PALESTINE — At one time, Bentley House stood proud and full of life. It is now a pile of rubble.

The house, 409 E. Palestine Ave., was condemned by the city, which sent Historic Palestine Inc. on a desperate search for someone willing to buy and restore or move it.

According to Mark Myers, city building inspector, the cost to restore the house would outweigh the value of the property.

“The property is much more valuable without the building there,” Myers said. “It was too far gone and would take a lot of money to make it a more livable structure. It’s commercial property and we were hoping to get something new there to put back on the tax rolls.”

The vacant house also attracted unsavory characters who lodged there and caused issues with neighboring businesses.

“In this case, there was evidence of that, both in the front structure and the rear structure,” Myers said.

Historic Palestine agreed to a demolition, but not without first removing materials with hopes of re-establishing it throughout the community.

“I considered it something like a patient has died and you’re removing organs from that person to help save someone else,” Timothy Triplett said. “So we approached it with that idea and began the three-month process of dismantling the building.”

Volunteers and hired help removed doors, trims, windows and the pine floors.

Triplett said several people stopped while it was being dismantled.

“At first everybody was so sad to see it gone,” Triplett said. “Then they started asking to have some of the pieces coming off the home.”

Dawn Campbell, who owns the Joost/Ozment home on North Main Street, bought some of the air vents and plans to purchase wood for her floors.

“We really enjoyed doing that as part of the community and give back to part of the community,” Campbell said. “I helped pull some of these boards and I figured I had to work for some of those things. Everyone in this community worked together to help each other restore their homes.”

The historical parts of the house are being stored until they can be sold.

“It’s a beautiful situation,” Triplett said. “Nice clean concrete floors, cinder block walls, good roof, it’s well protected.”

Triplett stressed integrating the pieces back into the community to maintain their historic value.

“Palestine has a treasure in its historic properties that needs to appreciated,” Triplett said. “This one is gone, but hopefully the lessons we’ve learned with it will help us preserve other properties and all the funds developed from the eventual sale of the property are going to be funneled back into Palestine and the historic homes in Palestine.”