This row of houses on the south side of Manchester Avenue, just east of Kingshighway in the Grove, are slated for demolition for the now ubiquitous flimsy wood frame apartment buildings that are going up all over the neighborhood.
Left vacant and unmaintained for years, of course they look a little rough around the edges. That’s the whole idea…
But this beautiful house above and below can’t have its beauty hidden.
Several years ago, another apartment building replaced some perfectly intact houses further east. I photographed those houses before they were demolished.
It’s so sad what happens to buildings here in the US. Much of Europe’s charm is seeing buildings that are hundreds of years old. I think of the humble fish market in Delft that was built in 1295 and is still being used for that same purpose. Ugly apartment complexes and things like Dollar General make our landscape so unappealing. Thank you for keeping the history alive in photos. Love your blog!
More victims of possibly flight from the city, absentee landlords, poverty. Sad they couldn’t be rehabbed before it was too late. It must be cheaper to build new, than rehab the old. I wonder why Habitat For Humanity couldn’t turn these into affordable housing?
Truely heartbreaking. I remember my now deceased Mother ( born 1924) spoke of the destruction of all the old brick housing demolished in the 1950s including Mill Creek in the name of urban renewal to make way for the hideous high rise subsidized housing. We all know how well that went.
I don’t know what’s worse… stripping the interior of historical homes from their millwork, fireplaces, light fixtures, and interior walls for that “open concept”, or tearing down these homes altogether. Either way is a disappointment for a cheap fad that will most likely be regretted later.