affton to the Historic Sappington House property.
The Board of Aldermen will meet via Zoom at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 30. The meeting can be accessed at: US02WEB.ZOOM.US/J/3147295000, meeting ID: 314 729 5000 or by phone 1-646-558-8656 or 314-729-5000.
Aldermen will consider a letter of intent concerning the relocation of the Joseph Sappington House, a historic log cabin house in Affton, to Sappington House Park in Crestwood, where the Thomas Sappington House already serves as the Sappington House Museum. Thomas and Joseph Sappington are believed to be cousins, although it is not known from the historical record exactly how they were related.
Owner Jim Freund offered to give the house to the city if it covered relocation costs from its location at 10734 Clearwater Drive to Sappington House Park, 1015 S. Sappington Road.
The cabin’s relocation and setting up the house as a museum would cost at least $200,000, and the nonprofit Sappington House has started a GoFundMe fundraiser to raise money.
As of March 30, the fundraiser had raised just shy of $4,100.
The Crestwood Parks and Recreation recommended the cabin relocation Feb. 16 and the Board of Aldermen first discussed the house in a meeting March 9.
While many aldermen at that meeting expressed their gratitude at the generosity of Freund, others were concerned about the relocation fees in addition to yearly maintenance and other costs the house could require.
The board voted 5-3 to direct City Administrator Kris Simpson to gather more information about the cabin, including surveying the property, the feasibility to maintain the property and engineering studies, with the intent to revisit the topic at the April 13 meeting.
The house has an Aug. 1 deadline to be relocated, although Freund has now given the city an April 1 deadline to decide whether or not the city is interested in pursuing the relocation. That prompted the city to call the special meeting.
Freund said that he would accept a letter of intent from the city by the April 1 deadline, although it would not be a binding or formal agreement and would only serve as the basis for preparing an agreement.
According to the letter set to be discussed by the aldermen Tuesday, the city will review and approve the feasibility, surveying and engineering studies at the April 13 meeting, and then move forward to negotiate final terms of an agreement no later than May 25.
The city would pay all costs associated with relocating the cabin to Crestwood.
