Lingos propose moving Rehoboth’s oldest house up the street

For at least 50 years longer than Rehoboth Beach has been a city, there’s been a cottage situated on a piece of land in the area of what is now the corner of Scarborough Avenue and Christian Street.

That cottage is the city’s oldest structure and has been owned by a number of notable people and families over its nearly 200 years of existence. It was the farm house for Lorenzo Dow Martin for four decades in the mid-1800s. City founder and Wilmington-based Rev. Robert W. Todd purchased the cottage from Martin before conducting the initial lottery for city lots in May 1873. Ann Walls McCool, who, with the help of two husbands she outlived, operated the Walls’ Apartments complex from 1951 until her death in 2013. Now, having purchased the apartment complex in 2014, the Lingo family and real estate company own it.

Over the past couple of years, the Lingos have demolished portions of the apartment complex in favor of redevelopment. In April 2019, 16 cottages along the Scarborough Avenue side of the property were removed. Except for the towering trees, that lot is still vacant. A little more than a year ago, the houses at 22 and 28 Christian St. were demolished. A new house is standing, but not completed at 28, while a foundation is in the process of being poured at 22.

It stands to reason the Lingos are going to continue to redevelop the property, which has led some in the city to question what’s going to happen to the cottage. Apparently, if it’s up to the Lingos, the cottage, 30 Christian St. will be moved a few hundred yards to the east on Christian Street and placed on the lot next to the Anna Hazzard Museum.

Local historian Paul Lovett gave a lecture March 10 on Martin’s life on the farm in the 1800s. Bryce Lingo, associate broker at Jack Lingo Realtor, was in the audience. Lovett prodded Lingo, saying he had the ability to save the house.

In response, Lingo said he and his family would like to move and then restore the cottage. He said the family would be willing to cover the costs and suggested moving the house next to the Hazzard house, which is an example of a camp meeting-era tent structure from the Rev. Todd days of the city.

McCool described the construction of the story-and-a-half structure in a 1997 interview with the Gazette. 

“The rooms upstairs are very small and not much can be done with them because of the slope of the roof. But there are ways to see the building’s age. The supporting members under the first-floor boards are full logs, and the floors themselves are random-width pine boards. The house was put together with pegs – no nails,” said McCool.

The Lingos have restored old structures before. As part of the Showfield development in Lewes, the family renovated and restored a 130-by-50-foot barn that’s close to 80 years old. The family was also part of the team that restored a similar-looking barn on Kings Highway in Lewes.

City Commissioner Jay Lagree was in attendance at the lecture. He said he would like to see a way to preserve and restore the house, and agreed there are probably better locations than where it is currently located.

“We should consider all options. Paul talked about a foundation to preserve the structure and that is probably what a successful effort would entail. I was pleased to hear that Bryce was positive about preserving the structure,” said Lagree, in an email March 13.

Lingo did not respond to requests for additional comment on the future of the house.

In an email March 24, City Building Official Matt Janis said the planning department has not received any applications or relative information related to 30 Christian St.