Fire-damaged Traxler Mansion goes unsold at auction

DAYTON — A historic Dayton mansion devastated by fire is up on the auction block.

Flames tore through the Traxler Mansion on Yale Avenue last month. Despite the fire, the scheduled auction of the mansion still took place Thursday. While it started like the opening bids for any other property, the outcome was much different.

Not one person in a crowded auditorium in a county building budged on bidding for the property.

>> PHOTOS: Historic Traxler Mansion goes unsold at auction

“It went as we expected,” Fred Holley, president of the Dayton View Historic District, said. “We didn’t anticipate anyone would bid at this point.”

Holley told News Center 7′s Mike Campbell that the devastation the flames left behind makes the future of the property bleak. He said the property is expected to go through four Sheriff’s auctions with anticipated price drops. While that process is happening, he and others are trying to preserve and stabilize what was left behind.

“We haven’t given up. It’s too important of a structure to let it be turned into a vacant lot,” Monica Snow, president of Preservation Dayton, said.

>> ‘We’re just devastated;’ People heartbroken after fire destroys piece of Dayton history

Snow said that the study that they need to see if they could use scaffolding to stabilize the mansion that was build around 1910 would cost around $12,000. She believes that the mansion is worth saving and that it’s a project that the community could pull off.

The Dayton Fire Department is continuing their investigation into the cause of the fire. As for the property, it will likely be another month before it could go on the auction block again.

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