08/26/09 1:25pm

From Robert Boyd’s blog, Wha’ Happen?:

Wilshire Village is officially no more. . . .

I am interested in what happens next. Certainly something new will be built there, but in today’s economic environment, getting loans for development is hard. So it may sit for a while. But I will be watching and taking photos whenever I notice a change in status.

Here’s what I hope. I hope that the new development there, whatever it is, is a reasonably high density development, like the one it replaces. I hope that the new development preserves the beautiful trees on the site.

I hope the new development is people-oriented and community-oriented. I hope that it engages the street and is pedestrian-friendly. I hope that it is architecturally interesting. I hope it has no fake stucco, no faux-Tuscan features. I hope it has no turrets or oversized, penis-shaped entryways. I hope it doesn’t have big garages that face the streets.

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08/21/09 6:48pm

THE WILSHIRE VILLAGE APARTMENTS, ALL GONE The demolition of the Wilshire Village Apartments across from the Fiesta Market on Dunlavy is now pretty much complete, readers tell Swamplot. The last buildings to come down were the ones on West Alabama. “The smell of crushed, still-good lumber was very sharp, and very poignant,” writes one correspondent who drove by late yesterday. Reader OkieEric comments: “The good news is that most of the trees are still there.” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot]

08/21/09 5:03pm

A reader sends in this photo from the corner of Union and Henderson Sts. in the Old Sixth Ward, one block off Washington Ave. And comments:

Anyone in the market for a FREE house? This caught my eye on my way home [yesterday] and made me laugh out loud. I knew it was a rough sellers market but wow – FREE?

Sorry about the ghost images in the picture – I got so excited about a FREE house that I forgot to roll down the car window before snapping the shot!

The home dates to 1890, and was sold in October of last year. This past April, the city historical commission denied the owner’s request for a “certificate of appropriateness” to tear it down.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

08/19/09 10:36am

The 2-story 1939 brick home at 1504 N. MacGregor Way, on the banks of Brays Bayou in Idylwood, has completed the Swamplot trifecta. In July of last year the home made its first appearance, as the subject of a Neighborhood Guessing Game (answer revealed here). In September, after the pre-Hurricane Ike storm surge brought about 2 feet of water in for an extensive tour of the first floor, the home was featured again: an after-Ike-cleanup poster house, still on the market for $359,000.

And then, this morning, a third and likely final showing on Swamplot: in our Daily Demolition Report.

A quick look back at the home’s better (and not-so-much better) days:

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