Local Change
Discussing flipping an old mansion for the town of Tioga and Tioga's history.
Just as you’re coming into the town of Tioga, there is an old building that looks like it’s made in a Greek style architecture. It stands as a singular building, but it once had two symmetrical wings on the side of it. This Grecian mansion has been a historical part of Tioga for as long as the town can remember. The thing is though, is that the old home just sits there, with little to no effort put into the building to renovate it. Associate Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and former Judge of the Pennsylvania Superior Court Sallie Updyke Mundy now owns the building, but her plans of renovation don’t seem to be on her agenda from what the building shows. My idea is to maybe create a community project to restore one of the only pieces of our history in Tioga and make it a place to help the community. For example, maybe use it for a local food drive or community building. Another possibility is to maybe turn it into a town museum or library. Something that would help educate the town or help out Tioga’s less fortunate would be a beneficial flip to this old mansion.
Justice Mundy states “there isn’t much history on the house besides it being an old farmhouse”. Besides the two wings being removed from each side of the home, the newest effort to renovate the home was the setting of a new foundation. Justice Mundy also stated that she “wanted to get around to turning the building into a new law office right in Tioga”. Unfortunately, even though she owns the building, she was told that she didn’t have the right to flip the home into the office.
When I brought up my idea of flipping the mansion for the benefit of the citizens (library, food drive, museum) to Justice Mundy, she stated that “because of my restrictions on the home that are already set, I would find it hard to be granted permission to renovate the house for the citizens of Tioga themselves”.
Given the information provided to me by Justice Mundy, I believe it would be hard to eventually flip the mansion for the benefit of providing education or help to the people of Tioga.
