House collapses on Morse Street NE

The house with the red boards took the plunge Monday night. Photo and caption from Frozen Tropics.

Frozen Tropics blog has some nice photos of the tragic loss of an Italianate frame house in Trinidad, likely dating from the 1880s. This was first reported on News4. Check out the blog entry for more.

I wish the laws allowed us to force the rebuilding of a similar building. Note that these kinds of building failures are not uncommon in center cities where many developers are small-time, with limited experience, especially in dealing with the structural issues of buildings over 100 years old. The InShaw blog and the Intowner have written about similar events in the Shaw neighborhood. You see articles like this from time to time in the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Baltimore Sun.

NOTE that I frequently suggest that buildings brutally demolished for large new developments can be moved. Clearly, the Trinidad neighborhood has many lots that could accommodate such houses. Now there's one more...

The buildings below are now all crushed rubble cluttering some landfill. The buildings could have continued to be vital resources contributing to stable neighborhoods and more affordable housing had the city a policy that "encourages" developers to move historic buildings rather than demolish them. It's sad that these buildings, which had housed people for over 100 years, no longer do so.

302-304 K Street NE, demolished by Greenebaum & Rose. Photo by Peter Sefton.

1002 3rd Street NE, demolished by Ronald Cohen. Photo by Peter Sefton.

Index Keywords: historic-preservation; housing