The 119-year-old Brownhurst house — which some call a treasure and others call a danger — has gotten a temporary reprieve from the wrecking ball.

Members of the Kirkwood Landmarks Commission have extended their stay on issuing a demolition permit, requested in May by St. John Vianney High School.

The stay will be in effect until Aug. 10, when the commission will vote on whether to extend the stay or let it expire and thus allow demolition of the massive limestone and shingle building on the school campus at 1311 S. Kirkwood Road.

Commissioner Dave Brown said the stay would allow the commission to obtain more information and consult with the city attorney.

Brownhurst and the surrounding property, which makes up the Vianney campus, was bought in about 1920 by the Marianists, a Catholic religious order, which runs Vianney High School. Vianney was established in 1960.

Demolition of the building is needed, because the crumbling house is a danger to public safety, said the Rev. Paul Marshall, a member of the Marianist Province administration.

"We have already witnessed large chimney stones coming loose and falling to the ground, as well as heavy slate shingles sliding from the roof," Marshall told the Landmark's Commission at its July 13 meeting. "You can picture the injury this loose debris could cause. In addition, Vianney personnel have repeatedly had to chase away homeless people who have sought shelter in the building."

Restoring the building would require the school to spend limited financial resources on the project instead of using that money on education, Marshall said.

A request for a demolition permit was filed in May. School President Michael Loyet said he hoped demolition could take place by the time school starts on Aug. 17.

The 19th-century mansion was owned by Daniel Sidney Brown, a prominent businessman whose extensive greenhouse collection of rare orchids was donated to Shaw's Garden.

The mansion has been vacant for the past 22 years and the house has been used only infrequently for storage, said Loyet, an alumni of Vianney.

Preservationists say Brownhurst is important to the heritage of the county. More than a decade ago, the house was put on a list of the most endangered historic buildings in the county because of neglect, said Jane Gleason, chairman of St. Louis County's Historic Buildings Commission. "It is the finest example of the shingle style in the county and probably in the region," she told the landmarks commission. "It still has all its original interior features, including paneling, pocket doors and other amenities." Matt Bivens, a Kirkwood Landmarks Commission member, has spearheaded an effort to nominate Brownhurst for the National Register of Historic Places.

He hopes to preserve the building for possible reuse by Vianney or for sale to another entity. However, he estimated moving the building elsewhere could cost $400,000.

Gleason contended Brownhurst's owners "have resisted every effort to save the building and have deliberately allowed it to decay."

The Marianists refuse to sell the Brownhurst site or allow others to occupy it at its current location.

Because the property is mainly used for the school, it would be unacceptable for any entity not affiliated with the school to be based at what's effectively the front door of the campus, Marshall said.

The Marianists also are not interested in selling the property because a Marianist cemetery and a Marianist residence are near the house, and the order wants to protect those facilities and keep them under its ownership, he said.

"An acceptable remedy (if the building remains where it is) is a full restoration at no cost to the Marianists or Vianney, while having the building remain 100 percent in our control," Marshall said. "We know this is not realistic."

However, the Marianists have offered to donate the building to Kirkwood, provided it would be moved from the school campus, and they would provide about $30,000, their estimated demolition cost, toward defraying moving expenses, Marshall said.

Brownhurst should be removed from the campus somehow, not only to ensure the safety of Vianney students, staff and visitors, but also the school's next door neighbor, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod headquarters, Marshall said.

David Fiedler, representing the Synod, echoed that contention.

"The building is deteriorating rapidly," he said. "We don't gain anything by its continued slow-motion decline."

But David Meyers, a former Kirkwood Landmarks Commission chairman, supported the extended stay on demolition "to ensure we do all we can to save Brownhurst."

Kathy Paulsen, a Kirkwood resident, called Brownhurst "a landmark in our community, and, when buildings like this are demolished, we can't get them back."