This area has always perplexed Stump. The one-by-three block area from Pearl St. through Linden St. between Hayward St. and Pine St. is marked by an enclosure of black painted chain link fence, approximately five feet tall. Where a porch stumbles onto a street, many times the chain link blocks access to the immediate sidewalk. Instead, footpaths through the grass run between houses to gaps in the fence, similar to how players squeeze through breaks in fencing between little league baseball diamonds.
In all, 18 multifamily houses are surrounded by this fencing, all attributed to the same owner, Phoenix Griffin Group LP (Stump speculates this particular real estate outfit may have purchased these entire blocks from the [now defunct/inactive/encumbered/project-less?] Providence Redevelopment Agency in the mid ’90s*).
All told, the company is listed as the owner of 27 properties throughout the city. All appear to be in good (financial) standing, though the company was named in an independent 2002 study on lead poisoning in children from the Brown Center for Environmental Studies calling for accountability and prosecution of landlords failing to safely notify tenants of lead presence/remove said lead presence.
Other than being grouped inside the Phoenix Griffin Landlord Company barracks, 240 Pearl does not appear to share the same owner. As history shows—corroborated by the small amount of public data available, time stamped pictures, and answers from neighbors, 240 Pearl St is an orphan, left rotting, gutted, sad, and above all, porchless. The concrete foundation suggests near-recent construction, but nothing seems to show the house was ever occupied. Which begs the question; was this ever a home?
240 Pearl St: What and Why?
*speculation—I have followed no paper trail
Nearby Houses:
None yet photographed. Please take a picture if you see one.
Your speculation is probably accurate. Didn’t know PVD had a “Redevelopment Agency”. I am distrustful of them. I once approached the Boston Redevelopment Agency about property they owned. All I could get for answers were Why do you want to know? Who do you work for? Where are you from? I was then escorted out.
Many such agencies are created to “clear the books”. When cities own too much property by tax foreclosure, or other means, they create a Redevelopment Agency. The property is then transferred to them and the city no longer owns it. Looks better that way to the casual observer. City can report they have “put the property to productive use”.
Frequently they wait until they have assembled a large enough parcel to interest a large developer. It is then offered for sale. This is known as “Parcel Assembly”.
This place has been completely rehabbed and is up for sale now, it looks decent.
Glad to hear it, good to see motion.
About the “Copper gone” sign. I know it happens, but does anyone have good numbers? I suspect public mania, similar to “identity theft”. I have it on good authority from the fraud dept. of a credit card company(but about 10 years ago) that 80% of “identity theft” is by members of your family. The card companies recover most of it because the parents would rather pay than have their kids in trouble with a larceny charge in their backgrounds. Suburban police will tell you the same about “Burglaries” reported after the kids steal mom’s jewelry. So, if someone tells you about being victimized by “identity theft” or “burglary” ask if they have kids and watch their faces.
The Providence Plan did a map on cooper thefts. it is dated but it is a good starting point.
See http://local.provplan.org/enews/fom/copper_maps.pdf . -ray-
I had a look at that link, quite interesting. Actually, a larger numbr than I would have thought. Although copper scrap is always “high”, I wonder if it varies with the scrap price.
A few years ago, when I was living on Beacon Hill, I heard a “thunk” from the front of the house. Went out to investigate and saw a couple of young black males running down the street with one of my downspouts. I decided to chase them and recovered it, but by then it was bent and twisted beyond repair. I ended up using a “faux” downspout of aluminum painted black.