You maybe noticed I ignored the little house above yesterday when I talked about the western half of Bartmer Avenue. There’s a reason why: it’s the last remnant–the carriage house–of a long lost estate known as Maplecrest, or sometimes written Maple Crest.

Back around 1960, Union Memorial was moving out from its previous location, and in the process of building their new church, the congregation also engaged in a little urban renewal, buying up the lots around the original country house of Maplecrest and replatting it in a new subdivision of the same name.

These ranch houses were built on the new lots made out of the old Chamberlain Addition. And the old Maplecrest house? Seen below, it was demolished and the church sits pretty much just to the north of its former location. It is a strange conglomeration; I suspect it started out as more of an Italianate farmhouse and then grew with the construction of that rather awkward third floor addition.

It was built and owned by William T. Gay, who owned a large villa out off Page Avenue; his brother John B. lived a little bit to the south. They were both slave owners, and during the Civil War they were upset by the constant harassment of Union soldiers who came out from the City, annoyed by their Confederate sensibilities.

Their country estates were eventually surrounded by the massive Rose Hill Addition in 1871, and as can be seen, the real estate developers drew their two houses as landmarks on their plat map. Page Avenue was renamed Cook for a while, before that latter name was moved elsewhere in the street grid and the former was restored.

Below, you can see in the Sanborn map that the wood frame houses (shown in yellow) would eventually become the Maplecrest Subdivision created by Union Memorial. I suspect due to their wood frame construction, they were worse for wear by the late 1950s when the redevelopment was first planned.

One of those houses, the Bronson Residence, was photographed by William Swekosky before it was demolished. Edward Bronson was an iron merchant whose business was at 800 N. Second Street. The house, which has strong Renaissance Revival tendencies, was built in 1891 and is intriguing in that it is of wood frame construction but gives the appearance of being of masonry construction.