Its designation as a historic structure would not prevent the new owners of a condemned apartment building at Speed and Marshall streets from tearing it down to redevelop the site, a local historic preservationist said.

The former Speed Street school has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985, but is not in a local or state-designated historic zone as a Mississippi Landmark. Register listing triggers waiting periods and other considerations, but does not preclude removal of buildings.

“You can do whatever you want to do with them,” said Nancy Bell, director of the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation.

Tax credits available from state and federal sources can and should be used for rehabbing properties like the onetime school and longtime apartment complex, Bell said, though adding the use of such funds would trigger mandatory environmental studies.

Vicksburg building inspection officials condemned the structure Sept. 19 after inspectors found backed-up sewage and structural damage inside its 12 federally subsidized apartments. Wastewater had saturated some floors and, in one instance, caved in a ceiling in apartments below.

About 30 residents are still moving carpet and furniture out of the building. The Mississippi Regional Housing Authority issued eviction notices in September when Marshall Street LLC, the building’s owners, had not immediately opted for public funds upon its purchase of the building earlier this year.

The group and its attorneys have met with city officials and “are pursuing demolition,” buildings and inspections chief Victor Gray-Lewis said.

Gray-Lewis said the three-story brick structure built in 1894 has presented issues unique to his tenure with the department. “Not of this magnitude,” Gray-Lewis said of those issues. “It’s a big building that’s just not suitable for human habitation.”

The 8,300-square-foot structure housed Speed Street School until 1940 when it was sold to the American Legion and became market-rate apartments. Sold again in 1968, it became low-income apartments and was operated by a series of owners.

Situated in a mixed-use area of town, it is not in the Vicksburg Historic District, where modifications to properties must meet the approval of the Board of Architectural Review. The district’s southern boundary runs parallel with Depot Street and the Cherry Street rail overpass, several blocks north of the Speed Street property.

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Contact Danny Barrett Jr. at dbarrett@vicksburgpost.com.