Van Dyke Mansion Scrapped!

[MSUguy]

Big tragedy this evening for historic home lovers. You may remember our photo tour of one of the West Village's crown jewel properties, the Van Dyke Place Mansion which has been listed for the jaw-dropping price of $145,000. We called it "amazeballs" and we stand by that; the place had a billion details you just do not find these days. But this evening we got a ton of phone calls from upset West Village residents informing us the police came to arrest two scrappers at the building.
Here is what we peiced together from their reports. >>
From what residents told us, about six people have been around the building for the last two weeks saying they were working for the owners. They had trucks that said T&T and told neighbors they were improving the building so it could sell. But today when neighbors noticed the workers taking chunks of limestone off the facade they smelled big trouble. In this historic district you need approval to change a building exterior and they had not been informed of this work. Eventually police were called. Of the six workers that had been on the site, two were arrested and their car was impounded. It is our understanding that they were scrappers that did not have a right to be on the property and were arrested for trespassing. The limestone they took seems to still be piled outside but who knows what damage was done to the interior over two weeks. Neighbors, while pleased with the police response, seem rather pissed and disgusted. This is clearly an important lynchpin for the area and any pending deals [[we've heard rumors of this as well) will likely be affected. We'll keep you updated if we hear further. [CurbedWire Staff]
Update: According to a resident, the neighbors were told that someone in Findlay Ohio purchased the mansion from a bank and sent a crew down. After the police were called and an inspector called, he was overheard saying, "If some Asshole from Findlay Ohio thinks he can come up here and strip a house in Detroit, he has got another fucking thing coming!"

Update #2: A former Board member from Preservation Detroit posted on facebook: "Nate Ford from the Department of Building and Safety Called and was sent the pictures. He is sending out an inspector tomorrow and then who ever owns the building is going to be in trouble....You see, they went to a house in a Nationally Recognized Historic District. They then proceed to alter the Facade w/out proper permits, permission or a Hearing. This is against the law. It would seem someone is going to be in a Shit Load of Trouble."

http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...n-scrapped.php

Fuck scrapers!!!

[Detroitdave]

WOW ! what a BEAUTIFUL PLACE , Detail like that won't ever been done like that again in our life time. What a waste ! really sad :-[[. I hope someone can step in and save this beauty . I wish I had the money I would !
Detroit has lost so much that ANY other city would kill for , and we just let it rot away :-[[ really sad. Once again this one really needs to be saved !

[jtf1972]

God that is awful...

What can legally be done to hold the owner/scrapper accountable for rehabilitating the building to at least the state before he had this done?

[masterblaster]

I wonder if any of the interior details can be seized before the guy from Findlay, Ohio tries to sell them all.

[poobert]

Two weeks? This may sound callous but those guys wouldn't have lasted two hours in my neighborhood. It's usually not hard to tell the difference between stuff coming out and stuff going in...

[MSUguy]

Feel free to share your opinion with them.

T&T Construction
213 E. Crawford Street, Findlay, OH 45840.
1 [[419) 425-5820

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/TT...04839542888852

[Patrick]

So T&T bought the house or are they just doing the rape-work? And even if the house was bought for $115K, is it even possible to get that much $$ in scrap and artifacts? I get the feeling that when confronted, the owner will pull some "personal property liberties" bullshiat and get all bootstrappy.

[black gold man]

If you would like to fuck with the a holes call for estimates on jobs
that you make up and set appointments that you will never make.
Wast there time and it will cost them money.
And it dose not have to be Detroit send them to south Ohio.

[Lostlegumes]

The Freep has been stalking us again.


http://www.freep.com/article/2012061...xt|FRONTPAGE|p

[jerrytimes]

I wonder if any of the interior details can be seized before the guy from Findlay, Ohio tries to sell them all.

How do figure that someone could do that. If they own the house, you can't tell them what they can and can't do with the interior. The exterior in a historic district, sure, but the inside is different. It's sad either way, but no one here bought it.

[southofbloor]

How do figure that someone could do that. If they own the house, you can't tell them what they can and can't do with the interior. The exterior in a historic district, sure, but the inside is different. It's sad either way, but no one here bought it.

You can't. The exterior is protected. If the interior were protected as part of the designation description then alterations to those elements would require approval as well. Its the exterior stonework, tile work, windows etc that could not be removed without approvals.

Up here in the north interiors of buildings in heritage conservation districts are often altered to the point that floor levels are changed and interiors are completely gutted and rebuilt at great cost. That said, Toronto does not have many buildings as interesting on the interior as the Finck house. If a building has as significant an interior as the Finck house, generally owners try to work around the elements of the house that are most significant out of respect for the house and the neighbourhood and in order to retain the uniqueness of a place as a selling feature. Or, the municipal department that governs this area is expected to have identified the interior elements as important, so they would then need to be considered in arranging the final design.

Seems like a building of this size might need to go through some amount of alteration to give it a new phase of life [[apartments, offices or something, upgrades for fire code etc) but there is a real missed opportunity if this doesn't incorporate the best elements of the house in the final result, particularly in a major work by George Mason, in an area as important as the West Village. Tough times in Detroit are going to pass and the more buildings you have left at that point like the Finck, the better chance the city will have with next generation of americans that value unique urban neighbourhoods over bland suburbia.

[casscorridor]

Fuck scrapers!!! The scumbags should be dragged in the street and shot.

No. Fuck the system that forces people out of their houses because of foreclosure. Fuck the system that allows houses to sit vacant and be scrapped. Fuck the system that forces people to scrap to survive.

[Patrick]

No. Fuck the system that forces people out of their houses because of foreclosure. Fuck the system that allows houses to sit vacant and be scrapped. Fuck the system that forces people to scrap to survive.

I see your point, but I doubt the guy who bought this particular house was being "forced" survive by scrapping.

[Wheels]

I don't believe you can lump what was happening here in with the normal lowlife scumbag scrappers. Although the final outcome may have been the same this was a business transaction bought and paid for. There needs to be a different name [[Architectural Pirates) or some other term to distinguish them. I say this because I believe there will be a lot more of it in the near future.

[LeannaM]

I don't think most scrappers are forced to scrap to survive. Rather, I think they see an empty house and think they can get free stuff and get away with it. Sure, Detroit is in a bad situation financially, but I believe there are other things you can do to make money rather than doing something illegal.

These scrappers weren't like the regular scrappers who trespass a building. These guys had permission to be there. It is the owner who broke laws by not getting permits for these things.

What a shame this house was vandalized like this [[yes, an owner can vandalize a house IMO). Hopefully somebody can be charged with something.

[GUSHI]

Well with your logic, how about fuck the people who over extended themselves by buyin these houses they couldnt afford,

No. Fuck the system that forces people out of their houses because of foreclosure. Fuck the system that allows houses to sit vacant and be scrapped. Fuck the system that forces people to scrap to survive.

[GUSHI]

I personally think Fuk Scrappers, they are committing a crime, so next time a person breaks in a house and kills someone, they could use the excuse of I was Hungry, a crime is crime, and we need laws,

[Gistok]

How do figure that someone could do that. If they own the house, you can't tell them what they can and can't do with the interior. The exterior in a historic district, sure, but the inside is different. It's sad either way, but no one here bought it.

As much as I find the concept of plundering the interior of a historic property distasteful... the historic designation generally deals mainly with the exterior. Dismantling and selling the interiors of stately homes is nothing specific to Detroit, and certainly nothing of recent origins.

In the 18th Century many English stately homes had entire rooms or fireplaces taken from continental origins, especially Italian pallazo's. In the 1800s, when Clivenden House wanted to buy the entire balustrade of the Villa Borghese in Italy, the Italian government protested. However an Italian judge ruled that although the statuary on the balustrade was a national treasure, and could not be exported... the balustrade itself had no such designation, and was carted off to be installed along the top of a terrace overlooking the River Thames near London.

Even in the 20th Century, the American nouveau riche in the 1920s bought entire rooms and staircases from European manors and palaces, such as the 17th century staircase, 16th century library paneling, and 500 year old roof slate from Cotswold Cottages installed at the Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores.

As far as a form of scrappers goes... no one has done more for that profession [[albeit legally) than William Randolph Hearst... who spent tens of millions plundering the fabric of palaces, manors, monasteries and churches of Europe. In fact he bought up so much booty, that the excess was often donated to American museums... hence the large amount of treasures at the DIA from the Hearst Collections.

[MSUguy]

Apparently, the guy who bought the house Mike Mallet may have been trying to use the parts in his house on Lake Erie. Mallet runs a company call Corporate Reasech International that does myster shopping
http://www.mysteryshops.com/

For those still upset over last week's tragic scrapping story at the Van Dyke mansion, we are about to reveal some information to depress you further. Sorry! We were informed yesterday via an anonymous tip about the intentions of the Ohio-resident buyer, Michael Mallet, who paid $115 K last month in a cash sale. Our source says Mallet was stripping it to use the parts on his lake house near Port Clinton, which is located on Lake Erie in Ohio. His source was an employee of T&T Construction, the company that had six workers on site last week, two of which were arrested.
Does this rumor pan out? From what we can tell this could be quite true. >>
Public records for Ottawa County show Michael H Mallett owns 3540 N. Surfside in Port Clinton. There is no google streetview of the property but there are definitely large lakeside estates in the area.

http://detroit.curbed.com/archives/2...lake-house.php

Even stranger the Findlay Courier did story in 2010 on his passion for old buildings.

http://www.thecourier.com/Issues/201...2CFeb%2C20&c=n

[noggin]

New article about the scrapper in Finley, OH. http://www.thecourier.com/Issues/201...12_story4.asp?

[Pcm]

www.OHI-NO.com

I think that about sums it up.

[Whitehouse]

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/35...51521834_zpid/


His crib.

[poobert]

1. No. Fuck the system that forces people out of their houses because of foreclosure. Fuck the system that allows houses to sit vacant and be scrapped. Fuck the system that forces people to scrap to survive.

I still generally feel that way, but a problem we are facing more than foreclosures in my neighborhood is people walking away, without being forclosed up. Instead of trying work with the bank, shortsale, or renting, they simply up and leave in the middle of the night. Then you have an empty house that will sit for at least three years because of the redemption period during which the bank can't do anything. Meantime, squatters and scrappers descend, and legally only the owner can do anything about it, but what do the people who lived there before care? They went off and bought a different house because it was cheaper; forget the money they borrowed a few years ago, that's when houses were cash cows that endlessly went up in value.
There is something to be said for personal responsibility [[paying your bills for services you received, honoring contracts that you signed) and responsibility to your community [[leaving a place better than you left it, being a good neighbor, taking care of your property)

[Kathleen]

This just in....

Owner accused of scrapping Detroit mansion must fix it

The Ohio man who caused an outcry in West Village when neighbors accused him of scrapping a historic mansion will have to fix up the house, the Detroit Historic District Commission says.

Mike Mallett will have to submit detailed architectural drawings, construction plans and future use plans for the building on Van Dyke near Jefferson Avenue by the commission's Aug. 8 meeting. Mallet has said he bought the mansion in May, which housed the former Van Dyke Place Restaurant, for $115,000 cash after the previous owner went into foreclosure.

Full article at
http://www.freep.com/article/2012080...on-must-fix-it

[jpbollma]

Now we will see if it actually gets fixed...