Couple restores 100+ year old house in Boston-Edison

[mwilbert]

That was/is a beautiful house.

Very often here, when justifying the trashing of many Detroit neighborhoods, posters employ a new meme [[forgive me): Detroit's housing stock was so poor that it somehow deserved trashing; that it was thrown up hastily and that is why it is so disrespected. But RickBeall's grandmother's house and so many others like the big bricks on West Grand Blvd that are all burnt out sort of make me question the truth of the meme.

Am I the only one who is puzzled by the ruining/discarding/burning/tagging of Detroit's housing stock? Is this happening in Boston or Baltimore or anywhere else?

The idea that the housing stock quality is the primary problem is obviously wrong. In places where the property has value, people will renovate pretty terrible houses, built with poor craftsmanship from second-rate materials and filled with lead paint. But in those places, the people who can afford to buy the houses generally can afford to maintain them.

Houses cost much less to buy in Detroit, but maintenance and renovation aren't a lot cheaper than they are elsewhere, so either people can buy the houses but then can't maintain them, or realize they still can't afford them even though their initial purchase price is low. So, occupied or not, a lot of houses are under-maintained and deteriorating. Eventually you reach a critical mass of deterioration and people leave and the process speeds up.

The actual problem that Detroit has a shortage of people who want to live in the city who also have the resources to take care of the houses. That is not the case in Boston.

[Bham1982]

Am I the only one who is puzzled by the ruining/discarding/burning/tagging of Detroit's housing stock? Is this happening in Boston or Baltimore or anywhere else?

Baltimore has some horrible residential devastation. I would say, overall, the city is only in slightly better shape than Detroit. Boston, no, but Boston probably ranks with NYC and SF as healthiest urban core. And, as mwilbert mentioned, the problem in Detroit isn't on the relative quality of the supply [[Detroit housing is frequently nicer and higher quality than suburban housing); the problem is demand.

[scottn55]

Wow, that's a nice house; and right in the thick of that development, too [[not just in the way of 1-94. You know there's talk about about saving Detroit Sound, right? Maybe you could bootstrap onto with that effort.

It's a very nice looking house and I'd love to be able to do something with it. I'm just not in the financial position to relocate and restore a home in that condition. It had a beautiful slate roof which was intact until a few years ago. It was kept covered with a tarp for a while but now the hole is exposed [[and enormous) and can be easily seen from 94. I can only imagine what kind of devastation the elements have wrought on the interior. Now if the office lottery pool comes through for me...

[marshamusic]

It's a very nice looking house and I'd love to be able to do something with it. I'm just not in the financial position to relocate and restore a home in that condition. It had a beautiful slate roof which was intact until a few years ago. It was kept covered with a tarp for a while but now the hole is exposed [[and enormous) and can be easily seen from 94. I can only imagine what kind of devastation the elements have wrought on the interior. Now if the office lottery pool comes through for me...

Oh dang! I just went through my emails and found this for you:

MAY 2, 7-9 P.M.
MIDTOWN
CASS CAFE
MIDTOWN
Detroit Sound Conservancy [[DSC) originator Carleton Gholz is back in town for the latter part of spring [[after wintering in Boston, where he teaches at Northeastern University) attempting to take this org to another, more active level of social engagement.The first in a series of planned spring-summer presentations is this Thursday at Cass Cafe, 7-9 p.m.DSC ally Isaac Moore, who will be there on Thursday, has been developing a Detroit Wiki page on the history and fate of the United Sound Systems building in the northern end of the Cass Corridor. The big question: is this building preservable as an historic landmark? Or will it be, as so many others musical heritage sites have been, torn down to widen Interstate 94?Participants should check out the Wiki page ahead of the meeting in preparation for a brainstorming session on the future of United Sound Systems [[made famous for sessions by John Lee Hooker, Parliament-Funkadelic and many others) and other similar musical heritage sites in the city. What can the Detroit Sound Conservancy -- or any group for that matter -- do to help preserve Detroit's musical landmarks?On May 9, Gholz will talk about the Detroit Sound Conservancy's oral history project; and on May 16, longtime local music journalist Christopher Handyside will lead a discusion on the legacy of Detroit music criticism.Cass Cafe is at 4620 Cass Ave., Midtown Detroit.

[Patrick]

Baltimore has some horrible residential devastation. I would say, overall, the city is only in slightly better shape than Detroit. Boston, no, but Boston probably ranks with NYC and SF as healthiest urban core. And, as mwilbert mentioned, the problem in Detroit isn't on the relative quality of the supply [[Detroit housing is frequently nicer and higher quality than suburban housing); the problem is demand.

No, Baltimore is in much better shape than Detroit.

[Bham1982]

No, Baltimore is in much better shape than Detroit.

Baltimore has massive population loss, huge abandonment, very little diversity [[few immigrants and overwhelmingly black), very little retail downtown [[no department stores for decades), and among the highest crime rates in the country. Doesn't look too healthy to me, especially considering it's located in the Northeast Corridor, the richest area of the country.

[RickBeall]

My house in SW Detroit is nowhere near as nice as your Grandmother's house. Its just a little frame house. The nicest ameenities that I found when I moved in 30 years ago were the pocket doors to the front room and a little scullery with a an original farmhouse sink. The bathroom had been cheaply modernized in the 1970's.
I have put a good amount of money into the house - a brick walk, a restored porch, and a pretty kitchen [[saving the sink from a landfill) and a very pretty but simple new bathroom with subway tile and marble. It is my intention to honor my house and make the neighborhood better for my having been here. No one else is doing the same around me - but okay.

I looked up the original owner of my house and tracked down her grand-daughter-in-law. I know that Margaret was born in Ireland and widowed young by a railroad accident that took her husband when he was employed by the rairoad. She was able to buy her house outright in an era when most people rented. She attended Holy Redeemer Church, as I do. It makes me a little happy to wash the dishes in the same sink she used and dust her floors.

Neither of my grandparents houses on the east side [[Hurlbut Ave and Beneteau St.) survive. My parents house in the jefferson Chalmers neighborhood is torn down as well. I would save one of them if they existed. I think the walls absorb happy energy!

Hi SWMAP,

Obviously you are a person whose joy radiates from the inside out. Your home sounds beautiful. I think you have "reverse adopted" the previous owner of the house, that is, you adopted someone in the past. Very cool!

"I think the walls absorb happy energy". I love old floors with the marks of previous use, old window casements. In old kitchens you can imagine all the joy and Thanksgiving dinners created there. So I agree with you!

[RickBeall]

It's a very nice looking house and I'd love to be able to do something with it. I'm just not in the financial position to relocate and restore a home in that condition. It had a beautiful slate roof which was intact until a few years ago. It was kept covered with a tarp for a while but now the hole is exposed [[and enormous) and can be easily seen from 94. I can only imagine what kind of devastation the elements have wrought on the interior. Now if the office lottery pool comes through for me...

scottn55, you should visit the house, maybe you can get inside through an already open door or window, and take some pictures. If you can't save it, at least you can preserve its image.

[p69rrh51]

Baltimore has massive population loss, huge abandonment, very little diversity [[few immigrants and overwhelmingly black), very little retail downtown [[no department stores for decades), and among the highest crime rates in the country. Doesn't look too healthy to me, especially considering it's located in the Northeast Corridor, the richest area of the country.

Bham1982 for the most part you are correct but there are still functioning very livable neighborhoods in the city. Neighborhoods like Rolland Park and Guilford have mostly long time residents and are still very desirable. My wife's aunt sold her home in Guilford for about 5 times what the similar sized/age home would bring in Palmer Woods, and yes that was during the meltdown. The current owner of the home now is Dorothy Hamill.

[scottn55]

scottn55, you should visit the house, maybe you can get inside through an already open door or window, and take some pictures. If you can't save it, at least you can preserve its image.

Funny you should say that... I actually drove over there yesterday. The padlock appeared to have been broken off of the front door so I probably could have entered. I'll admit I was chicken, however, and thought it better not to. I didn't want to surprise a squatter or anything! The lower flat's windows have been painted black from the inside so I couldn't see in but some of the devastation to the upper flat [[ceiling collapse etc.) from the roof hole could be seen easily through the upstairs windows.

While I was cruising around I headed north to see if the house my grandmother grew up in [[192 Midland in Highland Park) was still standing. I hadn't seen it in a few years and it was pretty rough then but not vandalized or burned. Sure enough there's only a sandlot there now.

[WonderCouncil]

Wow both houses in this threat look great! Or were great at one time. I'm a firm believer that many of these homes could never be built today.

I know my fathers childhood home is long gone. Was on McClellan near what is not Pontiac St. Both my grand parents on my mothers side grew up across the street from each other on Horatio St. between Martin St. [[Daniels St. more specficly) and Cicotte St. Detroit. My Grandfathers house is gone but my Grandmothers is still there. When they were married they moved to Dearborn.

http://goo.gl/maps/esTgt

I know my great grand parents on my fathers side had a large farm/farm house in Kentucky which is still there in some what disrepair. We've often talked about buying it and restoring it. It's one of my goals in life at this point. Sadly I don't think it'll happen before my parents are long gone.

Any how, that's what little detroit history I know concerning my ancestors. I'd love to check out the house on Horatio, looks to be still occupied. I can't recall if they were the ones that did the split duplex deal or if it happened after they left the home.