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Condemned
01/17/2014 6:09 PM by John M
The long-vacant storefront at 2322 Venable Street has been taped off and condemned by the city as the deteriorated roof has continued to collapse.
The property is assessed at $98,000 and has been owned by David and Mable Thorne since the 1970s.
Key building. Someone please save it!
Someone will need to save more than that building. The neighborhood looks a little sketch and so do several of the surrounding buildings looking at street view.
I think what saddens me the most is that someone owns this building and (theoretically) pays property/real estate taxes on it. And, might I add, taxes at a higher “City of Richmond rate” as opposed to surrounding localities.
As someone who dreams of owning, and perhaps even rehabbing, property in this area, it saddens me to know that people are content to pay their taxes and let historic treasures fade away until such a point that the city has no choice but to stop collecting and them down.
@1 – that someone could be you! Assuming it’s actually possible to “save” the building once it’s already lost it’s historic value by collapsing.
Sure… Check out this before/after from Carrington /2008/03/15/miracle-on-carrington_1459/
or this collapsed house on 23rd Street /2014/01/05/old-house-diaries-before-and-after-on-23rd-street_30986/
It’s possible to save it.
I’ve called owners of a bunch of these houses and ones in north side. Most of the owners won’t sell for sentimental value, or because they are gonna “start work any day” etc.
Is this in any sort of local and federal historic district? John_m do you know?
It’s in the Union Hill Historic District (city and federal). http://chpn.net/news/2009/11/22/the-union-hill-historic-district_10658/
Thanks, John. So it is eligible for tax credits if anyone reading this is interested. If you could buy it for a smaller sum than the city assessment, (get an appraisal) then it might bring in some fairly substantial tax credits for whoever fixes it.
John, I realize some miracles can be done with these old houses (though I probably didn’t realize quite how much until I saw those links). But judging by the pictures from before it seemed most of the history this building has may have already been bastardized by poor maintenance and unfortunate changes. How much of the real “history” is really left at this point? It’s also on a block that seems to be full of similarly neglected and abused homes so I gotta think it’s not worth investing heavily in.
I know there’s a lot of folks who’ll disagree but it just feels like not all history needs to be preserved. At this point the tipping point appears to have occurred where it’s not an effective use of resources to restore.
Shoot, the block to the west looked worse 10 years ago. I’ll see if I can dig up some photos.
Alex, I tend to agree that this one is not that old and too far gone to be financially profitable to save. Apparently it has had issues for a while with the wall stabilizer bar. If it wasn’t for the fact that an apartment was built over the 401 N 27th building which had been open to the elements for years, would be in this condition by now.
We don’t want to loose ANY of our buildings but some are beyond saving due to the lack of the cities interest in preservation.
@2 Are you basing your opinion on Google Maps Street View? Those are dated July 2011 for this area. While I haven’t driven by, I’m not going to speculate on the area’s current condition based on potentially inaccurate information.
RBVa did the house at 701 N. 23rd in john’s link @5. They also did a house that was featured on here a couple of years ago, it was on Marshall at, I think, 22nd or 23rd and was leaning seriously. As I recall, one of the television stations also looked at that one too. So I’d say this structure could be saved.
I tend to agree with the assessment of the area as sketchy – but if you level everything, what you’re going to get is absolutely not historic and could be as ugly as those ugly condo things on East Broad near 21st St. Gotta start somewhere.
I look at where Church Hill is now and am amazed at what has happened in the thirty or so years I’ve lived here. Another ten or twenty and Venable St. might look good, too, if someone starts saving stuff now instead of letting it fall down. Then you’ll have vacant lots for a long while.