An ongoing project to renovate a Bowling Green landmark took an unexpected turn with the demolition of a large part of the Southern Queen building. The demolition caught city and preservation advocates by surprise.

Starting in 1906, the Southern Queen served Black travelers who were not allowed to stay in white-only facilities. The Southern Queen was featured in the famous “Green Book” guidebook for Black travelers at the time and was one of the few Green Book buildings still standing in the country. PVA records show the city paid $248,500 for the building from the Moses family and two other surrounding parcels of land in 2022. The building was severely dilapidated and city officials shored up the structure with the intent to find someone to preserve the historic building.

In turn, the city subsequently sold the property to Desmond Bell, head of Bell Vue Properties, for $1 in 2023 with the understanding that he would renovate and preserve the historic structure as much as possible.

Bell said at the time he planned to use the building for short-term rentals and a business center.

But the roof of the building, the top floor and some other portions were removed last week, leaving some of the ground floor as the only part of the Southern Queen still standing.

Bell said the removals of the top floor and roof were due to extensive damage.

“I had to remove it all, because I got to make sure it’s safe,” Bell said.

Brent Childers, director of Neighborhood and Community Services, told the Daily News that some demolition work was expected when a building permit for the Southern Queen was filed. However, the extent of the work came as a surprise.

“I was not expecting to have to see this much removal of the structure,” Childers said.

Permits for construction and demolition go through code enforcement, which is housed in NCS. Childers said to his knowledge, no other permits were filed aside from one for construction.

“Many times in renovation projects, we’ll have demolition as part of the renovation and it’ll all be covered under a building permit,” Childers said. “That’s not atypical to have.”

Childers said the renovation work on the Southern Queen was “never intended” to be a total preservation project. He said some proposals initially received by the city called for a full demolition then rebuild of the structure, but those were not awarded.

He said while there were expectations of needing to demolish some of the Southern Queen, the extent of the damage was unknown.

“The intent of this one was to save as much of the building as you can and build from that back up,” Childers said. “We were just hopeful that there would have been more (saved). But after years and years of neglect … that damage was evidently more extensive than than we all thought.”

Childers said the city will continue to work with Bell on restoring the Southern Queen to a usable building.

“We’ll continue to work with him, and the building inspection division will be available to make inspections as they work through the process of rebuilding the Southern Queen,” he said.

Deborah Highland-West, public information officer for the city, said the city has been updated on the project’s current status.

“Mr. Bell encountered significant structural damage that was unknown until he began renovation,” she stated. “The city looks forward to the restoration of the Southern Queen.”

The Landmark Trust, a local nonprofit that seeks to be guardians of local heritage and historic sites, issued a statement on the development to the Daily News:

“Good things can come out of a bad situation, and we hope this will be a learning experience for our community and patrons. We must work together to conserve and preserve our heritage buildings. Preservation includes proper maintenance of historic structures to protect them from the elements and fire. But, preservation also includes advocating for legal protections such as historic overlay districts — which provide the government the tools needed to enforce preservation of surviving historic buildings and neighborhoods.

“The Southern Queen was arguably the most important historic structure in the Shake Rag National Register Historic District. But much remains, and we hope to see historic overlay districts for extant historic properties in the Shake Rag neighborhood. Private property owners must come forward to make that happen. We need their and the community’s support. Landmark has been in contact with the owner of the property … as well as City officials, as we continue to learn more about the situation.”

Bell said at some point in the building’s past, a fire broke out which damaged the roof and caused severe damage to the second floor. He said the fire also allowed water to fall into the building, further eroding the structure. The wooden structure also saw heavy damage from termites.

“We took the roof off and the drywall, but all the walls are charred, so it had to be a fire,” Bell said. “I don’t know what time period – it was just covered back up.”

The top floor and roof were removed on Friday and Saturday, Bell said, and crews were inspecting the remaining portions to see what could be salvaged.

He said the original plan was to keep the columns that were on the outside of the structure along with the original staircase and a walkway. He said the plan is to still maintain portions of the original structure, albeit a “smaller percentage.”

The second floor and the roof will be rebuilt, Bell said, and plans are still set to have historic artifacts on display throughout the site once it’s finished.

“I knew it was gonna be a tough task,” Bell said. “I knew I was going to always take the roof off because it was in that bad of shape, and I wanted to put a new roof (on), but I didn’t expect everything under the roof to be burned.”

The Southern Queen hosted many famous Black entertainers and figures as they made their way through southcentral Kentucky, including James Brown, Tina Turner and others.

—Jack Dobbs contributed to this report.