Sad news from Cambria County: Cresson Township supervisors plan to demolish the Benjamin Franklin Jones Cottage sometime after September. The three supervisors voted unanimously Aug. 12 to proceed with demolition of the Queen Anne-style house.

They have told the building's owner, the Cresson Area Historical Association, to salvage whatever it wants from the house by Sept. 30.

What a sorry turn of events. The Jones cottage, deteriorated but still retaining its distinctive interior elements, deserves to stand on its architectural merits alone. Its association with historical figures -- especially iron and steel master Jones and President Benjamin Harrison -- gives it even greater merit.

"The township isn't eager to take the structure down," township solicitor Gerald Neugebauer told me. "The supervisors had to decide about the court order" to demolish the house.

"There had been a request in writing from [the historical group] to not raze the building, to un-declare the nuisance. They could have asked for another extension, but they didn't come to the meeting."

The group's president, Cyndi Hoover, said it didn't know the Jones cottage would be on the agenda. She said she was "shocked and disappointed" that the township didn't notify the group.

The township recently sought advice from the county's codes enforcement officer, who told the supervisors the historical group needed an occupancy permit to give tours and that a study would have to be done to assess what was needed for the permit.

"We asked our engineer what it would cost. He said at least $20,000," Mr. Neugebauer said. "The supervisors decided it was a hopeless cause, that they would never raise enough money to comply with the court order and abate the nuisance."

The historical group has asked for a written report.

Built in 1887-88, the Jones cottage is the largest remaining home from Cresson's great resort era, when the cool, clean mountain air attracted Pittsburgh industrialists as well as executives and patrons of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which passed through town.

The supervisors think the historical group, which has owned the Jones house since 1990, has had enough time to restore it.

"The township was still willing to work with them if they could get some significant funding," said Mr. Neugebauer.

"Since the razing of the building is essentially a death sentence, we wanted to give them every opportunity. It's been a year and 3/4 since the [Cambria County judge's] order to raze the building" because it was deemed a potential hazard.

Mr. Neugebauer was master of ceremonies at a 1990 dinner to kick off the fundraising campaign when the historical group was formed.

"This was a really good idea and very attainable in 1990. But it was just left go to the point that they couldn't maintain it anymore."

The historical group's new leadership and members have made significant progress in recent months, restoring about a dozen original windows, replacing a tattered rear section of the building and raising about $6,000 through tours of the cottage, a dinner and yard sale.

It's a pittance compared to what's needed but the restoration need not be done all at once. Most critical is a new roof; the group believes that would buy time to allow for the interior restoration to proceed as funds could be raised.

Mr. Neugebauer called the recent work cosmetic.

"This was really no substantive change to the structure," which he said also needs foundation repairs.

The historical group, which does not yet have nonprofit fundraising status, has been partnering with Preservation Pennsylvania on the project, which had agreed to hold the funds.

The Cresson group could use the support and advice of Pittsburgh preservationists and foundations. This is, after all, a Pittsburgh story, too.

A $150,000 grant request from the Allegheny Foundation was denied last year. Patty Dulashaw, the group's secretary, said a recent call to Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation also was unfruitful.

"I was hoping," said Landmarks president Arthur P. Ziegler, "they might be able to get some money from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission because it's out of the range of most funding sources in Allegheny County. It's just so hard to find funding sources even when there's a link to Pittsburgh and our past."

He said he hasn't visited the Jones house but is beginning to look at partnerships in Cambria County's Johnstown.

"We're on our last leg," Ms. Dulashaw said, adding that township supervisors told the group that lack of support from Pittsburgh did not bode well for future fund-raising.

"If no funds are forthcoming, what can you conclude?" Mr. Neugebauer told me.

Ms. Hoover said it's been difficult to raise funds with a demolition order hanging over the building. Her group is asking for a year's stay of execution, which she thinks should give it time to sell another building it owns and use the proceeds to put a new roof on the Jones house.

Meanwhile, she and other members are working to build public support through a petition and by reaching out to anyone who might be able to help, including other local foundations. As hard as preservation can be in urban areas, it's even more challenging in small towns with fewer financial and technical resources and no preservation ordinance.

Along with Andrew Carnegie's Braemar Cottage next door, which is privately owned, and other cottages from the resort era, the Jones house could play an important role in Cambria County tourism. Cresson alone has a wealth of natural and historic resources that could be better interpreted and promoted.

Leveling the Jones house would greatly diminish its ability to tell those stories.

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