Illinois city condemns Dick Van Dyke's childhood home

July 2, 2015: The childhood home of actor Dick Van Dyke in Danville, Ill. (Tracy Moss/News-Gazette via AP)

DANVILLE, Ill. – The childhood home of actor Dick Van Dyke could be torn down after a central Illinois city condemned the dilapidated building.

The (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that the 89-year-old actor took to Twitter this week to call attention to the Danville home he and brother Jerry lived in during high school after relocating from Missouri.

The star of "Mary Poppins" and television's "The Dick Van Dyke Show" recalled the "happy memories drifting around in there" in a tweet to his 85,200 followers.

Van Dyke told the (Danville) Commercial-News he'd like to know if the home is fixable.

"If it could be fixed maybe we could do something like take a collection up or something," he said. "Danville is my home and I do still care."

Mayor Scott Eisenhauer said the city didn't know the Van Dyke connection when it condemned the house in December. The property's last owner died in 2011.

Eisenhauer expressed a willingness to donate the property as part of a prospective rehabilitation project, should the city eventually gain ownership.