TRURO — The 180-year-old Greek Revival house at 7 Pond Road is quickly slipping past the point where it can be saved, according to members of the Truro Historical Commission and neighbors of the one-acre property.

Holes in the roof have opened the interior to animals and the elements. Windows have fallen out. One of the Doric columns gracing the front is decaying, and the floor of the large porch has caved in.

The house has stood vacant since Joe Fiorello bought it for $425,000 in 2011, except for a couple of brief stays by students in a small apartment at the back of the house.

Historical commission chair Matthew Kiefer brought the property to the attention of Town Manager Darrin Tangeman a few months ago, he told the other commissioners on Aug. 15, hoping that it might be a candidate for the state attorney general’s Abandoned Housing Initiative.

Town officials are now investigating the process for making such a referral. The commission has yet to vote on a recommendation, and Tangeman would have the final decision.

Progressive Decay

According to town records, Fiorello, an artist, filed an application to renovate the house into a duplex and construct a studio shortly after he bought the property.

The studio was built in 2014 but never finished or used. The duplex renovation never took place.

In 2017, a neighbor complained that someone was living in the rear of the main house, and the health dept. inspected the property. The rear unit lacked fire and carbon monoxide detectors, and Fiorello told inspectors that he had allowed a couple of students to stay there for a short time as a favor for a friend.

Inspectors found a panoply of violations in the main house, including peeling paint, holes in the wall, rot in the foundation, structural defects, and a window that had come loose from the back of the house allowing rodents and vermin to enter. Trash bags filled with yard waste littered the yard, and vegetation was encroaching on the porch and front entrance, inspectors noted.

The health dept. ordered Fiorello to correct the violations, and he addressed some of the easier fixes, records show. Major problems persisted, however, and in an email to Fiorello in September 2017, Health Agent Emily Beebe said her understanding was that Fiorello would either renovate the property or sell it. In the meantime, the house had to remain vacant, Beebe wrote, and Fiorello was required to contact the building and health depts. before any occupancy would be approved.

Because the property has remained vacant, health officials have not been involved since 2017, Beebe said. The structure has continued to deteriorate since then.

Fiorello told the Independent that the house was in disrepair when he bought it at a foreclosure sale. A previous owner had stripped the interior, including many plumbing and electrical components, he said.

“I knew the property had potential,” Fiorello said, adding that his needs have changed since 2011, which is why the duplex renovation never happened.

Fiorello said that he received an email from Beebe on Aug. 19 seeking a meeting with Fiorello and the town’s building commissioner. “We’ll meet as soon as possible,” he said, but “we’re not committing to anything right now.”

Fiorello said he was not aware of any discussion of the state’s Abandoned Housing Initiative.

State Involvement

The initiative, part of the attorney general’s Neighborhood Renewal Division, aims to bring residential properties with severe code violations back into habitable condition.

Cities and towns can refer up to 10 blighted, vacant, or abandoned residential properties to the division, which will then work with the community and the owner on a plan to bring the property up to state codes of human habitation.

If the owner does not comply, the division can ask a regional housing court to place the property in receivership. After making the property habitable, a court-appointed receiver can bill the owner for the repairs and receive a priority lien against the sale of the property if the owner is unwilling to pay.

The owner retains title during receivership, but if he does not pay the receiver’s costs after the repairs, the receiver can petition the court to foreclose on the property and force an auction.

In 2023, Wellfleet applied to have a decaying 19th-century Queen Anne-style house at 177 Peace Valley Road placed in receivership.

A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office confirmed on Aug. 19 that the office filed a petition in regional housing court in May to have a receiver appointed for the Wellfleet property. Robert Bonds of Boston, the owner, then came to an agreement with the town and the attorney general, which resulted in a court order obligating Bonds to secure the property, clean the yard, upgrade the septic system, and apply for any construction permits needed to bring the property up to state codes for human habitation.

Bonds has 270 days from the issuance of those permits to complete the repairs. If he fails to meet that deadline or show good cause for failure to meet it, the attorney general can move to receivership to take charge of the repair work, the spokesperson said.

Historical Commission

At the Aug. 15 meeting of the Truro Historical Commission, Kiefer said the house at 7 Pond Road has been a “longstanding concern” and that it has a “high level of significance to the town.”

Louise Perry, who lives next door, called the Greek Revival house “the grande dame of the neighborhood.”

Asa Sellew Sr. and Emma Sellew farmed the land around 7 Pond Road and built the house around 1840, according to the town’s inventory of historic houses.

Their oldest son, Thomas Sellew, was lost at sea on the schooner Dart in 1828, while their son Asa Jr. was a farmer and carpenter, and son Louis was a builder.

In the late 1800s, Josiah Sparrow ran a large dairy farm at the property and was one of six milkmen in Truro in 1901. The building also was a restaurant between the 1930s and 1960s, first as Scott’s Chowder House and then as Mediterranée.

“It would be terrible to lose the house,” Perry told the commission.

Commission vice chair Chuck Steinman said that, while simply discussing receivership can motivate some owners to make repairs, he did not know if that would suffice in this case. The commission had discussed the property with Fiorello several years ago, and he said he couldn’t afford the needed work, Steinman said.

“It’s demolition by neglect,” Steinman said. “It’s just horrible what’s going on there.”