COUPEVILLE — Public auction of Langley’s historic Dog House Tavern has been put off again, the second week in a row.

Trustee Ted Woodward of the Seattle law firm Wolfstone, Panchot & Bloch, representing mortgage holder Chesterfield Mortgage Investors of Seattle, announced the continuance Friday morning on the county courthouse steps in Coupeville.

Woodward declined to say why the sale was continued again, and whether a minimum bid has been established. He also decline to predict if the sale will go forward next week.

The new date for the sale is 9:30 a.m. Friday, May 7, in front of the Law and Justice Center Building, 101 NE Sixth St.

“Same time next week,” shrugged Clinton resident Teena Augostino, one of a dozen people from South Whidbey who showed up for the sale, several for the second straight week.

The 102-year-old Dog House, a First Street icon, has been closed for almost a year as mortgage payments fell into arrears and no buyer came forward by the April 12 deadline.

Veterans of property auction sales say such continuances are common, and that trustees typically have a 120-day window to complete the process.

Chesterfield Mortgage said earlier that the debt on its lien is $500,000 plus costs. The firm is expected to buy the building if there are no other bidders, then try to sell it.

A group of South End residents is attempting to form a nonprofit to raise funds to buy the tavern and preserve it.

“We’ll continue to move forward, and see what happens next week,” Kim Norton of Clinton said Friday. She and others are spearheading the community effort to preserve the essence of the Dog House.