This House Has The Potential To Be Amazing

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by Prince Of Petworth February 28, 2008 at 12:11 am 5 Comments

IMG_6892, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

So what do you think: Would it be better if one person bought it and returned it to its former glory or if a developer bought it and made it into three condos? I think, either way, it would be sweet get the old lady shining again.

saf

It’s a house. It should be a house, not tiny little condos.

I hope a person buys it.
Jamie

What’s wrong with turning rowhouses into condos? It’s responsible urban development. Population goes up, we need more places for people to live, especially near metros. In New York, there’s hardly a brownstone that isn’t condos or coops. They all used to be single family homes.

I’d much rather see a big old house turned into condos that people can actually afford to live in than sit vacant. I’m a lot more concerned about keeping the streetscape attractive – if they do a nice job, who cares what’s inside.
ColorMePetworth

Not true..in NY they do not allow brownstone conversions. My grandmother owns a large one in NYC that we wanted to convert but the zoning is such that you cannot, and its strictly enforced. Most coops and condos in NY were built as garden style living, not row-houses.

Also, during the 1960’s there was something called “Urban Renewal” where cities gave low interest loans to peope who would take abandon houses and chop them up into several units. It was supposed to help revitilize the city but ended up created what would become slums in the 1970’s.
Jamie

Huh? Not allowed? It happens all the time. Just google “nyc brownstone history” there are tons of articles. for example: ” …Brownstones were built on the sidestreets off Central Park West for wealthy New Yorkers who wanted large family homes with proximity to the city. … Other details have been removed, like the stoop that once led to the main floor, which became the second floor with the conversion to apartments in the 1940s.”

Your comment about urban renewal is also unsubstantiated and wrong. Google again. Decrepit neighborhoods were _razed_ and low-income housing projects built. This is entirely different.
Toby

I am still a little jarred by rowhouses being gutted and turned into condos. Heck, I don’t even like when bedrooms in rowhouses are turned into separate little apartments with locks on the doors and rented out. And no, I wouldn’t want one person to buy it, but a family to buy it and turn it into its former glory. Looks like when it’s cleaned up, two incomes will have to pay that mortgage. And there are enough bedrooms for several little rugrats.

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