A new apartment project for the Oread Neighborhood may mean the end of the house at 1043 Ind., which once gained fame as the home of the Kansas University football team. At left in the distance is the Oread Hotel.

A new apartment project for the Oread Neighborhood may mean the end of an old boarding house that once gained fame as the home of the Kansas University football team.

A development group led by Lawrence businessman Thomas Fritzel has filed a permit to demolish the Varsity House, 1043 Ind. City Hall leaders are expected to consider the demolition permit in October.

Paul Werner, an architect for the development group, said plans are being developed for a multifamily building with an underground parking garage. He said the project would include apartments and perhaps condos that would appeal to nonstudents who want to live in the neighborhood.

“We think we can do a really nice project,” Werner said.

But first, he said, the old multistory, Dutch Colonial Revival-style home must be torn down.

“It is old and it is in horrible shape,” Werner said. “I know that always can be debated, but it is in poor condition.”

Lawrence preservationists likely are going to make a push to save the home.

“It is definitely on our radar screen,” said Dennis Brown, president of the Lawrence Preservation Alliance.

Brown said his group wants to see more details of what is being proposed, but thinks the house could be incorporated into a larger project that would redevelop portions of the 1000 block of Indiana Street.

“It is a solid house,” Brown said. “It is a long ways from falling apart. We’re not going to be against redevelopment in that block, but we’re going to say this could be a key component to a redevelopment.”

Brown said if the house was placed on the national and state registers of historic places, it could qualify for tax credits of up to 45 percent.

The house currently is not listed on any historic register, but preservationists said it would qualify. The house was built for a KU professor in 1908, said Lawrence architect Stan Hernly, who is studying the area. But its uniqueness comes from its designer, Lawrence widow Harriet Tanner, who gained a reputation for designing and financing more than a dozen homes for KU professors. Her son Edward Tanner then went on to become the chief designer for Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza area.

The house was bought by KU in 1950 and converted into a dormitory that housed the starters on the KU football team. It also previously had served as a fraternity and a sorority and as office space for several KU departments.

Fritzel bought the property for $375,000 in an August 2009 auction, after KU officials decided they no longer had a use for the property.

Specific plans to redevelop the Varsity House site haven’t been filed yet with the city. Werner said it was still too early to determine how much of the block may be part of the redevelopment. A vacant lot already exists to the north of the home.

But Werner said the development group will not seek a new mixed used zoning designation that would allow retail uses in addition to apartments and condos.

“It will be all residential, no commercial, and the parking will be underground,” Werner said.

He also said the project would be no taller than 45 feet, which is the limit for multifamily projects.

The city’s Historic Resources Commission is scheduled to consider the demolition permit and any redevelopment plans at its Oct. 21 meeting.