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Friday, April 17, 2015

Use of former Bradley residence uncertain

LEWES — Nearly five years after Earl Bradley was imprisoned for sexually assaulting hundreds of his child patients, his presence continues to haunt the Lewes community.

One of the remaining reminders of Bradley is his former residence at 344 Savannah Road. Bethel United Methodist Church, which was given the property, wanted to turn the home into Hope House, changing a painful reminder of Bradley’s crimes into something that could provide hope for the future.

But Bradley’s presence still lingers, and church officials are left wondering what to do with the property.

When the house was donated in Feburary 2014, the church was undertaking a $2 million renovation of its existing facilities, The Rev. Earle Baker said, the first major changes to the church in 50 years. Wells Fargo bank asked the church to take the house after plans to demolish the structure and convert it to park space fell through.

“We weren’t expecting a house to be given to us,” Baker said.

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10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tear it down please.

Anonymous said...

It's not that hard. Take a dozer and knock the damn thing down. The sale to someone to build on it. Don't sound that hard to me.

Anonymous said...

It's about $12k to do the job, 544. Are you buying?

Anonymous said...

youd think it would be that easy but its not, read the article. theres alot of red tape that needs to be cleared before it can happen because the house is in the historic district of lewes. they leveled his office no problem because it wasnt in a historic district. the town should make an exception though but they were seeing what other options were out there.

Anonymous said...

Seems to me someone in that town that owns a bulldozer would volunteer to do the work just to get rid of that very bad memory. Come on construction company owner, do the right thing, volunteer your time and machinery and take care of this place.

Anonymous said...

Just needs some TLC, is all.

Torch. Level. Clear.

Anonymous said...

Make it a halfway house for sex offenders coming back into society after release from prison. At least this way Delaware can keep track of them instead of every week loosing one.

Anonymous said...

smack dab in the middle of lewes right down the street from the hospital/school/church/parks? thats like dangling a worm in front of a fish.

Anonymous said...

finding someone to bulldoze it for free isnt the problem. thats how his office on rt 1 was demolished and hauled away and theres people/companies that have offered to do the same for his house. the problem is the house is in the historic district which makes it tougher to tear down. theres a process that has to be initiated, voted on and permitted to tear it down just like any other property in the historic district. the house is old, like 200 years old (bit of a stretch but its up there).

Anonymous said...

115 years old -

http://capegazette.villagesoup.com/p/bradley-house-in-historic-district-and-contributes/1333374