A Better Futures Minnesota worker removes shingles from the roof of the ‘Pigeon House.’ The home was purchased and recycled by owners of the nearby restaurant At Sara’s Table / Chester Creek Café. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)

Deck-side diners at a popular Chester Park neighborhood restaurant are treated to glorious Lake Superior views but staff knew an abandoned house — in a direct line of vision — could easily spoil the scene.

The “Pigeon House” had to go — but not to a landfill.

At Sara’s Table / Chester Creek Café owners purchased the decaying home at 714 N. 19th Ave. E. this summer for $163,000. The restaurant then found a unique way to tear down the building and recycle much of its framing and architectural assets.

Better Futures Minnesota completed deconstruction of the single-family, two-story home last week. A crew of men recently released from incarceration dismantled the building and hauled all its reusable materials to the nonprofit’s South Minneapolis retail store.

The project took 20 days to complete and a large percentage of the building was saved from landfill disposal.

Pigeons roost on the roof and vines overtake the back wall of 714 N. 19th Ave. E. prior to deconstruction. (Photo courtesy of Better Futures Minnesota).

Restaurant co-owner Carla Blumberg said she plans to redevelop the property as a home for people, not pigeons.

Blumberg said the house had been purchased a few years ago by a rental company that caters to University of Minnesota Duluth students. The house was briefly occupied but then stood empty for a couple of years.

“They just totally let it go to seed,” she said. “They were letting it go back to nature basically and it got taken over by pigeons. That’s why everybody called it the ‘Pigeon House.’ Our customers would sit out on the deck and look at it and go: ‘Ew, what’s going on over there?’”

A view from the deck of At Sara’s Table / Chester Creek Café shows the deconstruction work underway at 714 N. 19th Ave. E. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)

Blumberg said the property was beyond repair but instead of simply tearing it down and dumping the waste in a landfill she decided to recycle it. Blumberg had recycled a house before: About 20 years ago, she purchased two derelict Park Point homes and dismantled them with friends. The harvested materials were used to create the At Sara’s Table dining room.

Being older and too busy with restaurant operations, Blumberg decided to have someone else do the recycling work this time.

“I just Googled it,” she said. “I come to find out that (Better Futures) were in Minneapolis and knew people in Duluth and were familiar with Duluth.”

Blumberg said the project was expensive but generated a good tax deduction. Even better, the work was environmentally friendly. “If people would (recycle) instead of just crunching houses and putting them in the landfill that would be great,” she said. “The timber in those old homes are really nice, and even though that house was trashed it still had really nice maple flooring. It was worthwhile saving it.”

Maple flooring, a staircase, doors and windows were all removed and hauled to Minneapolis for resale. (Photo courtesy Better Futures Minnesota)

Better Futures Minnesota was founded in Minneapolis in 2007 as a voluntary workforce development program for men released from incarceration. Its deconstruction program was introduced in 2013 and provides training and certification in the building trades. The program employs about 25 people and usually completes about 45-50 projects per year. Recovered materials are sold to the public at an 18,000-square-foot warehouse on Hiawatha Avenue in South Minneapolis.

Waste Diversion Manager Alex Baldwin said the Pigeon House project saw a small crew staying and working in Duluth over four-day work weeks. The crew pulled maple flooring, antique fixtures and cabinets and old-growth timber framing from the building.

Kitchen cabinets, countertops and appliances were all part of the Better Futures Minnesota deconstruction and recycling project. (Photo courtesy of Better Futures Minnesota).

“That house had rough-sawed, true two-by-fours — which is really neat to see. It’s not lumber you can buy nowadays at Menards or Home Depot,” said Baldwin.

Better Futures Minnesota wants to expand its recycling work outside the Twin Cities and receives grant funding from the Legislative Citizen’s Commission on Minnesota Resources to support the plan. In 2021, it completed a deconstruction project on several St. Louis County-owned properties. It has also worked in Detroit Lakes.

The group has established a recovery program at a Becker County landfill and a transfer station in Cambridge. Workers identify and divert reusable items out of the waste stream. “Just because someone wants to get rid of something doesn’t mean it’s at the end of its life,” said Baldwin. “A lot of times they may no longer have a use for it but someone else might.”

Last year, 40,000 pounds of disposed Becker County materials were kept out of landfills.

Baldwin said deconstruction is a growing practice in the Twin Cities but not as well known in greater Minnesota. “We’re definitely busy (in the Twin Cities). But we’re promoting it more throughout the state of Minnesota,” he said.

Blumberg said she was pleased with the project and would like to build new housing on the property. Plans to build a triplex or three tiny homes on the long, narrow lot are in the works but will need special drawings, permits and approvals from the city of Duluth.

Blumberg said her building plans are considered “radical” under current city rules.

“The housing situation in Duluth is so dire right now that the (building) code we have doesn’t fit with the situation,” she said. “In these times, I think radical solutions are what’s called for — so I’m hopeful but I don’t know if I’m going to get anywhere.”

The deck adjacent to At Sara’s Table / Chester Creek Café features a hillside view of Lake Superior along 19th Avenue East. A dump truck parked at the former Pigeon House site is set to haul away foundation material. (Photo by Mark Nicklawske)