Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Making history out of a Norhill Historic District bungalow. Plus this much more fun:
***
Community Structures
- North Main Church of God in Christ, 7206 N. Main St. 77022
- University of Houston, 7010 Staffordshire St. 77030 (Devonshire Place)
Residences
- 801 Pizer St. 77009 (Norhill Historic District)
- 2424 White Oak Dr. 77009
- 3406 Wayne St. 77026 (Grant Park)
Photo of 801 Pizer St.: HAR
I was wondering when the place on Pizer was going down – in fact I walked by it this morning & was curious. There was a little neighborhood kerfuffle about it when the demo permit was filed.
So much for historic districts preserving the historic homes. Historic is apparently in eye of the beholder in Houston.
One can only imagine what will replace this one. A modern version of Victorian? A Tuscan palace? Or the two-fer or four-fer townhome community in a sea of single family bungalows?
Well, the property is deed restricted. IN fact, as it is on Proctor Plaza, it’s even more deed restricted than most of the houses nearby (on the park you must have brick construction). And frankly, the existing house is run-down and has a horrifying addition (visible from Watson Street) that would have the neighborhood association up in arms if someone was trying to build it now. I’m no fan of tearing down old houses, but this one was hardly a gem, so if it’s replaced with something appropriate & which is in accord with the restrictions, i think it’s a net plus.
I was hoping the home on Pizer would be saved but the new owner just waited an additional 90 days for the demolition permit. This home is across the street from Proctor Plaza park. All the homes built along the perimeter of the park are brick, many with a pattern of three colored brick like this one. What a shame.
Hi Joe – one of your neighbors here. I should add that I would certainly have rather seen someone restore the existing house.
Sue Lovell’s suggestion once, at a public meeting, was for everyone concerned with historic preservation to deed restrict their own homes so they could never be torn down. Voila – problem solved!
What is UH doing at 7010 Staffordshire thats a huge 90,000 sq ft piece of land??? Any one know. Its not even close to anything I know UH has.
I’m so annoyed when a Historic District (one of the few & the feeble that Houston has) does not actually protect/preserve it’s “members,†the iconic homes which created the neighborhood in the first place!
arrrgh
801 Pizer may be in disrepair and no great architectural example, but if this lot acquires a vertical, 3000sq.ft. block of a building with a 6’ privacy fence all around and no mature trees, it’ll be a travesty. Especially on a corner lot.
~
PS – Does the Norhill District require new construction along the park to be faced in the (similar) three-colored brick which Norhill Joe describes?
~
PPS- that house on White Oak is so cute I want to give it a hug
You can’t really deed restrict your home so they can’t be torn down. BUT, if they qualify (and the rules are pretty loose) you can have your house declared a Protected Landmark by the City of Houston.
Protected Landmarks need City Council approval before being torn down – and the designation survives the sale of the property. There are under 90 Protected Landmarks in the city. (and yes, my house is one of them)
So if you really want to make a difference, try and designate your house as a Protected Landmark.
Vonroach – I thought Lovell’s suggestion was idiotic. I have no desire to tell future owners of my house what they can and cannot do. I do not want to make my house hard to sell and I especially don’t want to be the last house standing in a sea of condos or McMansions. There is no point in saving one house of no historical significance if it ends up being the oddball in the ‘hood. its about the neighborhood, see?
aaarrrggghhh
This is why Historic Districts need teeth
You can’t really deed restrict your home so they can’t be torn down. BUT, if they qualify (and the rules are pretty loose) you can have your house declared a Protected Landmark by the City of Houston.
_________________________
Unless the person who buys it has an in with someone and can send the fire marshall over to condemn it. The way someone did at Wilshire Village. And watch history come tumbling down.
As for Sue Lovell, don’t blame me. I didn’t vote for her.
Unless the person who buys it has an in with someone and can send the fire marshall over to condemn it. The way someone did at Wilshire Village. And watch history come tumbling down.
————————–
Wilshire Village was a Protected Landmark? Or there was a house in Wilshire Village that was a Protected Landmark?
Gosh, that is news for me.
What was the address of the place that got torn down? I am quite surprised given the fact that there are so few Protected Landmarks and it takes so much to get them approved
Just wait. It will happen. And then you will find nothing in reality is really protected. “Building condemned” overrides “Historical Landmark.”
As we saw in Austin when the Governor’s Mansion caught fire. Or as some saw. Apparently some didn’t see. The governor didn’t really have to restore it. It could have been torn down. And rebuilt. Maybe duplicating the original. Maybe not.
Oh, I see, Matt.
You were just making that up.
Ha, ha!
You can see how gracious the wonderful people of Proctor Plaza are here:
http://www.proctorplaza.com/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum=1&topic=1164
Quote from link above: “lets give them our disdain for what they are doing! I will no longer be nice to them when I see either of them!”
.
What a bunch of jerkholes. That house was a dump, a quarter of all the houses in that historic district are dumps. It’s full of run-down rentals and duplexes and lean-to’s but if you want to do anything to make the place look better they run you down like htese poor people. BTW, they DID folow your deed restrictions to the letter. You should be mad at the city who allowed it to be demolished.
.
Yet they allow that blue monstrosity with no windows on Norhill and Fugate.
Oh, I see, Matt.
You were just making that up.
Ha, ha!
_______________
Not really. Just pointing out that once a property is condemned, that’s it. Houston Renaissance did that with one house in Fourth Ward that the state preservation people were trying to preserve. Someone just mysteriously pulled a pickup truck up to the front porch one night and attached a chain to a support post and laid some rubber as they say and took the porch with them. And of course, well, that was that. Condemned by the city. I think HPD showed up the next day. After the city inspectors showed up to condemn it.
Not really.
_______________
Um, well, Yes, really.
Bob Dobbs’ comment is exactly why Historic Districts suck and deed restriction, too. They pit neighbor against neighbor, creating the distraction that will keep residents from organizing across the city and taking aim at the real predators. Meanwhile, the money behind the bulldozers is laughing till they pee their pants.
Bob Dobbs – I’ve wondered about that godawful place at Norhill & Fugate, too.
You picked one comment out of many in that forum thread, and the general tone was quite the opposite of the one picked.
The new owners of that house bought a house in a deed-restricted historic district. I assume that they are planning to follow the deed restrictions until something suggests otherwise.
I’ve owned in a historic district before. Vigilance on the part of the neighborhood association in the city turned it into one of the best neighborhoods in the city (DC) after years of it being a crime-ridden wreck. Sometimes it was contentious. But we had an amazing mix of Victorian homes and new developments that made it a destination for people from all over the region and, incidentally, brought up property values amazingly. Most importantly, it was a great place to live.
The addition on the back of this house was horrible and being on the corner presented a very ugly side to the street. The irony is that they fought tooth and nail to save a structure which, if someone tried to build today, they would fight tooth and nail to keep them from building it.