A house with a long history that once was the Warwick Neck home of Al Pike, who owned and for whom the Almacs supermarket chain was named, will soon fall to the wrecking ball, but many of the trees on the 1.5-acre property, including the mighty beech in the front yard, will be saved.

“This was a spectacular place at one point,” Mayor Scott Avedisian said yesterday morning as he walked between flowering rhododendron to view the white brick house with decorative window grates and impressive front door. “Hopefully, it is going to have a new future.”

Superior Court Justice Allen P. Rubine sealed that fate last Friday when he denied the appeal of Deutsche Bank acting as trustee for a temporary restraining order to stop the city from demolishing the house that has remained empty for about 10 years. The property owned by Brian and Catherine Preble of Danby, Vt. has been a source of neighborhood complaints for years and a priority of Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur. Ladouceur pushed to have the building either renovated or razed, and with no action to correct conditions, Municipal Court Judge Joel Gerstenblatt issued an order to have it torn down in April 2014.

With City Council approval of a $27,000 contract to have the house cleared of asbestos, furniture and debris left by the owners and then demolished, Ladouceur imagined the goal had been achieved. Then came the court action that raised the prospect of delaying everything for many more months.

Judge Rubine, however, didn’t go for the temporary restraining order, and by Friday afternoon the DPW had moved heavy equipment on the property to clear a perimeter for the demolition crews.

Ladouceur, who is anxious to save trees on the property, was pleased to hear tree warden Dan Conley and Picozzi had surveyed the site.

“It’s a little mini-mansion,” Picozzi said of the house.

In addition to the beech tree in the front yard that will require trimming of dead limbs, Conley said he plans to save a large maple and several “beautiful” white birches. Trees and shrubs that have grown beside the building will need to come down, including several pines.

As the mayor walked the property, neighbor Rick Brown greeted him.

“I have mixed emotions about this,” said Brown, describing his memories of the house when the Pikes lived there in the 1950s and how he and Pike’s son, Dexter, were friends.

According to reports, the roof to the property was severely damaged by a storm about 10 years ago. For whatever reason, the roof was never repaired and water was allowed to run into the house, reportedly filling the basement at one point. The Prebles, according to the city’s building department, filed for bankruptcy and the city found it increasingly difficult to find a responsible party. The walls and ceilings of the house are encrusted with mildew, as evidenced yesterday when Conley used a steel bar and forced open the front door. The odor was overpowering even from a distance of 20 feet.

The only delay now, Picozzi explained, is Health Department approval of the contractor’s asbestos abatement plan. Then the house comes down.

The cost of the demolition and city work preparing the site will be a lien against the property.