BRADENTON, Fla. (WFLA) — The Fogarty house is 154 years old and the oldest documented home in the City of Bradenton.Community members rallied to save this home from being demolished, and now it's officially being recognized as a historic landmark.
Bradenton officer recovering after being dragged by driverCurrent owner Dr. Hal Ott said the property caught his eye."And then I saw a for sale sign, and I thought, oh my gosh, a developer is going to buy it, bulldoze it and we're going to lose history," said owner Dr.
Hal Ott.So he bought the house instead. General Contractor Davy Windham got to work taking the house down to the studs and lifting it 10 feet.
"Which was quite a feat, and the Lord was with us that whole time because it was a tricky thing," general contractor Davy Windham said.He said the craftmanship from original owner Captain Bartholomew "Tole" Fogarty held up beautifully."It's an 1871-built home, and it's really well built," Windham said.
"It's built by boat builders, the Fogarty brothers. There were three of them here in Fogartyville, and they were boat builders extraordinaire."So, when he stumbled onto what could only be described as unintentional art when tearing down the walls, he knew he had to preserve it.
"But because these guys were boat builders, when a ship would come in that was storm damaged or needed to be repaired, they would end up saving the lumber and reusing it where they could, and that's obviously what they did on this beautiful wall of multi-c.