Walking Tour

Last year we were just discovering some of the streets around us when we walked through our neighborhood over to Union Hill. This year we made a similar walk with an eye towards what is going on in the neighborhood…

There is a marked difference in the number of properties undergoing renovation and in the number of houses and lots for sale. The area between Jefferson Ave. and Venable St.,part of Union Hill I think, feels securely on the way to becoming stable and safe. While there are still empty and ghetto houses, it feels like the fixed+restored properties have started dominate. There are still wild, untouched abandoned areas, with scraggly cobblestone alleys and overgrown weedtree yards, and too many houses covered in those damn shingles (they are almost everywhere once you start looking). The intersection of M St. and Leigh St., a section that felt particularly blighted last year, has blossomed (especially since the opening of the new coffee shop).

The area between Venable St. and Fairmount Ave., part of the Fairmount neighborhood, is showing the signs that the next wave will definitely be felt there. There are at least 4 Better Housing Coalition (BHC) houses being built right now, with a few more coming. We’ve also heard that they’ll be restoring a house on the next block from us (with the worst porch that we’ve seen). the great thing about them is that they do some of their work on blocks that can be scary… BHC is building at least 2 houses on the 1200 block of 24th St., which seems to have its share of drug dealing and related violence. There is a house in the 1100 block of 23rd selling for $140,000+, and a few houses on Venable St. have recently gone up for sale. Interestingly, a number of long-term empty lots have sprouted for-sale signs, too. Over the past year the city has put gas street lights on 25th St. and has been busy fixing the brick sidewalks, too… This area needs love — pressured by abandoned housing stock, crime, fires, etc., I just hope that enough of these houses get saved before it is too late.

The area to the east of us across 25th has an energy similar to Fairmount and Union Hill, but a truly frightening storm was moving in on us while we were out so I’ll have to get back over there another day…

With all of the renovation going on around here, it is innevitable that there be some really good and some really bad work going on. The best work seems to be happening when someone decides to fix an entire house. The worst work appears to be the result of quick fixes and usually involves that damned vinyl siding (and props to BHC for starting to use the hardiplank instead). The best work keeps the house’s scale and appearance intact and updates the necessities (like the wiring or the heating system or insulation). The worst work uses new standard size windows and a plastic skin to cover the shingles that were put up 40 years ago over the rotted wooden siding. Another indicator of a slack renovation (in my eyes) is a front porch with decking plank instead of the tonge+groove. It looks cheap and anachronistic, without having even the appeal of really being an improvement.

That alley is actually Burton St.

Some beautiful houses that we’d somehow
overlooked all of this time.
[detail] [detail]

It is not uncommon to see restored houses for
sale next to an abandoned property.

On 22nd St., maybe. Close to Venable St.

New BHC houses and what looks to be
a good restoration.

There are still plenty of wonderful houses
around here that need some love.

23rd and Venable St.

24th St. and Venable St.

On the right is a restored duplex for sale. To
the left is an occupied house with the shingle.
Between the houses you can see another
BHC restoration in progress (on 25th St.).

A house being restored, sitting next to a
boarded-up house and 2 nice ones.

New construction in an area that doesn’t
have too many empty lots.

Last year, this house was burned and empty.
Mouseover to see the wreckage….

Two of the houses being worked on had signs
out front that showed what the houses would
look like when they were finished. Mouseover
to see the actual house.