Foreclosed upon in 2006. Sits in purgatory for a few years. A part-time-local buys(/tries to rescue) it in 2008, neighbor says puts about $40K into renovations. House then sits empty for a few months while owner is away in Florida (he’s a lawyer). Waiting for rental tenants.
The tip came in from Phil like this:
Another long time abandoned house at 136 West Clifford St in South Prov.
house is the first one in where W. Clifford crossed Somerset StThe back door has been kicked in and the house is a magnet for the local
kids where they hang out at night and vandalize the adjacent community
gardens…
A good neighbor corroborates the exact same story. He says he chased kids out of the house many times and was repeatedly in contact with the owner to get someone over to shore up the house or get someone living in it at least temporarily.
None happened. And after the first window was broken, they all went. 40 panes in total. Two new furnaces, gone. New bathtub, destroyed. Mid-day, mid-week, the day I was standing there talking to the neighbor taking these photos, a local elderly man stumbled around the street, first carrying a random piece of furniture away from what looked to have been a nearby eviction.
I went to shoot the photo from the rear, and the good neighbor followed to check on the joker. It was a scene played out many times before (minus the photog), and the neighbor was clearly exasperated. The elderly man was too weak to even open the busted back door, so as he tried, neither of us even confronted him. He was literally harmless, and besides, the house has already been stripped of all it’s worth. Why even make a scene?
Startled, the old cager finally turned around and in an aged, slow drawl, exasperated:
“Well excuse me gentlemen, I was not even meaning no harm. I wasn’t up to no nothing, just checking around to see if there was anything…I might happen to be able to acquire.”
Indeed, there are a slew of community gardens in this area. SWAPs marking are all around. This neighborhood has seen badness, but it would take someone with longer Providence perspective than I to determine if it’s seen worse.
The good neighbor—born and raised in his house across the street, now in his late 30′s, says neigh.
“I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”
The old man babbled his way onto the street, and the neighbor left to go work in his yard. The city (!) even has been out to badger the remote-owner as well, and if the house is not on it’s way to being secured by Monday, a fine is coming down.
Revisit June 19, 2009
Nearby Houses:
None yet photographed. Please take a picture if you see one.
“Two new furnaces, gone.” If you are wondering where they went, probably to a neighbor who is renovating his property. I once knew a transit worker who renovated houses in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, he would put in orders for furnaces and hot water heaters on street corners. Since they came from government subsidized projects, they were usually “best quality”. A lot of little “midnight supply” businesses operate without public notice. Haven’t you ever wondered where those “Architectural Antiques” come from? Antique wholesalers hire kids to steal them, or deal through intermediaries. In rural areas, sheriffs are kept busy chasing out the antique dealers gutting vacant houses. In urban areas, when they shut the water off for non-payment they fill the valve hole with sand. Everyone has a “street wrench” and will just turn it back on without the sand. Harbor Freight sells the street wrenches.
Some of this can get fairly scary. I knew a black couple who decided to participate in the “Harlem Renaissance”. They purchased a building and were having it renovated at a distance. They went to visit it and found 1/2 a body. They walked on that project, but it put them in bankruptcy.
I’ve heard a lot about midnight supply companies from construction guys loosing their jobs and looking to part with a “bonus.”
Near this house, on the “street view” is a green house on which someone has done some good work. I can’t tell from the picture whether it has been “sided”, or the original siding rescued. Notice that it still has window and door casings. It looks “pulled together”. A hint, if you find a house with “asphalt siding” (looks like roofing cut into shingles) there is probably salvagable wood siding underneath. “Asphalt siding” was the “vinyl siding” of the 1930′s. The same is true of vinyl siding, except the cut rate installers tend to rip out any wood that got in the way.
Stopped by for a revisit—136 West Clifford looking good
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