Pilfering: Another La Salle Gardens Tragedy

[Neilr]

There is an amazing house on the corner of Lamothe and LaSalle on the opposite corner of 7604 LaSalle Blvd. It seems that a lot of the larger homes in this area seem to have GPP feel to them.

That house was shot at by the National Guard during the 1967 riot. It's a neighborhood scandal to this day: as if anyone then on LaSalle Blvd. would be a rioter! You can still see the bullet marks on the stonework on the facade.

Pic 8 shows the front of the house as it faces Lamothe Street and the rear sides of the other houses on that side of the street.

Pic 9 shows the fronts of the houses on that block looking North. The 1st house, the large yellow brick with a green tile roof belonged to the late Rev. C.L. Franklin, Aretha's father. The next was billed in the 1950's as the finest stucco house in Detroit. Currently it's lived in by the exmayor's sister and family. The next house, the large red brick Colonial Revival with an odd front porch is lived in by Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick. I don't know anything about the yellow brick house with the red tile roof except that the owners replaced the original living room windows.

[evergreen]

I grew up not far from this area and am well acquainted with the architecture. Not only is it excellent but every house is very distinct. No sense of the cookie-cutter appearance of so many suburbs. With the trees that once flourished in that area, riding a bike or walking along those streets as a child was enchanting.

Sadly, the city can no longer attract families with the combination of income, skills and energy to maintain these properties. These houses are doomed. No amount of legislating by the Detroit City Council, whose edicts are often dead on arrival at the corner of Woodward and Jefferson, can cure this problem. Unless there is a dramatic turnaround in the the city's public safety and public education problems, it's very hard to envision these communities as viable and thriving. And sadly, in Detroit, public safety is too often a matter of life and death.

[southofbloor]

[QUOTE=Neilr;144725]That house was shot at by the National Guard during the 1967 riot. It's a neighborhood scandal to this day: as if anyone then on LaSalle Blvd. would be a rioter! You can still see the bullet marks on the stonework on the facade.

Great house. Anyone know the architect of 7477 La Salle? Looked to me like George Mason but might be too fussy. National guard bullet holes shown here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/southofbloor/6242330033/

[313hero]

I grew up on Lamothe. [[the cross street of this home on Lasalle) I've heard all of the stories and yes it was shot up during the riots. From what I understand it was a bunch of hippies living there @ the time. I love this neighborhood but its going to the rats and have been for years. I probably know the asshole's who going around stripping these houses. Well as a matter of FACT I do know 2 guys that do this. They have gotten beat up and things like that for taking furnaces and radiators from houses that people we grew up respecting and loving, after they've moved do to old age or foreclosure. I have had to tell them to stop. but they wont and the police aint doing ish about it. I was interested in purchacing the home I grew up in all to find out these bastards stripped and it wouldnt be worth the money. Sad. So Sad. That they will Litterally destroy their own neighborhood for a couple hundred dollars. SMH.