A number of options remain open for the J.R. Cummins house, a historic Eden Prairie home just off of Pioneer Trail. And, with that same road’s reconstruction plan delayed until 2009, there remains plenty of time to settle on which one of those options is most viable.

“We have time to breathe a little and really think deeply about what it is we want to have here,” said Eden Prairie Council Member Sherry Butcher during the July 15 City Council meeting.

During that meeting, council members approved an adaptive reuse study for the house. The study offers four possible options for use of the property: residential, office, hospice and horticultural.

The hospice option, said Community Development Director Janet Jeremiah, “would require a major addition to the house but that could be sensitively done.

“Regardless of the ultimate use, much of the heritage site, including the peony gardens, could remain open to the public,” she noted.

At a previous workshop, a lot of the discussion was focused on the hospice option, she said.

“Due to the fact that the hospice would need to invest in a large addition, it does seem likely that the city would have to sell the house for such a use.”

Even if the property is sold, a private owner would be subject to historic preservation requirements and local ordinances. In 1982, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. According to the city staff report, the house was appraised in 2007 and valued at $710,000 for commercial use.

Members of the Eden Prairie Historical Society would prefer the house stay with the city and offered their own proposal during the meeting.

In comments delivered to the City Council and e-mailed to the Eden Prairie News, Historical Society President Jan Mosman expressed the group’s interest in using the Cummins house as its headquarters “while continuing and improving public access to the building with open hours, events and education.

“We will also work to coordinate its use as a venue for other Eden Prairie nonprofit organizations. Building on the Reuse Study’s Scenario No. 2, office, we will organize and present a plan based on the Glen Lake Children’s Camp/Friendship Ventures lease model. The Historical Society Board of Directors strongly opposed the sale of this National Registry property and will demonstrate its commitment to that viewpoint with a long-term business plan for leasing the house to the Historical Society.”

During the meeting, council members accepted the reuse study, but not a move to begin marketing the site for sale or lease. 

“I don’t think that we really could, given the state of uncertainty about Pioneer Trail,” noted Mayor Phil Young.