Way back in October of 2019, I looked at the east side of Louisiana Avenue in between Cherokee and Potomac streets heading south. Recently, I went the opposite direction, looking at the west side of the block, heading north.

This one block of Gravois Park could not be more different. While the east side was a series of very old wood frame houses that were very old, and probably dates to early exurban uses, the west sides is a series of one story “shotgun” bungalows built in a tract.

While there are some four-families mixed in, the predominant form is the small two-window one-story house with a side entrance.

I was once told by an upper middle class person that there is no demand for these houses anymore. How clueless can that person be? There is a severe housing crisis in America. Houses such as these with extremely low mortgage payments (thought investors from the Coasts are ruining the affordability of these houses with their all-cash offers) are just as needed today as they were in 1900 when most of these homes were built–for regular people.

There’s plenty of big houses left for the people who can afford them, trust me.

This house sits in limbo, though it’s interesting to see the rubble wall construction of the foundation behind the missing front staircase.