The state Historic Preservation Council this week decided not to pursue efforts to restore the vacant former dwelling, which was heavily damaged in a fire set last June.

The building sits at 282-284 Logan St., in the footprint of the construction site for the new Jettie Tisdale School.

The building is considered a landmark because it was once home to the city's first Puerto Rican property owner, Joseph de Rivera.

Before it was damaged by arson, talks were under way to move the structure.

Paul Loether, director of the state's Historic Preservation Division, said after the preservation council's lengthy discussion about Eagle's Nest on Wednesday the consensus was that the cost to move and restore the structure would be prohibitive.

"It would require extensive, extensive replacement of historic fabric just to bring it back. All the burnt stuff would have to be taken apart," he said.

As such, Loether said, the council did not formally vote on the issue, leaving the city free to tear it down. According to Loether, nothing in state law prevents the city from demolishing the structure.

"It was to the city's credit that they came back and held discussions with the council first," Loether added.

George Estrada, the city's public facilities director, said Thursday he has been in touch with the city's construction management division for a demolition permit.

Word spread Friday the demolition might take place today, but city officials backed off that date and said Monday or Tuesday were more likely.

The school construction has gone on around Eagle's Nest, with concrete poured up to both sides of the building. Steel has been ordered for the school and will arrive in two to three weeks.

Estrada said the building would cost about $43,000 to tear down. Securing and moving the house to a temporary spot out of the way of the school construction would have cost $170,000, officials said.

Beyond that, it would have cost more to permanently move and reconstruct the two-story, 22-room structure.

Built in 1828 by Edward Johnson — the grandson of William S. Johnson, a signer of the U.S. Constitution — the house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1844, the house was sold to de Rivera, a sugar and wine merchant who moved to Bridgeport from Puerto Rico. He owned the house 14 years before moving to Toledo, Ohio.

Last June, a fire destroyed the building's roof and a back porch and charred one side of the structure.

Estrada said the decision to tear down the house is bittersweet. A part of the building will be saved as a memento, he said.

"But the structure is so unsafe, we can't even go into it. We're evaluating options to salvage something," he said.

Mary Witkowski, the city historian, attended the council meeting this week and conceded, with a sigh, that restoration of the structure would be too costly in today's economic climate.

She plans to coordinate a lasting tribute to the structure with some sort of exhibition that will be housed in the Tisdale School once it is complete.

"It will talk of the history of the house and the East End," she said. "Not just about Joseph de Rivera, but also the Native American fishing industry of that neighborhood."

She also wants to use the fate of Eagle's Nest to remind the community to do a better job identifying buildings of historical significance before municipal projects push them aside.

"People should know what's in their neighborhood," she said.

She has enlisted the help of another Joseph de Rivera, a professor of peace studies at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., and the great-great-grandson of the house's owner.

Witkowski also hopes to create an educational component in the exhibit that would teach students the toll that vandalism and arson take on historic properties.

"We want to make sure something like this doesn't happen again," she said, acknowledging whoever set the fire in the vacant house has not been caught.