Yeah, this old one is a goner: A rep from the city says that a variance application to reduce the building setback has been approved for this corner in Museum Park, making just enough room on the 8,100-sq.-ft. lot at Jackson and Blodgett so 4 townhomes can squeeze on in. The peach-trimmed, converted-into-apartments building at 1702 Blodgett St., catty-corner from the art gallery that opened in the strip center, was in the Daily Demolition Report this morning. County records show that the doomed 4,220-sq.-ft. building dates to 1935.
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- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: Out of Groceries, A Strip Center Art Gallery Opens in Museum Park
Images: Total Surveyors (plan); Allyn West (building)
Every house in that area is doomed. Hurricane Density is upon us.
sad.
Beautiful home, but given that it would be much more expensive to retrofit (see those window units?) than to tear down, I’m not surprised.
Variance request approved? What a shocker.
Can’t have any of that nasty living green space. Concrete and dead all the way!
Prefab brick or stucco is going to look a whole lot better than all that hand laid, detailed, varied-pattern crippity-crap. Like someone else said, anything new is better than anything old.
Question #1, WTF is prefab brick? Question #2, does modern brick magically jump into place these days vs. still being laid by hand?
I am very familiar with that home. The picture does it a lot of justice. It’s in sad shape.
Prefab brick is when sections of the brick wall are preassembled off-site and then put on the building as one large piece. The telltale sign is when you look at a brick wall and see noticeable seams between different sections of brick, especially when the bricks don’t interlock across the seam. It looks bad and is less durable.
Never in all my years have I ever seen a pre-assembled brick wall on residential construction, as a matter of fact can’t recall ever seeing it on any commercial construction in Houston either.
It’s great Houston is pro business, it’s made the city the economic juggernaut it is today, but this is the downside–it’s all about making money–if it were more profitable to level River Oaks and build a trash heap I have no doubt River Oaks would become a trash heap–no area is immune
Could somebody save that Chimney Topper for me?
I live nearby. Yes, this home was once a great space and integrated well but that’s no longer the case unless one desires to spend an amount that skews the economics of the decision. Decades of neglect didn’t help. Now someone is willing to weigh the risk, take the gamble and do something else. At a certain point time isn’t on anyone’s side. I’m hopeful that some single family homes are coming soon. At least something with a yard. I have one for a price.
Tearing down one slum to build a future slum.
What will or will not become slums has a lot more to do with location, location, location, not the structure itself. I don’t see River Oaks or Memorial ever becoming the slums, no matter what direction the economy goes. Even if by some chance Houston turns into Detroit in several decades, those areas will still be the best of everything around it. The Heights on the other hand, has been good, turned to slums, turned to ghetto, now coming back up… but has a very good potential of becoming the crackhouse district again if there’s an oil crash again.
Yes, Museum Park will be “re-slumming” next downturn. It was on the verge of being redeveloped well but who wants those #$%^@ town homes with wires swingin’ overhead. People will get sick of replacing their leaky windows and moldy prefab stucco, abandon ship. Fly by night businesses and rentals are the order of the day, no invested property owners. Renters are gone with the next bust.
Adding a highrise apartment building is the end for residential property owners. River Oaks was upset with the Bellmeade being too close. Uh, this is in the middle of the neighborhood. Density at all costs. Hines is a “good” developer? A high rise “fits” the area? Seriously? Development is good? How about good development.
Too bad. Houston has lost an opportunity for a one of a kind parks-museum district. Kiss those convention dollars good bye, they’ll be headin’ to Atlanta!
@ commonsense
“…I don’t see River Oaks or Memorial ever becoming the slums…”
ummm?
the northeast US is littered with ghettos that used to be neighborhoods for the extremely rich.
Mt. Airy in Philly is the first that comes to mind- bona fide mansions on gigantic forested lots lining the Wissahickon park (which Poe once named a ‘miniature Alpine valley’) that were built by and lived in by millionaires- back when million had the cachet of billion.
as of 2005 at least the risk of getting mugged, or even shot by a stray bullet, was a very real one.
@a casual observer, once again you keep bringing up areas elsewhere in the country that have nothing to do with Houston. If you know Houston history, which you do not appear to, those two areas are for the lack of a better word a backbone of Houston high end real estate and are immune for the most part. If River Oaks becomes ghetto, then we have had much bigger issues than a market crash, we would probably live in e Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (Or Astrodome)… two men enter, one man leaves.
That picture makes that house look fine but it’s not. It’s about to fall apart and is time for it to go.
It seems that our historic neighborhood is being over run by thrown together townhome and apartments, while the historic community home aspect is destroyed. It seems economic and financial interests trumps community and family life. Sad. An investor could have rehaped the home and sold it.