Firefighters are battling a smoky blaze this afternoon near the corner of 11th St. and Heights Blvd., next to the post office. A Swamplot reader writes in with this report:
Billowing flames and smoke are rising from the roof of a house at
10131015 Heights Blvd. Neighbors report that it is a two-story stucco historic home that was converted into apartments. A few years back, a porch was added but then exterior work on the remodel stopped. I couldn’t get close enough to take photos. Heights Blvd. is blocked off between 11th St. and 10th St.
Another reader sends in pix:
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Update, 3:50 pm: The city reports that 18 HFD units responding to the incident were able to end the fire at the fourplex by 3:11 pm, a little more than an hour after it was reported. The fire was in the attic and second floor; no one was injured.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Wait, what?!?!? A historic STUCCO home? According Heightsters, it should have disintegrated into dust decades ago.
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I’m assuming they did not retrofit a sprinkler system during the remodel.
ah, just south of the post office. That place was in pretty bad shape, if memory serves.
It’s a bummer when anyone’s home goes up in flames.
I walk by that house all the time. It certainly looked decrepit from the outside—it almost had a mysterious, haunted look to it. Sad to see it go up in flames.
Thanks to our HFD heroes for the great work.
Well this just opens up another space to build yet another f-ugly highrise with first floor retail, the hipsters should be doing the Snoopy dance over this!
Thanks for the pics, saw the smoke from I-10 earlier.
That was a rooming house prior to Ike in 2008 and took a beating in the storm. I remember some of the “residents” of that property roaming the streets around there for days after the storm. There was a whole lotta crazy up in there.
It’s the old Hawkins House. It has been looking pretty sad for a while now, but I always liked it for some reason. It looked so much nicer back when it had Spanish tiles on the roof, even though it had seen better days.
Does anyone know if the arsonist who had been torching houses and garages in the Heights a few years ago was ever caught?
Old Hawkin’s house – as Dr.?
Wonder why HCAD doesnt even have 1015 Heights on the rolls at all.
Mies, Yes it was the guy standing and watching EVERY SINGLE fire when the FD showed up.
Faster than a bulldozer.
Not to mention, historic preservationist crying about loss of another home in the Heights. Not that I’m not on their side, just saying.
commonsense, this house was made with real stucco, not that cake icing garbage used today.
I used to live in another of that landlord’s properties just around the corner from there. I called him Mr. Halfass, and I’m not at all surprised this place caught fire.
@Miz Brook, nonsense, they used cement mixture back then and they still use cement mixture now, plus now they use additives to prevent cracking and fading.
Oh- just a historic house. Nothing to see here, folks. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hawkins_House_(1015_Heights_Blvd)_HDR.jpg
Does anybody recall the precise moment when Swamplot became a Heights community blog?
This has nothing of any material consequence to do with Houston real estate. If it ends up getting demoed, then we’ll see it in the Daily Demolition Report and that’ll be that.
@niche: I count 3 out of the last 23 posts being about the Heights including this one. The other two were about a @700 unit multifamily development and a large assisted living complex going up. And this is a very significant loss to the Height’s historic architecture. It was beat up, but I have seen far worse restored to glory in the Heights.
This house was into stucco before stucco sold out, apparently.
I propose the name of this blog be changed to ‘HeightsPlot’, or maybe ‘SwampyHeights’ (no, oxymoron) or possibly ‘PreciousHeights’. Come on Heights readers, I’m sure all you clever folks can come up with something better!
Arson for redevelopment… cheaper than having to pull that demo permit and rent equipment… not to mention haul off and debris removal.
Just sayin, I think we’ve seen this before.
Let me clarify… I’m not saying this is the case. We will wait for HFD to sermoned cause.