Daily Demolition Report: The Best a Demo Can Get

Row-house special: Taking the edge off of the Fourth Ward.

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Commercial Structures

Residences

Photo of Gillette St. row houses: Cherry House Moving Company

17 Comment

  • Yes! The last of the historically relevant shotgun houses to be leveled. (irony). Houston has no history only stucco and concrete, and white folks with bottomless pockets..

  • that IS history, and a culture. it may not work in most parts, but some people see it as a progressive sign that we are not willing to be bound to what worked 100, 50, and sometimes 20 years ago…that in Houston, if it ain’t perfect or up to snuff, knock it down and make it so.

  • But for some reason people just keep on coming…

  • Where will I get my crack now?

  • How in the world did this happen?

  • In 50-100 years, Houston will have an entirely new history to look back on. Architects and historians will wax poetic about the Great Redevelopment of Houston’s Core that began in the early 1990’s. We’re only 20 or so years into a 50 year redevelopment style. We are right smack dab in the middle of a fantastic transformation and many folks want to just sit around and bitch.

    People in San Francisco bitched about the constructing the Golden Gate Bridge too.

    Houston might be the next Detroit someday if solar and wind ever push oil and gas to the sidelines. I say we continue to build while we can. Jobs are being created HERE. People with disposable income WANT to live come and live here. I say let’s try to accommodate them.

  • Far from the last of the row/shotgun shacks. Plenty still more to come. If they were restored and appropriate rent or purchase price charged, no one would even consider moving in there due to the criminal element and dope dealers standing on the corner. It’s close enough to Montrose to make sense to tear it down and build something that will help gentrify the area.

  • I could not be happier. Since I moved to midtown in 2001, those have been an eyesore. for those that think these are historical landmarks, then save one or two and move them to your neighborhood (I think I saw that one of them was being preserved).

    if my neighbor keeps his trashcan in the front yard for 80 years, does that give the garbage some sort of historical significance?

  • “Houston has no history only stucco and concrete, and white folks with bottomless pockets.”

    ^ Spoken like a typically unadventurous white person with bottomless pockets. Houston has plenty of history left, even if it isn’t arranged in a contrived and insulated family-friendly format. …I hear that Celebration, Florida is nice this time of year. :rolleyes:

  • Bring in the DC9 Caterpillers.

  • Oh just cut it out, you heart-pine, cypress and true-2×4 haters!
    It is great that Houston is continuing to grow and flourish, but society needs touch-stones, links to its past.
    @Bernard, you say that San Franciscans decried the Golden Gate Bridge – that it would wreck the city – but SF has kept, maintained and refurbished many old sites, streets, wharves and WWII bunkers for the betterment of all.
    @htownproud, seriously, if you have access to 80-year old trash, call me! there’s valuable cans and bottles in there.

  • I always find it quite ironic to see that so many unused homes are torn down while there are so may homeless people living on the street. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a fan of welfare and handouts. But, the amount of money that was spent on cleaning up after the Occupy bunch and for providing police overtime for them would have gone a good ways towards making these home useable.

  • Bubba – Homelessness and real estate re-development are two two totally separate animals. There are certainly exceptions, but the vast majority of Houston’s homeless are on the streets as a result of serious mental health issues. There are plenty of way for a sane person in Houston to make a living. There are plenty of affordable housing options in Houston. There’s a safety nets out there too, but these folks fell though it.

    You can spend all you want making these houses livable,but that’s just wasting money. The developers will still tear them down to build bigger and better buildings for the people and businesses that can afford them.

  • Bubba, there are a lot of parks that I’d rather live in than certain “historic” houses or apartments. I mean hell, I go camping for the sake of recreation…so why live in a shithole that’ll give you pneumonia and chemical pneumonia at the same time?

  • I thought it was impossible to get a demolition permit in one of the historic districts.

    Were all the preservasionists asleep on this?

  • Those houses aren’t in a historic district that prevents demolition.

  • Oh no the last remants of the “million dollar block” are going to be torn down.
    This was Freedman’s Town A LONG TIME AGO….sometimes the people that actually live inside the neighborhood (pre-gentrification) have to maintain it themselves…but it will be sad to see the million dollar block officially gone forever