RECENT COMMENTS
This moment in Fairmount
When I first moved to 23rd Street in Fairmount back in 2003, I came into a community that was half-way through a historic, stabilizing push by Better Housing Coalition that eventually saw more than 90 houses be rehabbed or newly built.
This work, in coordination with the efforts of Mary Thompson and her neighbors through the New Vision Civic League, helped pull this corner of the greater Church Hill area back from an almost impossible-to-conceive vacancy and decrepitude.
Work in the area went quiet around 2009 or so, until maybe the last 18 months. The momentum right now feels like a special moment for Fairmount.
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1200 block of 22nd Street (circa 1990)
1100 block of 23rd Street (circa 1990)
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Work in the area peaked in 2009 with BHC’s award-winning rehab at 2008 Fairmount Avenue, and soon after hit a pause until a year or so ago. The area was especially hard-hit during the economic problems of the late 2000s, with both multiple foreclosures on almost every block and an alarming amount of housing stock being held vacant by speculators.
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2008 Fairmount Avenue (2004/2007/2009)
Foreclosures 2008-2011
1216 and 1218 North 24th Street (2009)
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Now, though, there is something of an entirely new type and scale happening, with notable market-driven renovation and new construction from Carrington Street to Fairmount Avenue. And this without yet having the Citadel of Hope development to the south or the new grocery store to the north.
If you’re interested in southern Fairmount, come out to the next New Visions Civic League meeting on Saturday, May 6, 2017, at 10:00 AM at the East End Library.
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Renovation underway at 1200 23rd Street. House went vacant in 2008.
Renovation underway on Pink Street, with new construction planned for vacant lot to the left. That same block in 1990s →
New construction at Carrington and Pink Street
Recently sold on 1200 block of 20th Street
Owned by developer Sterling Bilder
Site of planned construction – Carrington between 22nd and 23rd
Recent renovation on the 1100 block of 24th Street
Renovation underway on 1100 block of 23rd Street
Vacants at 22nd and Fairmount (NE)
1100 block of 20th Street
Recently renovated on 1100 block of 20th Street
Richmond Cycling Corps headquarters – 22nd and Fairmount (SW) (BEFORE)
Renovation underway at 20th and Fairmount
1206 North 23rd Street (2003/2017)
I love that house. Can’t wait to see life breathed back into it.
This new season is really interesting. I feel like something shifted with the new year (i.e. Right after we got a refinance appraisal, and it came in surpringly low because there weren’t strong comparables yet).
My hope is that the existing community will be honored in the midst of the growth and transformation. That takes intentionality. And with that, I concur with John: the civic league is important.
Including, interestingly enough, some open spaces and work in Union Hill, not in Fairmount:
https://chpn.net/2009/11/22/the-union-hill-historic-district/#map
I am in tune with PTG that the civic league is important in making sure the existing community is honored and included in the transition, that people who have grown up here do not find themselves priced out of the market. My heart is for a healthy mix of affordability and market rate. That kind of mixture will lead to a more robust neighborhood that is based upon a sense of community and will be less threatened by every dip in the Dow. Thank you Urban Hope for your vision in this.
The folks who run the New Visions Civic league were some of the nicest most welcoming people my wife and I have ever encountered. What an incredible group of people. We are stoked to be your neighbors.