November 25, 2005
a walk around the neighborhood
Our first Thanksgiving in the neighborhood, we walked around and took photos. Last year we did it again. In keeping with this impromptu tradition, we went for a walk yesterday morning…
The first year that we went out, the idea was to just see what the rest of the area looked like. I ended up taking a bunch of pictures of houses that were arresting in their state of decay. It seemed at the time that the houses would either be fixed soon or fall over. That turned out to be true for more than a few.
There are less beautifully decrepit houses around than there were just 2 years ago. There has been enough interest in fixing up the area that the really bad frame houses have generally been pushed over and the brick houses have at least seen stabilizing work done. There are also new construction houses coming in all over the place, sometimes 3 or 4 in the same block. Some of these look very nice, some are so tacky that they hurt me to look at.
Restoration continues at a rapid pace to the south and west of us and has been happening to the east despite the presence of the projects. I’m still waiting to see activity to the north and along the natural retail corridor.
This house was recently scheduled for demolition, but then someone bought it to restore. (1120 North 22nd Street)
Across the street from Mosby Court, this house assessed at $68,500 last year. (921 North 20th Street)
These houses are being restored by Better Housing Coalition. The house on the the left used to look like this (1111 North 23rd Street).
Carrington and 20th Streets?
Carrington and 20th Streets?
Cedar Street, between 24th and 25th Streets
These houses were being worked on at this time last year.
22nd or 23rd Street?
This house used to belong to Thomas Cannon (725 North 22nd Street).
This shed on Burton between 22nd and 23rd has a piano in it.
Venable Street from 24th Street towards 23rd Street
On Venable Street between 22nd and 23rd Streets
A rusty shutter hinge.
“Apartments for rent”
“This building has been sold”
This sign for the 27th Street Inn hangs at the now unused building that has been a laundromat for as long as I can remember.
“27th Street Laundro Mat”
For a little while, some people had decided that it was ok to build these squat cinderblock buildings in the area.
29th Street?
29th Street?
detail for above.
This house has been recently repointed and the lot has been cleaned up.
“Coming Soon” (2701 M Street)
“Coming Soon” (2700 block of M Street)
27th Street?
between 27th and 26th Streets, maybe Cedar Street
between 25th and 26th Streets, maybe Cedar Street
24th Street?
Cat with tongue (27th Street?)
23rd Street?
between 24th and 25th, on Marshall?
Jefferson Avenue. At one point, this was some kind of BBQ walk-up. I would love to be able to buy a taquito there.
A nice white picket fence.
The houses are charming. I can’t believe how many are empty. The brick one with the 3 chimneys is beautiful as are many of the others. I even think the cinderblock building is okay. It looks very sturdy and reminds me of the architecture that was used for businesses. The pic with the corrugated metal walls is strange. At first I thought it was a trailer but it has a brick foundation. Thanks for the pics. I love to look at pictures of houses in other bloggers’ neighborhoods.
Love the photos! It’s great watching Church Hill’s restoration. I drive around every so often and visit Captain Buzzy’s.
Keep the photos coming!
–J.C.
http://richmonddemocrat.blogspot.com/
I never get tired of pictures of your area. It’s crazy to me that such great urban form could ever be abandoned!
Hi I’m from Australia and, although your building styles are a little different to ours, we share the same love of old and interesting houses. Only 217 years old, we have lost a lot of our old buildings to developers. We are slowly returning to restore these classic homes.
OH NO! Ribtown USA, where have ye gone? Almost got beaten up there waiting for ribs once.
Ribtown USA has been gone since before we moved back up here. That area of Jefferson is a little different now…
This house has been recently repointed and the lot has been cleaned up.
That’s directly across the street from me. I can’t figure out what’s going on with it. A ragtag (to put it kindly) crew worked feverishly for about 2-3 weeks to do a few things then disappeared; haven’t seen them since. They appeared to be working quite unsafe (using old office chairs on 2nd/3rd level scaffolding, for one) and there was nary a permit to be seen, so they may well have been shut down.
Do you happen to know the story of the two 27th St. Laundro Mats; one across Marshall Street from the other?
I don’t, except that the one on the northside of the street is “believed to be the oldest surviving commercial building in Richmond” and was originally a grocery store.
I believe the buildings at each corner of that intersection were all owned at one point by the same guy- the Charlie of “See Charlie” fame. I’ve heard many (perhaps apocryphal, but entertaining) stories of Charlie lowering down from the second story a bucket into which you put your bills to be changed. Charlie apparently also kept a pistol nearby for quick dispute resolution.
I am a little late chiming in on this thread but just discovered the forum and topic about Laundromats at 27th and Marshall. Here is the scoop for anyone still reading…
All four corners were once owned by Charlie Johnson but three of them were sold off in 2004 after numerous building code violations. The older of the three which is at 401 N 27th, was built in 1815 and considered the oldest commercial building in the city. It was purchased by Patrick Murray who lives in the DC suburbs. is sister Sandra Murray lives in Church Hill and owns the other two.
Unfortunately, Patrick Murray must have gotten in over his head not knowing about 200 year old degrading brick structures and once he received a permit to do some demolition to see if it was feasible to restore, must have found out the cost was beyond his pocketbook. They would work on the building for a week and then disappear for months. That was the cycle for years and once the interior was gutted and a wall fell, it has been exposed to the elements and now in jeopardy of collapsing on one corner of the building. The City Inspectors have taken new interest and now citing it for blight and was rumored to had started proceedings for emergency demolition within 30-days but decided to give Murray one more chance to either come up with engineering plans and a date the building could be occupied or go to court. In the mean time the Historic Richmond Foundation is also interested in buying it to restore so the city has held off on the demolition process for now until each party finds out what Murray is going to do.
I know all of this is happening because I am the one that got the ball rolling for the city and HRF. We also have a special interest because the building built in 1815 (as a grocery store) was done so by the same man who built our house in 1812 3 doors down - Capt. Charles Wills.
As for 325 N 27th across the street and the third building which was at one point fixed to code, all are vacant and one other is also gutted and no idea what the scoop is on those yet?
Eric Huffstutler