But the Tuscaloosa County Preservation Society is leading an effort of local historic and neighborhood protection groups to raise enough awareness of the sale so that a benefactor will step forward and purchase the property instead.

“When cities and towns lose their historic buildings, they may not realize it now, but 20 years down the road there’s a real sense of lost place and lost history,” said Katherine Richter, executive director of the preservation society. “A community loses a sense of who it is, how it came to be and how it got to where we are now.”

While Richter said the society would prefer to purchase the home, it lacks the funds to meet the minimum $600,000 that the county Board of Education will accept for the property.

via Preservation Society hopes to salvage Searcy House | TuscaloosaNews.com.