The other day I was walking along Girard, and noticed that the northern side of the 1300 block is really in bad shape: out of 7 buildings, 1 is abandoned and being renovated (slowly), another is empty and being renovated, two are in pretty bad shape, and 1 is a massive renovation on an apartment building, so it’s all screwed up too. It’s the worst side of a block in the neighborhood.
Going from east to west, there’s the Easter Seals child care, which is in ok shape. Then there’s the detached house that used to be Asian American LEAD, which provides mentoring for Asian students and is now downtown. The place is a wreck — see it at right. It looked like it had been empty for some time, and there’s a massive hole in the front and all kinds of debris in the yard. It had a big porch before that looked like it could have been nice, had it been fixed up. I’m not sure if it’s being renovated or torn down, and I’m not sure which I would prefer considering the way it looks now.
Next to that is what I call the Haunted Mansion, a big mansion owned by Dorothy Brizill and Gary Imhoff, two local political activists. It’s been fixed up a bit, but for awhile there there were broken and missing windows, messed up columns, debris in the yard and other problems with the house — it was actually condemned in 2008. The house was the inspiration for this blog’s Abandoned House Watch series, if that tells you anything.
Then next to that is 1337 Girard, which is another representative in the Abandoned House Watch series, which I think used to house squatters. It’s slowly getting fixed up as I see workers there all the time, and until yesterday there was a massive hole in the facade of the house on the second floor. Today that hole is repaired with a door, which is odd since it’s on the second floor. We’ll see what happens there, maybe making it multiple units, a walkup or something?
Continuing on and you see 1339 Girard, with the honor of being the nicest house on the block. That’s not saying much, as this place has seen better days too. The box spring in the yard is gone though, which is good.
Next to that is an overgrown lot — or I thought it was a lot until I looked at the city’s property map on DC Atlas. It’s actually an alley. Not sure how an alley got fenced off and filled with plants and some garbage.
Then as you continue the trip west, you come to a section of missing sidewalk. It’s been like that so long that people have worn a path in the grass going around it. And yesterday there was a full trash can tipped over there. Nice.
And finally, you come to the NCBA Estates retirement home building, which was kind of grim looking. It’s getting renovated with a nicer facade and balconies, but it’s currently covered in scaffolding and there’s construction stuff all over.
The north side of this block is rough sight, giving parts of Detroit and St. Louis a run for their money. And even stranger, the southern side of the block is perfectly nice looking with well kept up row houses. It’s hands down the worst-looking stretch of road around.
Let’s hope this stuff gets fixed, and soon.
UPDATE: A reader passed along the below photo of the back of Dorothy Brizill’s house (the Haunted Mansion) which was hit by a tree during the hurricane. Crazy. It looks like only the facade is remaining. I wonder if it’s just been the facade for awhile though, I’d be surprised that a tree could do this much damage.
