Covington allocates an extra $33,600 for the rehab of historic Duveneck House

The City of Covington has allocated about $33,600 in additional funds for the rehabilitation of the historic Duveneck House in the city’s Eastside neighborhood. The additional funds will go towards work on the house’s walls and foundation – over and above the initial projected scope of the project.

Walt Mace, the city’s assistant neighborhood services director, told the city commission at the caucus meeting on Jan. 7 that the department and its contracted architects had “discovered that the back room, which was actually Frank Duveneck’s studio, had a lot more damage than we first realized.”

The city commission approved the additional funding as part of their consent agenda on Tuesday.

The structure, which was placed on the National Historic Register in 2015, was the subject of a nearly 8-year legal battle between the city and the house’s owner, The Frank Duveneck Arts and Cultural Center. The city sued the center in February last year in order to gain control of what the city described as a “blighted building.”

The building contains numerous structural problems, most notably a large hole in the foundation. The city employed a legal tool called the “Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act,” created in 2022, to bring an action that appoints a conservator to take possession of and undertake the rehabilitation of an abandoned or blighted building. The Kenton County Circuit Court granted the city conservatorship on Sept. 6, 2024.

The city budget has set aside $175,000 in federal funds, which does not draw from the local tax-funded city general fund, to complete work on the house, according to the city’s Neighborhood Service’s Department. The city is seeking additional grant monies to fund repairs, as well. The city’s contract with Structural Systems Repair Group, the company that will carry out the rehab, cannot exceed $167,990, according to city documents.