Ali's boyhood home getting major facelift

Muhammad Ali's childhood home in Louisville will be restored to its original condition and could be given to the Champ on his 73rd birthday in January under a plan by the current owner and a Kansas-based restoration company.

Jared Weiss, the Nevada real estate investor who bought the vacant house at 3302 Grand in the Parkland neighborhood two years ago, has formed a joint venture on the makeover with 19th Century Restorations of Lawrence, Kan., and plans for work to start in two weeks.

The restoration will cost about $250,000, with the work to get underway on or around Oct. 30 – the 40th anniversary of Ali's "Rumble in the Jungle" fight with George Foreman – and is to be completed by Jan. 17. On that date, the keys to the restored house will be turned over to Ali, said Dan Reidemann, CEO and founder of the restoration company.

The plan is to restore the currently rundown house to the way it looked in 1954, when a young Cassius Clay and his family lived there.

Jeanie Kahnke, spokeswoman for the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, said, "We are happy that it (the house) will be fixed up and kept up. It will help preserve the legacy of Muhammad as a famous Louisvillian who grew up there."

Kahnke said that Muhammad and wife Lonnie Ali have been apprised of the restoration plan and are supportive of the effort.

The 19th Century Restorations was founded by Reidemann in 1995. Its restoration projects have included the Johnny Carson birthplace in Corning, Iowa, the Woody Guthrie childhood home in Okemah, Okla., and the birthplace of jazz artist Nina Simone in Tryon, N.C.

Reidemann said in a phone interview Thursday that he will oversee the rebuild, with one or two of his company's managers to supervise work crews to be supplied by a local subcontractor who will be hired.

Reidemann acknowledged that he has not talked directly with Ali or his wife. But he said he has talked at length with brother Rahman Ali, several Ali children and cousins as well as neighbors on Grand Avenue.

Lawrence Montgomery, now 80 years old, has lived for 35 years at 3307 Grand Ave. across from the Ali home. He said that Ali as a teenager baby-sat for Montgomery's children.

Montgomery owns three other houses in the 3300 block, including a house next door to the Ali house. He said Reidemann has mentioned the possibility of buying that adjacent house and tearing it down and using the property for parking for visitors to the Ali home.

Montgomery said the Ali house is badly deteoriated but that Weiss has paid a helper to keep the yard mowed. "It will be really great" to have the Ali house restored, Montgomery said. He said tour buses and oglers consistently drive by the Ali house, which has a historic marker out front that identifies it as Ali's boyhood home.

Reidemann said he intends to remove much of the rotting wood and rebuild much of the structure. He said the house may even be moved off its foundation and replaced slightly on the lot.

New windows and doors and probably a new roof are needed. "We want to restore it, so when you walk through it, it looks like it did when Muhammad lived there when he was 12 or 13 years old," Reidemann said. The restoration is to include period furniture, as well as the reconstruction.

He said he and Weiss don't intend to have Ali memorabilia at the site, mainly because the Ali Center already serves as a tribute museum to Ali.

Reidemann said that he and Weiss will start the restoration with their own money but that they plan a "crowd-funding" campaign to raise around $250,000 – the estimated construction cost.

He said he hopes that much of the money will come from fans of Ali in amounts as small as $5. People can contribute to the campaign through www.nineteenthcenturyrestorations.com. Gifts are not tax deductible.

Reidemann said he hasn't worked out all the financial and accounting details of raising the money but said a bank account will be set up and that "all the books will be open to the public."

Reidemann also said a major cable television network plans to air a program next spring on the restoration, with the network following the work as it progresses. That show will be one installment in a series on historic-home restorations. Reidemann said he is not at liberty to disclose the network, because it wants to do its own announcement.

Reidemann said that he and Weiss will try to get a local history-minded organization, or perhaps a new nonprofit that is formed, to administer the Ali home. He said it's too early to say whether an admission fee might be charged.

Montgomery said Reidemann mentioned the Ali Center as an ideal entity to oversee the house. But Ali Center spokeswoman Kahnke said, "It's way too early to know how the center could be involved" in the project.

On his website, Reidemann, a longtime boxing fan, said of the Ali house and the television show about it:

"The home is currently in disarray, but still stands on Grand Avenue in Ali's hometown. ... The premiere episode will feature Muhammad Ali, his family, friends, former foes and boxing greats from his illustrious career as heavyweight champion of the world.

"Muhammad Ali was an amazing athlete, but his impact on society and the world we live in reaches so far beyond the boxing ring, that it all takes on even that much more importance and is a legacy worth preserving ... from where it all started."

Weiss is the CEO of the Nevada-based Motion Properties Realty Inc. He bought the 90-year-old house in Parkland for $70,000 in September 2012. Weiss, under the name Greatest of All Time LLC, bought the site from a Southern Indiana couple. Reidemann said that he and Weiss have been discussing the restoration for well over a year.

Weiss bought the one-story, wood-frame house sight unseen, after learning via the Internet that it was for sale.

Jefferson County property valuation records show that the 1,128-square-foot house needs various repairs, rating the structure's condition as "normal for age."

Rahman Ali, whose given name was Rudy Clay, said his family lived in the Grand Avenue house from 1947 to 1961, the year after Muhammad Ali, then Clay, won the Olympics boxing gold medal.

Muhammad and Lonnie spend most of their time in Phoenix, but they spent much of this past summer in a home they own in eastern Jefferson County.

Lonnie Ali said last year that her husband considered trying to buy the boyhood home before they were married in 1986, but that the deal fell through because the then-owners raised the price when approached about a sale.

Several Louisville Metro Council members put up $2,300 for a bronze marker erected in March 2012 in front of the Grand Avenue house.

An inscription reads: "Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born on Jan. 17, 1942, at Louisville General Hospital. He grew up & lived in this house at 3302 Grand Ave. with his parents, Odessa & Cassius Clay Sr. and brother, Rudolph. Here is where young Clay's values were instilled."

Reporter Sheldon S. Shafer can be reached at (502) 582-7089. Follow him on Twitter at @sheldonshafer.