But no one to call it home.

Update 5/03/09 by Funsickle

Graffiti inside and out!

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Again, good looking out from toad:

So the story on this place as far as I know- 42 Arch had families in it since 04- went vacant around December 08 or January of this year I think. I noticed kids going to the back in March, but thought they were just cutting through to Wilson St. Should have known better. Its still unmolested from the front, but the backside reveals what really has been going on…

Stump also cruised the backside and gave a peek in the open doorways—this house is done.

Revisit June 29th, 2009

Video from the ProJo:

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Front door is actually off Glenham but address is listed off Taylor. The last time a city-wide utility study was done, this house had no services hooked up in 2004. I can’t imagine anyone has lived here since (or before) then. For what it’s worth, it does look secure. The windows have been blocked up since at least 2007 though were only boarded sometime in the last two years.

Sign says “no trespassing”.

Looking left to right at the intersection of Taylor and Glenham: one block East on Glenham (three foreclosures) to vacant 304 Prairie Ave, one block South on Taylor St. to vacant 472 Public St, one block* West on Glenham St. towards Broad St, and four blocks North on Taylor St. towards vacants 62 Taylor St and 27 Taylor St.

_{*see third shot large}

Update June 2009

*update photo by Funsickle

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Abandoned prior to 2004. Picked up flipped in 2005 for $161K. Foreclosed on in 2006, banked owned and traded between two investors in May 2008 for $28K.

Still vacant.

Near site of The Donk.

Revisit June 2009

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Multiple time boarded loser here. Check out the picture from the city of Providence’s 2001 survey. Looks to have been traded by faceless developers and out of town property conglomerates lots of times over the years. I marked it as revisited because technically we have bookends from eight years of “progress” between ’01 and ’09.

Anyone surprised to learn the copper is gone? The same local woman is listed* as owning the adjacent lots on either side. Maybe that’s a good thing.

Currently for sale at $45K

* _{listed meaning “publicly listed” meaning best guess—dusty city hall records are not considered public}

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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 St

The 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

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$30K

June 2009 revisit

*photo by Funsickle

No houses yet photographed. Take a picture if you find one.

Foreclosure & Vacancy:
April 2008

Bank Sale:
listed in September 2008 at $86K

Windows Busted—House Rotting:
April 2009

Update 04/15/09

Less than a week later. Not satisfied with their original smashing work, vandals/kids have been by again to inflict more damage. The swiftness of the decay is stunning. With more foreclosures just hitting the courts, evidence like this suggests it’s going to be a rough summer. These vacants won’t last more that a day without being trashed.

No houses yet photographed. Take a picture if you find one.

Over four sales between 2000 and its eventual foreclosure in 2007, the “value” of this duplex rose 500%. No significant repairs were made during that time period.

It’s now boarded, vacant, rotting, and vandalized.

Update 5/5/09
Dorgan notes in the comments below the house is now occupied if not just slightly less unsightly. We’re now at 78 houses, only two wins so far.

Good Spot, Dorgan!

Revisit June 2009
Now with Access! Trash and broken windows.

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Pictured: five abandoned structures at the intersection of Hyat St and Koussuth St in Providence, RI. From left to right 51 Hyat, 47 Hyat, 43 Hyat, 71 Kossuth, and 63 Kossuth.

Myles has previously been over in this area before. I recognized the street name when I saw the news report pop up on the Providence Journal(/Providence Pamphlet). He was not wrong in calling it one of the roughest/sketchiest parts of town. I haven’t spent much time in Olneyville, but the flea market itself suggests many adventures to be found.

A week after the fire that gutted 43 Hyat and partially torched 47 Hyat, the air still smelled of wood ash and burnt vinyl siding. Three fire fighters received minor injuries during the blaze. It took 50 of them to put it out.

Sadly, this exact intersection was the site of a press conference held by Providence Mayor David Cicilline just five weeks ago announcing two new foreclosure prevention initiatives.

Too late to save this block.

ProJo fire story and video from the press conferences below.

—
Arson suspected in Providence fires
ProJo 03/10/09

01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, March 10, 2009

By Kate Bramson and Cynthia Needham

Journal Staff Writers

PROVIDENCE — Fires Sunday night that engulfed two vacant houses in Olneyville and injured three firefighters were deemed suspicious and are under investigation, according to Deputy Assistant Fire Chief Daniel Crowley.

Fire was reported at 43 Hyat St. and 47 Hyat St. at 9:30 p.m., Crowley said. Fire was more involved in the building at 43 Hyat St., on the corner of Hyat and Kossuth streets, Crowley said.

One firefighter remained in Rhode Island Hospital yesterday morning for cardiac-related care, Crowley said. He was expected to be released yesterday. The other two firefighters fell through stairs and were treated for contusions and sprains at Roger Williams Medical Center, Crowley said.

Crowley said the approximately 50 firefighters who responded to the blazes “did a tremendous job holding [the fire] to those two houses.” The volume of fire and its proximity to other houses in the area, he said, required that many firefighters — about half of the on-duty firefighters in the city.

The fires were near another vacant house and across the street from the William D’Abate Elementary School, at 60 Kossuth St., Crowley said.

With two fires next door to each other, it would ordinarily appear that fire in one extended to the other building, Crowley said. Although that did happen, with the fire at 43 Hyat St. more heavily involved and extending to 47 Hyat St., Crowley said fire actually broke out on multiple floors of both buildings at approximately the same time.

“They are definitely suspicious, and we expect incendiaries to be the causes,” he said yesterday morning.

Neighbors said they watched one of the houses on Hyat Street go up in flames just after 9:30 p.m. Both were believed to have been vacant for several months.

Crowley said no one was living in either building, and they were empty at the time of the fires.

Tony Walker, 19, was walking to a nearby convenience store when he spotted the fire. He ran to the front door of the first house and banged loudly on the door to see if anyone was inside. That house, and the one next to it, appeared empty and the smoke was overwhelming, so Walker backed off and yelled to others on the street to call 911.

Firefighters swarmed the scene. They were able to enter 47 Hyat St. and fight the fire from within the building, but at 43 Hyat St., they needed to knock the fire down from outside before they could enter the building, Crowley said.

By 10:30 p.m. the fires in both structures were extinguished.

The city’s fire prevention bureau and arson investigator were investigating the fires, Crowley said.

Also Sunday evening, around 5:30 p.m., firefighters extinguished a burning truck inside a truck-repair facility located at 90 Reservoir Ave., next to a rental storage facility, Crowley said.

cneedham@projo.com
—

Hat tip to civilian commentor data geek over at the ProJo

“Oddly enough, these buildings happen to be the backdrop when the Mayor made his foreclosure presentation. Even more strange was the inspector checking out these same building at the exact time the TV camera were rolling.”

I had to go find those videos. Didn’t take long.

—
Press Conference Video From Same Corner

The house directly to the rear of Cicillini is part of 43 Hyat.

All of this, of course, is right across the street from William D’Abate Elementary School.

Update May 2009
43 Hyat was scraped by the city in early May. I wonder why this house came down sooner than many other gutted fire damaged homes.

* demo photos taken by Jessica Vega and submitted by Jean C. Thanks much!

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