Squandered Heritage

Historic District Landmarks Commission Meeting Agenda
June 8th, 2007
City Council Chambers 9:30 a.m.
City Hall

Proposal for demolition. Chris Robinson, owner. Housing Unit Demolition Task Force, applicant. This is a very historic structure by design and location. The owner is applying for a free FEMA demolition but this damage is due to years of neglect.

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On the drive back from NC today, I got a call to attend a hearing tomorrow morning to save this structure from the wrecking ball. Again. There is a spiritual sense regarding my return and fragile properties. I was not surprised.

The last time I left town and came back, the Apricot St. House in NW Carrollton was mistakenly demolished. On the drive home I had this sense to call Karen, “check on Apricot”. Sure ‘nuf, it was gone. It was lost due to an error on the part of Tony Faciane, which I later learned through documents we obtained from an RFPI. Apricot St. was our sacrificial lamb and the lessons we learned in that case gave us the confidence to work harder to avoid marginal mistakes.

This little house on N. Robertson had been on the imminent danger list last year because it’s in a bad way. However, Miss N. and her husband bought it after the storm along with some other properties in the immediate area of N. Robertson and Ursulines. They have already stabilized and redone most of the properties they assumed in this very high risk block and have made an enormous impact with other investors, including Gladys Marigny and Scott Veazey, two well known historic renovators in Treme. The first thing they did was remove the damaged roof from 1114 N. Robertson in order to stop further deterioration. It has become a race against time.

I jumped through all kinds of hoops to get this off the Army Corps’ Red Sticker list last year, getting an engineer’s report and submitting all the necessary insurance paperwork to City Hall to help save it from demolition. That effort was a success.

Before Katrina it was on the market for a mere 30K and I even gave serious thought to buying it myself but I went ahead with the very large Gothic Eastlake on Gov. Nicholls instead. So this house speaks to me.

Miss N. and her husband are going to rebuild it, it’s in the queue of their projects in this area of critical mass in Historic Treme. As many people know, N. Robertson has been the core problem crime street for Treme. Before the storm, some of the properties here were simply not for sale. After the storm, the Bynums took advantage of their respected position in Treme to acquire some essential properties with the collective goal of bringing the area up out of its slum state. Charbonnet funeral home is one property that backs up on this block and has been completely and beautifully renovated. It’s an historically important anchor in Historic Treme, home to many landmark Jazz funerals and is now fueling this larger effort toward an architectural rennaissance on N. Robertson and Ursulines St.

I got a call on the way home today that it’s on the docket for the Good Neighbor adjudication process for 9 am tomorrow, and N. has to attend a meeting for Women of the Storm so I am going to the hearing, to, yet again, rally hard for giving them every opportunity to get this property back into commerce.

Its brick between post construction is what makes it unique, because even though it looks bad, the walls are only supporting themselves and can be saved. It has the original screen structures on the windows as well. It probably dates to the mid-1800’s and brick between post construction is unique to the quarter and Treme, so it’s worth the all-out effort to save whatever we can. Furthermore, it doesn’t post imminent danger to any structure in the immediate vicinity, making triage completely worth the effort.

This special duty is my welcome home after two weeks of respite . . . I will attend the hearing on the owner’s behalf. They have a construction crew working their way to this architecturally valuable but fragile structure. Having been through this process, I am confident I can buy them some time. We know, with storm season upon us, time is now of the utmost.

HDLC

Historic District Landmarks Commission Meeting Agenda
May 11th, 2007
City Council Chambers 9:30 a.m.
City Hall

RESULT: Approved

Joseph Tolliver, owner, represented by the Housing Unit Demolition Task Force. Right now, we are in the vortex of the demolition process we could see coming 6 months ago.

It could be an Imminent Danger declaration at the City level that brings this to the agenda or a FEMA demolition. Because of the timing, I think it’s a FEMA list, voluntary application, for a taxpayer sponsored demolition. In the minds of the owners, these are FREE demolitions. There is no free demolition. The taxpayers pay or a lien is put on the remaining vacant lot.

Even though this building has been altered in design from it’s original contributing status as an architecturally important structure, at one point it was contributing. Regardless of the provenance of demolition, there will be a lingering and unrecompensable cost to our city’s architectural heritage that is lost forever. The Imminent Danger properties listed by the city as part of their code enforcement program are just now going coming to the point where they will actually be demolished.

Nevertheless, this demolition is not due to Katrina. It’s due to neglect. It’s a lack of responsibility on the part of the owners to maintain or sell the property, and also many years of complete lack of real code enforcement in New Orleans.

Historic District Landmarks Commission Meeting Agenda
January 12th, 2007
City Council Chambers 9:30 a.m.
City Hall

Formal Citation for Demolition By Neglect

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The owner of this house is an elderly man who also owns 819 N. Robertson which is also being cited for demolition by neglect. He was missing some fingers. He asked me when he was supposed to go to the meeting. This is a shame, such a great house on a street that needs all the renovations it can get as the housing stock has been very hard hit by neglect and city projects over many many years in historic Treme.

Historic District Landmarks Commission Meeting Agenda
January 12th, 2007
City Council Chambers 9:30 a.m.
City Hall

Formal Citation of Demolition by Neglect.

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Historic District Landmarks Commission Meeting Agenda
December 15th, 2006
Council Chambers, 9:30 a.m.
City Hall

Result: Approved

Click to see more photos of this house and the neighboring Creole Cottage

This creole cottage is located in greater Treme, near the overpass that interrupts this very historic street. Creole cottages in this area date around the 1850’s. Today, it is in very poor condition, and is structurally unsound due to neglect. Owner Neil Morris owns Redmellon Development Co. and is planning to use Go Zone money to build a new structure and promises to work closely with the HDLC to build something that conforms to the appropriate style. Something to note, this house lacks the dormers which date some creole cottages to the 1830’s.

Historic District Review Commission (HDLC)
Friday, Dec. 15th 9:30 a.m.
City Council Chambers

Result: Approved

The applicant for this demolition is Gladys Marigny, a reputable contractor, who has done a number of renovations in Treme and part of small group of people trying to renovate all the properties on this block/corner of Ursulines and N. Robertson, where Joe’s Cozy Corner operated. The owner, George Reiras plans to rebuild according to the approved plans. To see the set of photos of his property follow this link: 1619 Ursulines Ave.