This is literally the view from my front door. It's a pretty cool looking elementary school built early 1900s. I love the view of the school, but I really got to get some parking ordinances in place. Once school starts up again, parking is going to be a headache. The teachers like to park right in front of my house, which I guess I don't blame them. It's technically public parking, but they do have a parking lot in the back. It's hella annoying.
This is my neighbor's house, which is a pretty cool bungalow. Our two houses were both built in 1929 by the same contractor, Dave Crockett. It's a little rundown and needs some landscaping, but is still pretty solid.
This cool little victorian has looked pretty much like this since we bought our home. There used to be a large family that lived here, but a month or two ago they moved out. Seems it's a rental, but has been vacant for a while. If it had a bigger yard for my dogs, I would love to set up shop in here. It's a little small, but cute as hell.
This victorian-esque apartment building has been in shambles since we bought the house. It's been tied up in forclosure proceedings for a while after the city had it condemned and shut down. Every time someone would come visit us, they would say "oh this is a beautiful house, I love... what the!?!" in reference to the building which is more or less across the street. I'm sure it's seen better days. Me, my wife and brother and law were all betting whether someone would just tear it down or actually try and revive it. Luckily it seems, someone has the stones to do the latter. There have been workers all over this building this week, cleaning it up and working on the roof. Very positive. :)
This is another neat victorian two houses down from me. The roof looks like hell and the original wraparound porch has long since been removed, but I think it's still pretty cool.
6 comments:
Wow, what a great mix of houses. It's nice that they span both time & style.
Yep, actually these are mostly the lower end homes in the neighborhood. I have to find some time to get pics of upper sunset heights up. There's some pretty elaborate houses in that area.
There are other streetcar suburbs around downtown that may even surpass sunset heights. Those will have to wait for another day though. Now that I look at some of the pics, they're kind of crappy and you can't click to enlarge.. hmm. I'll have to fix that.
Awesome pictures. Looks like you are in a great neighborhood! Don't those dilapidated houses just break your heart? I always wish that I could buy them and fix them up, but I can barely fix up my own!
I've updated the pics, so it's a little easier to see. My neighborhood is very much in a transitional period.. It started going downhill in the 70's pretty much through the 90's. Then came a renewed interest in these old homes.
The last 10 years or so has seen several houses each year being brought back from the dead. I think we're starting to get to that point where the general attitudes toward the neighborhood aren't "OMG you're going to live there?" to "Oh there are some really beautiful homes in that neighborhood". The neighborhood still has a ways to go, but it feels good to know it's headed back to its former glory. :)
I have never been to El Paso, but it looks like there's an impressive variety and breadth to the kinds of houses you find there, huh? Are a lot of the big old ones split up into apartments? That's the more tragic demise that a lot of old houses in Pittsburgh meet, unfortunately. Former mansions reduced to frat houses... shudder.
The neighborhood is situated directly between the university and downtown, so there are more than a few homes that have been split up into rentals. I guess as the old families moved out or died off, the allure to rent to students or low-income families as the neighborhood went to crap was irresistable.
Most of the grand old mansions are intact & single family homes though. There is another neighborhood nearby which has what I like to call mansion street that wasn't so lucky. Most of these homes are law offices now. It's a shame, but at least the homes have been upkept and not left to decay.
El Paso really boomed during the 1870s to the 1930s. I believe it was the biggest city in the southwest in its day so it has a very cool old urban footprint that you wouldn't really expect in a southwestern city. There was a period of about 30 yrs where urban sprawl and the de-emphasis on downtown caused these neighborhoods to rot away. Luckily, the downtown is undergoing a revitalization and there is now an increased interest in preserving and beautifying the surrounding neighborhoods.
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