After successfully blocking the state Department of Conservation and Recreation from demolishing a Port Norfolk building that was once used by a local lumber company, neighborhood residents and green space advocates are pushing ahead to determine how to best use the property.

The state agency owns the vacant brick building, which is steps away from the Neponset River and the park by the bridge connecting Dorchester and the city of Quincy.

Port Norfolk residents disagreed with a state commission that claimed the demolition of 98 Taylor St. was unlikely to have any historical impact. They argued that the Greek Revival-style building, once the counting house of the Albert T. Stearns Lumber Company, was built before the Civil War and overlooked the city’s secondary port, through which came lumber that went on to parts of Dorchester and South Boston.

The Department of Conservation and Recreation’s pullback from plans to reduce the building to rubble came in April, after residents and preservation advocates successfully lobbied local lawmakers. DCR had sporadically used the site for vehicle and equipment storage, and had commissioned a report from an infrastructure consulting firm that said the brick exterior had problems, while inside, the walls had bowed and sustained water damage. Repairing and rehabilitation of the building would cost more than $1 million, according to the report.

“This was a matter of weeks before they were going to tear it down,” said Michael P. Manning, chair of the Friends of the Boston Harborwalk, which stretches for 43 miles from East Boston to Dorchester, and overlaps with the Neponset Greenway Trail.

Brian Arrigo, who took over as DCR’s new commissioner in April, said the agency plans to host a public meeting in September. “We want to listen to folks and we want to make sure we’re having a public process,” he said.

The date hasn’t been announced yet, but Manning has already pulled together a team to work on a re-use for the property and a funding plan. He believes the rehabilitation could cost under $2 million. The team includes people in the preservation nonprofit sector, the Port Norfolk Civic Association, neighbors, and the Dorchester Historical Society.

Many of the people, according to Manning, had recently worked on a similar re-use effort on the Speedway, a former DCR property in Brighton. Once a racehorse track, the facility is now home to a taproom built by Salem-based Notch Brewing, a hair salon, and a 45-seat cocktail bar called Birds of Paradise.

Manning, who has a background in engineering, said the former counting house is just one structure, different from the Speedway. “But this group will find a way to fund it and get a worthwhile reuse,” he said.

One of the options could be turning part of the building into a year-round restroom, similar to what’s available at Castle Island in South Boston. It could also become a community meeting space where the nonprofit Neponset River Greenway Council could meet.

Manning said the council meets monthly and does not have its own space. It recently used the Milton Yacht Club.

The former counting house could also include a gallery of images, maps and photographs of the lumber company, which at one point boasted 14 buildings across Port Norfolk, he said.

Whatever it ends up becoming, its demolition “would have been devastating for the history of Dorchester,” Manning said, noting it’s the oldest building on the Harborwalk. “It dates back to 1849. There are very few buildings that date back to that time, prior to the Civil War, that are still in existence.”