Union may initiate effort to restore Rickenbacker homestead

By Mark Ferenchik The Columbus Dispatch Saturday August 23, 2014 9:09 AM

The plumbers and pipefitters union is considering leading a charge to restore Eddie Rickenbackers boyhood home on Livingston Avenue.

Spurred by a July Dispatch story that said plans to turn the house into a museum havent materialized, union official Eric Stevenson set out to change that.

This is part of our heritage, said Stevenson, the market resources director of Plumbers and Pipefitters Local Union 189. We all live in Columbus and central Ohio. Its a shame something like this needs the help.

The city acquired the house at 1334 E. Livingston Ave., less than a mile east of Nationwide Childrens Hospital, in 1998 for $42,000.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to paint the house, install security, remove debris, correct code problems and put up signs.

But the house remains empty and the interior unfinished.

Stevenson said the union would provide the plumbing and heating and cooling work, and ask other trades to do their part.

That request will be discussed at a coming meeting of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, said Dorsey Hager, the councils executive secretary/treasurer.

Were talking among each other to see what we can do to finish the project, Hager said.

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Union may initiate effort to restore Rickenbacker homestead