The final expenditure was about $400,000 more than the project’s initial estimated cost.
Base officials say the house was demolished this year after being designated “excess infrastructure.”
Charles Edward Taylor built the engine that made the historic flight of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk possible, according to historians. He has been recognized as a pioneer of aviation mechanics. The namesake house was found on the base’s Area A.
The historic building was vacant before the renovation, essentially serving as a hotel for what the Air Force considered “distinguished visitors” or “VIPs” — officers ranking at colonel or above — and civilian executives.
Last month, the home was demolished, according to photos obtained by the Dayton Daily News and interviews with base officials.
‘Excess infrastructure’
A reader reached out to the Dayton Daily News about the demolition, saying it felt like a “tragedy.”
Brick houses built on Wright-Patterson in the mid-1930s “show craftsmanship specific to an era of history,” this reader wrote. “Personally, it would be lovely to see the existing homes restored/renovated and maintained with habitation.”
The house was last renovated for $1.24 million in 2011, a spokeswoman for the 88th Air Base Wing said in response to questions from the Dayton Daily News.
The home was converted from family housing to a distinguished visitor’s quarters on the base, used by the 88th Force Support Squadron.
The 88th Air Base Wing is responsible for security, infrastructure and an array of support services to operate the large Air Force base.
In 2021, the building was returned to the 88th Civil Engineer Group for management, this news outlet was told.
After a review by the group, “it was determined the cost to convert it back to a family housing unit, as well as making additional code and compliance updates, was not financially tenable,” said a base spokeswoman, Lisa Riley.
“As excess infrastructure, the decision was made to divest through demolition, in accordance with Air Force goals,” she said.
The building was demolished last month.
Tom Schatz is president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization that critiques government over-spending, waste, fraud and abuse.
“Something that was renovated in the last 15 years should be livable and useable,” Schatz said. “It does seem to be both excessive and premature — and it’s perhaps a failure to determine what other purposes it (the home) might serve.”
“Certainly the federal government should look to make what’s being done more effective, more efficient,” he said.
‘A five-star experience’
The building won an interior design award in 2010 from Air Force Materiel Command and featured a professional-grade kitchen. Guest feedback over the years had been positive, said a base spokesman in 2012, John Klemack.
“It’s a five-star experience,” Klemack told this newspaper more than a decade ago.
The house was located about a mile from the privately run Hope Hotel, next to busy base gate 12A. A decade or so ago, Air Force policy stipulated that VIPs could stay at that hotel only if no on-base facilities were available, a base spokesman told this newspaper in 2012.
Remodeling and maintaining these vintage homes was never inexpensive.
Historic residential housing of the kind found at Wright-Patterson is rare in the Air Force, Brig. Gen. Mark Slominski, mobilization assistant to the commander of Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), told this newspaper last year.
“They are high. They are higher than what you would expect to spend in a recap (remodeling) of a home off the installation,” Slominski said then.
A Wright-Patterson home renovation project turned heads after a routine U.S. Army Corps of Engineer contract award in December 2022. The corps awarded a contract to Messer Construction for the renovation of 29 homes on Wright-Patterson — at a cost of about $2.4 million per home.
Given the historic nature of the homes, tiles, windows, brick exteriors and metal roof materials need to be chosen carefully.
“It’s a pretty substantial investment in materials that are very specialized,” Slominski told this newspaper.
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