Josh Rogers admits that the combination that led to the restoration of the house at 306 Orange St. is a little counter-intuitive -- that “green” techniques can be used to restore an historic home.

“We wanted to demonstrate that you could have an historic house and make it (energy) efficient without it having to cost an arm and a leg,” said Rogers, the executive director of Historic Macon

Rogers said that didn’t keep some of the board of Historic Macon from being nervous at the prospect of restoring the huge house that was first built in the 1880s.

“We thought it was a huge risk to try to restore a house this size in this market,” he said. “But we felt the need to take a leadership role and show it could get done, get done green and get done on time.”

Historic Macon’s role is to acquire a property, restore it and then re-sell it, and the Orange Street house is the biggest project the organization has ever tackled, Rogers said. It’s also the riskiest, since it figured to be a challenge to resell in the current real estate market.

Rogers said it took about six months to restore the house, costing about $400,000, including about $60,000 worth of in-kind donations. Rogers wouldn’t reveal the final sales price, since the house hasn’t closed, but he said Historic Macon would just about break even.

Read the complete story at macon.com