First things first, I wouldn't actually save this house. Although I certainly would support anyone who might step up, there are other homes in need of my attention and this one doesn't have enough going for it to be worth taking away from other preservation efforts. What follows is more of an exercise in fleshing out ways that such properties could be saved in the future.
By now it's no seret that the Workforce Center currently on Plymouth Avenue is heading north to be the anchor tenant as 800 West Broadway gets brought back to life. Part of that development means that this house can't be on the lot anymore. The space will be needed for parking. In recent years, major developments like this have had the opportunity to save homes by moving them, and failed to do the right thing. Most notably, I think of the Davis Center (the new Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters). There were quite a few very stately homes on the 2100 block of Fremont Avenue North, and I was only a budding preservationist at the time. Even though I go to church across the street, I didn't realize that the homes would be demolished until it was far too late to muster any effort to save them. To this day I still chafe over that loss.
I want to create an environment over north that basically states to prospective developers: If you do any kind of big project in our community and there are historic or salvageable properties that aren't going to be there after you're done, the expectation is that you will move instead of demolish these structures. The hypothetical scenario of how to save 2019 Aldrich can help us get there.
The first thing I would do if I were to save this house is...
