Pilfering: Another La Salle Gardens Tragedy

Well, folks, in two weeks I'll be home to Warrendale after working a year in Afghanistan for the US Army Corps of Engineers. While I've been here, I scour the real estate sites once every couple weeks just to see what amazing houses are being offered for low-low prices. Last summer, I brought to your attention a house in Hubbard Farms selling for $1000, and just last month a 5 bedroom, 3200 sq ft house on La Salle Boulevard selling for $9800 [[it was torched shortly after I started the thread). Well I've found another remarkable house, and what has happened to it angers me.

http://www.realestateone.com/homes/2...troit-MI-48206

In pictures 9 and 10, you'll see the fireplaces mantles of 2 different fireplaces have been pried off the wall and wall sconces missing. The thiefs are permanently de-valuing and degrading Detroit's housing stock so thoroughly its sickening. Every single Detroit neighborhood has experienced this - stolen A/C units, aluminum siding ripped off houses, aluminum awnings ripped off houses, replacement vinyl windows and steel doors ripped off houses, yet I don't see the outcry from my fellow residents. These thieves are lowering the value of our own houses my destroying the neighboring ones, and it doesn't seem like anybody's doing anything about it! We're just accepting it.

About 2 years ago, the council was considering several regulations that would have discouraged the stripping of houses, but they never passed anything, and nothing new has been done.

This is something that we can fight [[yes, I am being idealistic). We can raise hell at City Council meetings until they act.

What specifically do you think City Council [[or anyone else) should be doing to fight this?

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Originally Posted by masterblaster

About 2 years ago, the council was considering several regulations that would have discouraged the stripping of houses, but they never passed anything, and nothing new has been done.

This is something that we can fight [[yes, I am being idealistic). We can raise hell at City Council meetings until they act.

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A law or regulation is only as good as the ability to enforce it.

Besides, there are already several laws that prohibit the plundering of these houses: Breaking and entering, theft, receiving stolen goods are a few that come to mind :rolleyes:

7604 LaSalle Blvd. was designed and built for Dr.A. H. Gorenflo in the late 1920's. Hans Gehrke of Detroit was the architect. The house was published in the Michigan Architect and Engineer in Jan. 1928.

This is the one area of Detroit I have never explored or knew much about. Hans Gehrke was an outstanding architect known for fire engine houses and municipal structures. He designed one house that I know of in Arden Park. There was a write-up about it in a Town and Country magazine way back in 1914 or so. I had contacted one of his descendants expressing interest in his work and they did actually return my email but nothing ever came of it.

There are a few larger homes in the area when I viewed in Bing/Maps. Some seem a bit out of place. It just seems like the kind of home an auto magnate would have built rather than a doctor. However, the interior doesn’t look as ornate even if it has been stripped. The exterior looks majestic though. Looks like a design that would fit in Palmer Woods quite nicely. I know this is one of Neilr’s favorite areas!
Neilr, what other grand homes are in this neighborhood that you know about? Is there anything by J. Ivan Dise or Richard Marr?
BTW, you will live a few houses away from where the Kwamster pushed the cop on his sister’s porch

Wow, what a find! And you're within walking distance of seeing the Wings play at the Olympia. Oh, wait....

Funny thing, when I was preparing my post #4, I clearly knew that I could write nothing about the architect, Hans Gehrke. I thought to myself, "Well, I'll just have to wait for Patrick to weigh in." I called that one right!

The house in question [[see pic #6), is in the upper R corner. This block has just 4 houses on the east side of the street. There have been previous threads about the Georgian Revival gem [[now stripped & fire damaged) with the white shutters. Also there was a recent thread about the now vacant large yellow brick home [[L edge of pic) fronting on LaSalle Gardens South.

Patrick, I would not be surprised if the wonderful Tudor Revival home on LaSalle Blvd. and LaSalle Gardens South is by Richard Marr. The house is on the L in Pic 6 and in Pic 3. Notice the large projecting screen porch facing the park.

Across the street from the Tudor is one of J. Ivan Dise's beauties. You can see the rear of it in Pic 6. Pics 4 and 7 give a frontal views. It has a large windowed sunroom facing the park.

The 3 LaSalle Blvd. houses are placed on their lots so as to have minimal back yards. Their lawns are to the front and side.

J. Ivan Dise designed a house on Chicago Blvd, 3 doors east of LaSalle Blvd. See Pic 5. It's similar in style, but not size, to the other one. See Pic 5.

In a city of many architectural tragedies, I find that what is happening to LaSalle Blvd. to be one of the saddest.

Continuing with pictures

Oddly, here is Sherwood Forest's "history" section and it lists the architects for almost every home in the plot. Most of the architects who worked in LaSalle Gardens also worked on homes in Sherwood Forest only a decade later. It would be great of the other great areas of Detroit had a guide like this.

http://www.sherwoodforestdetroit.org/History.htm

Well, I won't call this house a lost cause, and that fireplace is something you could get over. If you're going to live there, you can decorate it along your own taste, providing the property doesn't bare monumental status. Still a house like that for $119.000 is a bargain.

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.

In the thread about the $9800 yellow brick LaSalle Gardens home, I was the one who posted that it had caught fire days after the Realtor listed it, but before he could show it. He wasn't specific about how much damage was done. I promised an update and never posted it. Well, my partner and I drove by the home to see for ourselves and it was almost completely gutted. Windows busted or boarded up, and you could see clear through in some instances. Not sure if it's still on the market, but I don't see it on any of the real estate sites.

We drove along LaSalle Blvd from Chicago to LaSalle Park and counted at least 10 clearly abandoned homes, two of which were gorgeous colonials next door to each other. We also noted a few empty homes on Virginia Park. It really is sad. On a happier note, about two years back there was a huge Queen Anne colonial for sale on East Boston that was in need of major repair. We drove by that one and it looks like whoever bought it is taking good care of it.

Argh, the result of strippin' and scrappin' so prevalent in the city. One of my close friends deceased family members had a house [[in another area not far) that kept getting broken into... until the finally let it go at a loss and it was quickly demolished [[lucky I guess - most sit abandoned stripped for decades).

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Originally Posted by masterblaster

Well, folks, in two weeks I'll be home to Warrendale after working a year in Afghanistan for the US Army Corps of Engineers. While I've been here, I scour the real estate sites once every couple weeks just to see what amazing houses are being offered for low-low prices. Last summer, I brought to your attention a house in Hubbard Farms selling for $1000, and just last month a 5 bedroom, 3200 sq ft house on La Salle Boulevard selling for $9800 [[it was torched shortly after I started the thread). Well I've found another remarkable house, and what has happened to it angers me.

http://www.realestateone.com/homes/2...troit-MI-48206

In pictures 9 and 10, you'll see the fireplaces mantles of 2 different fireplaces have been pried off the wall and wall sconces missing. The thiefs are permanently de-valuing and degrading Detroit's housing stock so thoroughly its sickening. Every single Detroit neighborhood has experienced this - stolen A/C units, aluminum siding ripped off houses, aluminum awnings ripped off houses, replacement vinyl windows and steel doors ripped off houses, yet I don't see the outcry from my fellow residents. These thieves are lowering the value of our own houses my destroying the neighboring ones, and it doesn't seem like anybody's doing anything about it! We're just accepting it.

About 2 years ago, the council was considering several regulations that would have discouraged the stripping of houses, but they never passed anything, and nothing new has been done.

This is something that we can fight [[yes, I am being idealistic). We can raise hell at City Council meetings until they act.

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Wow, what a beauty... to have bedrooms that large -- ah to dream!

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Originally Posted by Neilr

7604 LaSalle Blvd. was designed and built for Dr.A. H. Gorenflo in the late 1920's. Hans Gehrke of Detroit was the architect. The house was published in the Michigan Architect and Engineer in Jan. 1928.

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Originally Posted by Patrick

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.

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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.

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.

[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/
Attachment 11901

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.

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Originally Posted by Neilr

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/
Attachment 11901

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Why would the National Guard want to shoot up this house in this nice neighborhood at that time?

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Originally Posted by stasu1213

Why would the National Guard want to shoot up this house in this nice neighborhood at that time?

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Let’s not forget that the riot ignited just a four blocks from some very upscale neighborhoods along Chicago, Boston and LaSalle Gardens.

There were so many sniper incidents that the police and National Guard were evacuated from a 160 block area of the westside on Monday and Tuesday nights. I am not sure LaSalle was in that zone but, if not, it certainly was right next to it.

Police and NG’s were very jumpy and there were many questionable firearm release incidents. It were also incidents of suspected retribution — people using of the chaos to settle personal disputes using the uprising as cover

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Originally Posted by Lowell

Let’s not forget that the riot ignited just a four blocks from some very upscale neighborhoods along Chicago, Boston and LaSalle Gardens.

There were so many sniper incidents that the police and National Guard were evacuated from a 160 block area of the westside on Monday and Tuesday nights. I am not sure LaSalle was in that zone but, if not, it certainly was right next to it.

Police and NG’s were very jumpy and there were many questionable firearm release incidents. It were also incidents of suspected retribution — people using of the chaos to settle personal disputes using the uprising as cover

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Good post.

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Originally Posted by masterblaster

Well, folks, in two weeks I'll be home to Warrendale after working a year in Afghanistan for the US Army Corps of Engineers. While I've been here, I scour the real estate sites once every couple weeks just to see what amazing houses are being offered for low-low prices. Last summer, I brought to your attention a house in Hubbard Farms selling for $1000, and just last month a 5 bedroom, 3200 sq ft house on La Salle Boulevard selling for $9800 [[it was torched shortly after I started the thread). Well I've found another remarkable house, and what has happened to it angers me.

http://www.realestateone.com/homes/2...troit-MI-48206

In pictures 9 and 10, you'll see the fireplaces mantles of 2 different fireplaces have been pried off the wall and wall sconces missing. The thiefs are permanently de-valuing and degrading Detroit's housing stock so thoroughly its sickening. Every single Detroit neighborhood has experienced this - stolen A/C units, aluminum siding ripped off houses, aluminum awnings ripped off houses, replacement vinyl windows and steel doors ripped off houses, yet I don't see the outcry from my fellow residents. These thieves are lowering the value of our own houses my destroying the neighboring ones, and it doesn't seem like anybody's doing anything about it! We're just accepting it.

About 2 years ago, the council was considering several regulations that would have discouraged the stripping of houses, but they never passed anything, and nothing new has been done.

This is something that we can fight [[yes, I am being idealistic). We can raise hell at City Council meetings until they act.

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I hate seeing Detroit's unique housing stock stripped also, but I don't think a new ordinance would change this. First of all, theft is against the law so technically this is already illegal. Second, municipal ordinances can only create misdemeanors, not felonies. Third, Council's edicts barely have effect downtown, much less throughout the city.

I can look out my window and see numerous blight violations every day - these are purely stationary offenses, no need to run to catch the offender - and the city seems to be unable to enforce the property maintenance code. We have an ongoing problem in my neighborhood with illegal dumping of rubbish etc on vacant properties or lots. This also is against the law.

How the heck is the city supposed to stop strippers from entering unsecured, vacant properties in the dead of night to strip fixtures etc??? This is a very real and practical question that needs to be answered before drafting a new ordinance.

In a city where the cops spend a large amount of time dealing with crimes against human beings, property crimes in unoccupied dwellings go way down in terms of priority.

The problem is in the way a lot of people think nowadays.

Current thinking:
"It doesn't look like anyone owns this, it's mine now."

Correct thinking:
"Nobody gave this to me, and I didn't buy it, so it belongs to someone else."

I see this as the continuation of a trend of people not growing up intellectually beyond adolescence. Witness the rise of outrage culture, where people are personally offended that other people may hold different opinions.