The northern end of Texas Avenue between Sidney and Victor streets on the west side has possessed a fascinating and strange history since the 1870s. Originally, the house above, a Greek Revival duplex, sat on an isthmus flanked by a lake to the south and a pond to the north in the southeast corner of Fox Park.

But industry subsumed the house and the lots around it by the late Nineteenth Century, first by the Koken Barber Supply Company, which had a lacquer facility in the back of the house, and the by a chrome bumper plating business that only closed in the last decade.

Heavy metals are no fun! So DeSales Community Development brought legal action against the heirs of the final deceased owner, and the EPA has come in and begun cleanup of the property.

In the near future, this land that has been the site of industry for over a century will be usable again by the community.