Since 2003, Victor Gray-Lewis, Vicksburg’s director of buildings and inspection, has been chasing a phantom.

Gray-Lewis is trying to find Robert Rosenthal, the owner of the historic Beck House at South and Adams streets, a deteriorating link to the city’s architectural history and a building the city wants to save. But so far, he said, Rosenthal has avoided contacting city officials to discuss the house, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.

“We’ve been working on this case for nine years,” Gray-Lewis said. “We’ve been trying for that long to get Mr. Rosenthal to fix up the house or sell it to someone who will.”

The house appeared on a City of Vicksburg list of properties set for demolition, but Gray-Lewis said the house should not have been on the list.

City ordinances and state law allow the city to raze dilapidated buildings and homes in severe disrepair, such as the Beck House, but its place on the National Register prohibits the city from tearing it down. City officials have been trying to work with Rosenthal to work out a solution to save it.

“I’ve talked with several people who are interested in buying the house and repairing it if we could just get in touch with the owner,” he said.

Gray-Lewis said he has tried repeatedly to get in contact with Rosenthal, who has a Jackson address. The city even hired a process server to track down the owner to serve a subpoena, but have been unable to find Rosenthal. Calls to a cell phone number belonging to Rosenthal went unanswered Wednesday.

Built in 1875, the Beck House has an adjoining carriage house that Rosenthal rents out.

“The house was built by R.F. Beck, a former mayor of Vicksburg and a contractor, which explains quality of the work,” said Nancy Bell, executive director of the Vicksburg Foundation for Historic Preservation. “It’s the best example of Italianate-style (architecture) in the city.”

In 2007, Gray-Lewis said, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History allowed the city to put the house in a condition called demolition by neglect, a status granted because the property owner has refused to make repairs to save the historic building.

Fifty-one other derelict buildings in Vicksburg comprise the city’s demolition list, a collection of neglected and flood-damaged homes going back to 2010. The Beck House was removed from the list.

Twenty-three homes on the list were damaged in the spring 2011 flood, and 37 of the 51 homes on the list have holds, meaning the city has given the property owner from 30 to 90 days to repair or sell the property, or the property owner has a permit to demolish the building.

Since 2008, the city has demolished 117 homes. Only one on the list, a flood-damaged home at 106 Brown Alley in the Kings community, has been demolished this year.

Eight homes were demolished in 2009, after the Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved a moratorium on demolitions while the city applied for a federal Neighborhood Stabilization grant to refurbish homes. The city did not get the grant, Mayor Paul Winfield said, and the moratorium was lifted.

City ordinance requires property owners to keep their properties cut and clear of debris and their homes repaired. A violation results in a letter from the city ordering the property owner to clean the property or demolish the dilapidated home, or the city will do it at the owner’s expense.

City attorney Lee Thames said most complaints about property come from neighbors, who call the city’s Action Line.

“The complaint is sent to the inspection department, and an inspector will go out and look at the property,” he said. “Inspectors also report violations. Each of our inspectors has a certain area of town that they cover. If they see a violation when they’re out, they report it.”

Once a violation is determined, he said, the city sends a letter to the property owner giving them 30 days to clean the property or demolish the building, or attend a hearing on the problem by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

Under city ordinance and state law, the city can use its employees or hire a contractor to demolish a building. If the city razes the building, it assesses a penalty that is 25 percent of the project’s cost besides the cost of demolition, and places a lien on the property to recover the cost of demolition and the penalty. The penalty is waived on flood-damaged homes in Kings and Ford Subdivision.

Demolition is the last resort, Gray-Lewis said, adding that city officials try to work with property owners to either repair or sell the property or demolish the building themselves.

“It’s cheaper if they tear it down,” he said.