Xerxes wrote:
I take issue only with the statement:
"MOST homes in the Heights were built between 1860 and 1920."

For instance, our whole block was in place by 1885.

fasteddie wrote:
I am doing some renovations. Today I tore apart a kitchen cupboard, one of the last few original details left in this house. It has glass doors on top and a little counter and drawers on the bottom. I stripped the paint from the upper part and will rebuild the doors but the lower part was too far gone to save, 100 + years of paint layers, it was not salvagable. So, as I took the Sawzall to the lower faceframe, I find that it was mortised and tennoned together, not just nailed together. Someone put some real work and sweat into this thing. I felt bad, like I was commiting a sin, I was. You can google "mortise and tennon" if you don't know. The mortise was cut with a chisel and the tennon was cut with a saw, there were 8 of these joints on the small part I demolished and they still held strong. The drawer bottoms are 20" wide solid 1/4" thick clear pine, not plywood, this cannot be found anymore, I am saving this wood. Since I have been doing this work and taking things apart, I often think about the people who put it together. I always look for a note or someone's initials or a date penciled on the back of a peice of wood, I never find any, they didn't have time for time capsule notes. I imagine men in overalls with handlebar mustaches, pencil behind the ear, Irish or German. They went to work early, probably walked or on horse drawn trolley and carried their lunches with them. They lived in the tenements with their wives and children, they didn't own the houses they built, worked six days a week, wore themselves out, died young. All the materials for this house were delivered by horse and wagon and carried upstairs by hand or with block and tackle. Tons of plaster, thousands of feet of wood lath. The plaster had horse hair in it as a binder, the way we use fiberglass today in concrete.
So anyway, what I'm saying is, I hate tearing apart another man's well done work. Even if he lived 100 years ago, especially if he lived 100 years ago. I will replace it, I promise, but it will have European self closing hinges and ball bearing drawer slides.

fasteddie wrote:
I am doing some renovations. Today I tore apart a kitchen cupboard, one of the last few original details left in this house. It has glass doors on top and a little counter and drawers on the bottom. I stripped the paint from the upper part and will rebuild the doors but the lower part was too far gone to save, 100 + years of paint layers, it was not salvagable. So, as I took the Sawzall to the lower faceframe, I find that it was mortised and tennoned together, not just nailed together. Someone put some real work and sweat into this thing. I felt bad, like I was commiting a sin, I was. You can google "mortise and tennon" if you don't know. The mortise was cut with a chisel and the tennon was cut with a saw, there were 8 of these joints on the small part I demolished and they still held strong. The drawer bottoms are 20" wide solid 1/4" thick clear pine, not plywood, this cannot be found anymore, I am saving this wood. Since I have been doing this work and taking things apart, I often think about the people who put it together. I always look for a note or someone's initials or a date penciled on the back of a peice of wood, I never find any, they didn't have time for time capsule notes. I imagine men in overalls with handlebar mustaches, pencil behind the ear, Irish or German. They went to work early, probably walked or on horse drawn trolley and carried their lunches with them. They lived in the tenements with their wives and children, they didn't own the houses they built, worked six days a week, wore themselves out, died young. All the materials for this house were delivered by horse and wagon and carried upstairs by hand or with block and tackle. Tons of plaster, thousands of feet of wood lath. The plaster had horse hair in it as a binder, the way we use fiberglass today in concrete.
So anyway, what I'm saying is, I hate tearing apart another man's well done work. Even if he lived 100 years ago, especially if he lived 100 years ago. I will replace it, I promise, but it will have European self closing hinges and ball bearing drawer slides.

most homes in the Heights date from 1860 - 1920

Xerxes wrote:
I have lived in the Heights and have always thought the architectural quality approached GHASTLY. There are exceptions but the basic Heights home was a thrown together wood and shingle one or two family home that weathered very poorly and was saved for a few more decades by a coating of aluminum siding. I have never lived anywhere else where the usual constuction form was so shoddy. I am often amazed that a huge fire hasn't somewhere along the way consumed most of the place.

I find it difficult to believe that development of any kind would not be an improvement to most neighborhoods with a very few exceptions along Summit Avenue and Sherman Place, and perhaps a smattering on Manhattan Avenue and Palisades Avenue.

I am not of the school that preaches anything that is standing is worth saving. But I'm sure there are people who can find some beauty in these multicolored aluminum sided shacks...not me, though.

G_Elkind wrote:
Quote:

by r_pinkowitz on 2007/10/23 21:02:09

Take a look at this and you may want to reach out to Charlene Burke (sp). There is power in numbers when it is combined with the other wards.

A +1 from me as well.

The core of the problem stems from the city's underlying zoning, which is often inconsistent with the character of many existing, individual neighborhoods. Where this inconsistency exists, it's most likely to first manifest itself in infill construction -- often with shocking results. (The 9th Street residents of Hamilton Park are dealing with a similar issue as well.)

IMHO the fight against this particular developer nightmare requires follow through to amend the underlying zoning to avoid future disasters.

Zoning can be a sleeping timebomb.

All the best.

Geoff

by r_pinkowitz on 2007/10/23 21:02:09

Take a look at this and you may want to reach out to Charlene Burke (sp). There is power in numbers when it is combined with the other wards.