MACON, Ga. — Macon-Bibb Planning and Zoning voted to demolish the Vineville home next to the Big House in a 3-2 vote.
The building at 2353 Vineville Ave. is next door to the Allman Brothers Band Museum at the Big House and is owned by the museum.
The Big House wants to tear it down and use the site for an event center. Neighbors are concerned by those plans and have fought the demolition for years.
They argue that the old home is historically significant.
But the Big House argues that the home is dangerous and unfit to live in.
Neighbors say the building is the former home of Catherine Brewer Benson. She was the first woman to get a college degree from Wesleyan College. They say she lived in the house with her father while she attended school.
The Big House says their own research proves the house was not Brewer Benson's home. They say it's made out of outbuildings from the original property, fit together like a puzzle.
"None of it matches up. It was scabbed together, and covered with plaster and siding. Nobody knew it until we took the plaster off," Big House Treasurer Jim Wells said.
Wells says they planned to restore the house, but he says it's now in disrepair and beyond saving. He says they have a letter from the county saying the house is, "in imminent danger of collapse."
He says the county later issued a stop work order, and the house has now sat vacant for more than two years.
Now, the Big House plans to knock it down and build a green area centered around a nearly 2,200-square-foot event space designed to look like a house.
"[That] will become our event space for recitals, for receptions and reunions," Wells explained.
Seven people spoke in opposition to the group's proposal at an early October planning and zoning meeting. Many are worried about the Big House's footprint and about the history of the house they are hoping to tear down.
"The house is contributing in the national register nomination for Vineville because of its significance for Catherine Brewer Benson," said Caitlin Mee, an architectural historian who lives in Vineville.
Mee believes the house is Brewer Benson's family home. She says Brewer Benson was the first woman ever to receive a college degree from an accredited university: Wesleyan.
"That history can coexist with the history of the Allman Brothers," Mee told the zoning board.
The Big House says the event center they hope to build could host up to 100 people and have 38 parking spaces.