Update 5/3/09
Investor’s dream! Yours for $25K!
Update (later) in May 2009
House coming down (“photo credit Jessica Vega through Jean C.).
See the thread on the Providence corner of Hyat & Kossuth streets in Olneyville for more house demolition photos.
Update 5/3/09
Yours for only $55K!
He wore white socks with his flip-flops, and though some have already staked claim on this look (Jews and Protestants in shorts/fat middle managers retrieving the morning paper/black guys running errands), for a ten year-old kid with a new skateboard, he was jumping around the concrete with abandon.
Remembering the still heavy boat-shoes-no-socks-scar on my right ankle accumulated at about his age, I couldn’t help but smile at what was likely to only be day three or four of his skateboarding infancy. I could tell his lack of coordination was not likely to cause as much harm as did mine, which actually says more about the steep learning curve athletic disciplines shoved upon my youth than his yet-absent balance. These days, I skate in an old pair of boots.
He asked me if I knew any tricks in the same innocent-disposition so many city kids are not credited with. It was not from naivety—some random dude taking pictures of ugly houses on his street clearly posed no threat to his aimless morning, and as someone who was over-instructed to never talk to strangers, I took his welcoming demeanor as a compliment. If I would have asked, I’m pretty sure he would given me a bowl of cereal.
I didn’t have the heart to tell him his knock-off, sporting goods store brand board was not doing him any favors. I think they pack sand inside the bearings. And IF the trucks would of had bushings, I could tell they would have caved under my weight. I carefully did my best to give him a few pointers without snapping the deck, and told him eluding ollies would be less so with a proper pair of sneakers, any sneakers. Quick 101 over, he instantly took to my demo curb and wanted to know more about getting into that blunt-slide-for-beginners.
The brown pile at 7 Knowles is worth about four dollars (U.S.), including my generous valuation of the land. HUD seems to think someone is going to pay $60K for it, which is down from the $75K I remember it being listed for about eight months ago (don’t quote me). It has now been on the market 625 days.
The house easily needs $150K worth of work to become even relatively up to code; at this state of disrepair, it would be cheaper to start over with a vacant free (or even $60K) lot. I don’t know how HUD chooses their homes in which to intervene, but they sure couldn’t do worse than selecting a piss-poor list of homes which should all be given away.
And that is THE problem with all the vacants. Banks, absentee owners, and even HUD all still blindly see the concept of “homes” as a financial investment, now, or someday in the future. That’s great for a city consistently gaining population. But for cities stagnant, or slightly loosing people (Providence), this equation does not work. Banks and speculators gathering up and trading vacant homes in the thousands—THOUSANDS—without even stepping foot in the city, what are they thinking?
Long-term, is some mass-migration going to push people back into cities of industry? Are the buy-ins so low that modern carpetbaggers hope to just absently sit on hundreds of thousands (millions?) of addresses across the country until a few turn out to be the future site of a military base, fifty years from now? Is that the game? Or is it about impressing investors with a “portfolio” of homes listed for their theoretical tax-appraised value without pause for the climate of the communities they rot (within)?
In the city of Providence, even in an “up-market”, fixing up a house like 7 Knowles will never be a sound financial investment for an asking price of more than a few pennies. And even then, it’s still a risk, and a risk for what? Something nostalgic about this house I’m missing? Is this house so unique a perfect buyer will plan his or her family around it? Could it wind up on the cover of some trendy magazine on modern architecture and remodeling?
Of course not. So for $200K plus of today’s capital, which would be asking a lot for this area, you still end up with an updated yet still crummy home. Granite, track lighting, and energy efficient appliances still won’t give it a garage, increase it’s square footage (1500), provide that Colonial/Victorian/Bungalow charm, or move it into a better school district.
Forgotten Providence has now cataloged dozens of vacant and decrepit homes across the city in rough neighborhoods that, still, lots of people would be happy to live in, but no one can afford to.
Does that make sense? Rotting houses even people with jobs and savings can’t afford to renovate?
Tear it down.
February 2010 Update
*photos by Cody
Nice looking house, not sure what is going on here. Getting uglier by the day. Been boarded at least six months by my count. Neighborhood “repair” shop sees a host of Forgotten Auto Carcasses in the rear, which is to say nothing of the Forgotten Kitties living under the porch.
This house is worth saving, though city records thus far are unclear as to why it’s in limbo. Foreclosure is always the guess.
I’d move in tomorrow.
Update 4/15/09
Access now through the rear door, place looks to have been f*ed up up pretty good inside.
A realtor told me this house had been sold but there are no signs a buyer has been near it. Not any “real” buyer that is; perhaps this is simply one of the many untold examples of banks flipping and trading properties like cattle. Or poker chips. Or “assets.”
Update June 2009
Bank owned, listed at $64,500. Under house features is says “cable ready”. Ooh, thanks.
Revisit July 2008
“Oh hai!”
This house has no chance. Mt Vernon is a short but rough street in Upper South Providence; the only charming item within four blocks being this blue home. Built in 1920, it hasn’t received a lick of updating in almost 90 years and is structurally showing all classic signs of an aging vacant. Though aside from a few broken window panes, it has not yet been pilfered, or burned, and the listing maintains the copper is still intact.
This house is currently for sale for $20,000. In six months, they won’t be able to give it away.
Other Forgotten Homes in this area include the jumanji biosphere 11 Comstock and the multiple-time-boarded-loser at 3 Mt Vernon.
Update April 2009
Front door kicked in, temporarily re-secured. Windows broken and boarded. Wonder now what’s missing from inside.
Update June 2009
Little more graffiti, couple of shingles missing.
*photo by funsicle
Roof was about 40 years past its prime. Has been a suspected vacant for many years (you think?) and the little city data suggests it’s been on the take-down radar since 2006. Formerly a night club at some point.
Demoed just a few weeks ago.
The perpendicular alignment of the house in relation to the road suggests the street was an afterthought (at least as far as this building is concerned) and that possibly the house once sat on a larger, majestic tract. The front porch facing into a (large-ish) adjacent yard supports this theory.
House is in bad shape. Badness all around that yard and front entrance.
Update, March 21st 2009
Someone has been by to board up and theoretically kick out the squatters.
Naive to think it was the city?
House likely has been vacant since a foreclosure in March of 2007.
In the running as Ugliest House as documented by Forgotten Providence. This house also gives me the creeps. And it’s been this way for quite a while. In a succession of neighbor-touching-neighbor blight with 26 – 28 Gilmore and 31 Gilmore that certainly makes good case for the “bad apple” theory of community rot.
Big time access.
UPDATE
The right front awning fell into the street one morning. I went back to take a picture, and someone—a driver?—moved it onto the sidewalk. Kinda.
It sat just like in the picture for almost four weeks before being removed by the city. Awesome.
This abominable house is listed for sale at $35K.
This one has been gutted for a long time.
*address was originally thought to be 18 Steuben but has been corrected
Update 4/05/09
City says this house has been demolished. Need to get a re-photo.
