No-one bothered to get a historical designation on any of them.
There is no plan for the land once the buildings are gone.
By now, many of the residents are likely fed up with the decay. The stench. The undesirables who inhabited the buildings while they could. The division in the local government.
It was inevitable.
Why it became inevitable is the saddest part of all.
Take pride in what you have.
If you are a city with history, please don't erase it because you couldn't be bothered to take care of the historical structures.
And don't let the vultures in.
(1) photos of the first demolition
(2) a historical list of the buildings on the street
That's awful. I remember when we were in New York that the ugliest buildings were the "cool hip mod new" buildings that they built in the 70's. And oh how they had that 70's look. I remember wondering what gorgeous old gems they had replaced. So for the glass half-full view, at least be glad they didn't do that in the 70's.
ReplyDeleteGeewits: we-e-l-l, I will do another post with a photo of their city hall later....
ReplyDelete"If you are a city with history, please don't erase it because you couldn't be bothered to take care of the historical structures."
ReplyDeleteWow, if only the city officials of Detroit could read that...
Jim: where have you been!!
ReplyDeletethere is a website on the abandonned buildings in Detroit. the photography is haunting.
It's sad that things are left to decay... and then just motored over out of seeming laziness.
ReplyDelete@Jim, I was in Detroit in January and took a few pictures of blighted downtown buildings. It was really sad.
ReplyDeleteThat's sad. Even though I especially llove that last photo.
ReplyDeleteThere was a cool one-room schol house (log cabin) here that that county let fall to ruins. It sickened me.
Amy: yes, I agree. if there were someone interested in developing the street, they might have been able to accommodate the buildings into their plans. it seems the city had little desire to work with that. and the preservationists got on board too late
ReplyDeleteSAW: there should be laws in place against lack of maintenance of any building, whether a heritage site or not.
I will admit, I was pretty excited to get those turkey vultures, though!
I so agree with you. I hate seeing old buildings torn down...great post, sorry about the buildings I am glad you got some photos. take care.
ReplyDeleteSo easy to knock things down that took ages to build.
ReplyDeleteThe 1960's here saw swathes of town centres swept away. OK, so some of the buildings were mediocre and in a bad way, but a bit of care could have kept the character of so many places, instead of replacing them with concrete/glass/concrete structures that are now looking tatty and horrid. AND the concrete is rotting!
Same with all the little Victorian houses that were demolished in slum clearance programmes. Many of them could have been brought up to a good standard, and communities kept together.
Don't talk to me about Town Planning!!
Cinner: these started to be demolished less than 12 hours after the city council voted to go ahead. It would have been interesting to have seen them when they were all in good condition - and before some of the horrid renovations had been done!
ReplyDeleteGilly: I used to want to be an urban planner - I am still interested in it, but I think the politics of it all would be too frustrating.
That's just sad. I hate to see historically significant buildings destroyed.
ReplyDeleteSusan: many of these buildings weren't particularly beautiful, but, yes, they were definitely significant. and it is the scale of the loss - not just one or two individual sites, but three city blocks!
ReplyDeleteOh dear! This is tragic. I hate to hear of this. Why can't they work to revive and restore older structures. There is so much history and so many memories! This is so sad!
ReplyDeleteHugs
SueAnn
SueAnn: apparently getting involved with federal development grants did not help the situation. it costs a lot of money for lawyers and studies and proposals, etc. and the feds kept changing the rules so everything had to be done several times.
ReplyDeletemaybe if they had a few interested parties and some innovative architects to look at the street, a better plan could have been proposed before it was too late to for restoration.
I hate when beautiful old buildings are torn down to make space for ugly cement and glass bunkers. Bleh.
ReplyDeleteI'm not all that sentimental about old buildings. Yes, they were once lovely and probably with a lot of money and effort they could have been saved, but a lot of times in order to make them habitable and up to modern CSA codes you'd have to pretty much gut them are rebuild them anyway. The real shame is in letting them rot away for so long and not having the vision, innovation or creativity to replace them with something equally beautiful and more functional.
ReplyDeleteJazz: or when beautiful old buildings are poorly renovated with most of their character covered over.
ReplyDeleteXUP: I'm not exactly sure what prompted this determination towards demolition 30 years ago, but obviously once sites have been expropriated, landlords have no incentive to continue maintenance. And yes, just because a building is old doesn't mean it is beautiful or worth saving.
So glad that you're taking the time to document this. These photos should go to some library as reference material. Very nice shots!
ReplyDeleteI agree, parts of our beautiful city have been decimated over the years but there is a real push to make all our inner city heritage status (which means no knocking down), we're not a city as old as some in the world but I think we should protect what we have for sure.
ReplyDeleteLovely post.
I have never actually seen vultures before. Yikes. But it's still sad that a piece of history will be gone.
ReplyDeletejj
Mark Thank you! I have a love for architecture - the good and the bad.
ReplyDeleteSaj: just because a city is young is no excuse to knock down the beginnings and start over. Although I do understand having a heritage status can be crippling for some business when they need to renovate or refurbish.
Joanna: until now, I have only ever seen vultures hovering over the highways. so there must have been some good buffet in those buildings!
We fail ourselves when we demolish our history. I am glad you got these pictures.
ReplyDeleteWe fail ourselves when we demolish our history. I am glad you got these pictures.
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to capture these photos.
ReplyDeleteSandy: beautifully said.
ReplyDeleteSMT: I am glad I read the newspaper and had the day off to travel as the demolition started the very next morning.
Nice and beautiful shots !!Great Shared !!Unseen Rajasthan
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry to see this happen. I think it's a crime!
ReplyDeleteIt is a very sad story :((
ReplyDeleteUnseen Rajasthan: thanks for visiting.
ReplyDeleteEGWow: I had not really been to downtown Brantford before this - there are some gorgeous old buildings, but, commercially, it really needs some help.
Benikos: let's hope it doesn't stay as a vacant lot for years.