LEWES, Del. -- A family seeking to demolish their home on Chestnut St. is hoping city officials will change their decision in declining the request.
Since December 2022, the Daisey family siblings have been in an ongoing dispute with the Lewes Historic Preservation Architectural Review Commission (HPARC) after requesting to tear down the house and build a bigger one on the double lot.
The commission denied the request arguing that the 123 year-old house contributes to the city's historic district.
"If we take these old homes, and we tear them down one by one, we're going to end up with a Rehoboth," a commissioner says during an HPARC meeting on Dec. 11, 2022. "The home has a lot of character and it does match a lot of the homes that you see in Lewes. Our town can be proud of all the restorations we've made. This is one more we'd like to see."
The alternative, renovating the house, is one the Daisey family says is too expensive and is responsible for pushing many Black families out of the area.
"Who is going to do that," says Dionne Daisey-Williford. "Well, someone who subscribes to that kind of aesthetic. Who are the kind of persons that subscribe to that kind of aesthetic? They're usually White and they're usually wealthy."
"Not only did it impact minorities, it also impacted legacy families who didn't have the money which could often be White families to remain in the community," says Deborah Daisey-Street.
The family says the house has been altered several times since their father William H. Daisey, an African-American man, bought it from a prominent White dentist in 1960.
"We actually don't feel like this home has any historical significance," says Daisey-Williford. "It doesn't to our family, it doesn't to the African-American community."
While the Daisey family's ancestry dates back nearly a century in Lewes, the siblings say their father's wish before he passed in 2021 was to have a bigger home on the property to support the growing lineage.
"He wanted this house to be big enough so the family could come here and visit and spend time together," says Deborah Daisey-Street. "Family was very important to him, and so we started the Daisey Family Legacy prior to his death. That was what he wanted and that's what we've been standing by."
In several meetings with HPARC, the family has presented what they say is evidence that the house has been altered enough to diminish its historic significance.
"I find it hard to believe that based on the multiple changes made to this property, that wouldn't have changed the status from contributing to non-contributing," says Sarah Daisey-Minor.
Lewes HPARC is scheduled to discuss and decide whether the home is still contributing or non-contributing at their next meeting on Aug. 31st at the Rollins Center here in Lewes.
