20 Responses to “fire rages at 22nd and Cedar”

1. posted by UnionHill RVA at July 7, 2008 2:08 pm :
   

   This fire is suspicious because it is yet another slumlord situation. Up until a couple weeks ago, it was a rooming house with numerous building code violations and no heat/hot water.

   At today’s scene, I spoke with 2 young men who said they were “cleaning out the house for the person who rents it” when the fire started. They said they didn’t know exactly what started the fire. They attempted to put it out, became overwhelmed, and called 911.

   Up until recently, a group of 20-something men and women lived there. They were very nice, but pretty broke, and this was all they could afford. Throughout the winter, I noticed broken windows which were never repaired.

   God only knows what those folks were doing to stay warm in that house…and if any of their leave-behinds sparked today’s fire.

   During this time the tenants told me there was no heat in the house. They said they’d asked the landlord for repairs, but to no avail.

   I mentioned to the tenants that the house they rented was riddled with housing code violations and they should call the city and get and inspector to come out and cite the owner, thus forcing repairs.

   No repairs to the property were observed since that conversation.

   Last I spoke to the former tenants (about a month ago) they said they were planning on moving out. This was evidenced a couple weeks ago by lots of junk (the usual departing young-tenant debris) on the front porch and side yard.

   This was a senseless fire. Should never have happened. I blame the slumlord for not fixing up the place so the tenants wouldn’t be forced to live in squalor and come up with “creative” ways to stay warm at night.

2. posted by john_m at July 7, 2008 2:18 pm :
   

   The Union Hill Historic District Final Nomination 2002 (PDF) to the National Register of Historic Places describes the house:

   Martin. J. E. House. Colonial Revival. 1909. Single Dwelling. This is a 2-story, bay frame house with a polychrome slate false mansard roof. The cornice breaks into a central pediment with a half-circle, louvered vent. The 1-story, 3-bay porch has Doric columns with tumed balusters, and a box cornice with a molded crown.

3. posted by Eric S. Huffstutler at July 7, 2008 2:49 pm :
   

   FYI

   Listed as current owners of 800 N 22nd: Lillian Shelton and Bessie Poindexter (mailing address 1410 N 29th).

   Eric

4. posted by Lendo at July 7, 2008 4:30 pm :
   

   What’s also interesting is that on 2 separate occasions someone’s thrown molotov cocktails at the place.

5. posted by Babar at July 7, 2008 7:35 pm :
   

   I agree that the owner(s) of this place should be ashamed of themselves for allowing it to exist in this condition (aren’t these the same folks who refused to cooperate with efforts to salvage the gorgeous old house behind theirs - on 2116-ish Cedar?).

   However, I’ll add that the residents / tenants of 800 N. 22nd weren’t exactly model neighbors either. I imagine that the heat was off because they probably didn’t bother to pay the bill. (At one point their electricity was also cut off, so they ran a (loud) gas generator on the front porch 24/7 in order to power the place - yea!).

   They frequently had “blow the roof off” type parties – complete with live punk bands and dozens of screaming drunks spilling out into the neighborhood - and were frequently visited by the police as a result. It was always difficult to tell how many people actually lived there, but there were typically a half dozen or more “slacker” types sitting around drinking beer on the porch or street in front at any given time (perhaps getting a job instead would have helped to pay some of those pesky bills!). They also had a couple of (large) dogs that were typically allowed to roam the neighborhood unleashed. I once witnessed a dog of theirs chasing a cat up an alley while its owners cheered it on, yelling, “Get it! Kill it!”

   My understanding is that they weren’t “moving out.” Instead, the whole bunch of them was apparently EVICTED within the past week (probably for –again –not paying the bills). The crew that was working on the place today had been sent in to clear out all of the disgusting rotten furniture that had been left behind. And as for the junk on the side yard – that was the norm for the entire time they lived there. I’m not surprised that the house caught fire – just that it didn’t happen sooner.

   As perhaps you can sense, I don’t feel particularly sorry for any of the punks who were living there, trashing the place and making nuisances of themselves. I do pity the honest homeowners who have chosen to invest their time and money in the nearby vicinity and have had to put up with this cr@p for the past year or so.

   By the way – it’s a gorgeous old home. Would be great if someone would actually fix the place up and sell it to a loving owner.

6. posted by bopst at July 7, 2008 9:01 pm :
   

   looks like somebody needs some money more than a house…

7. posted by Nancy Drew at July 7, 2008 9:56 pm :
   

   This evening my husband and I were walking down 22nd St and we noticed someone in the house looking out the upstairs window. My husband pointed and the guy pulled out of view. We grabbed my cell phone to call the cops, and the guy ran downstairs and joined a buddy in the backyard. They ran to a dark blue SUV parked the wrong way on Cedar Street and drove off (the wrong way on Cedar) before we could get the plate. They were both white guys and were wearing T-shirts and jeans. My guess is that they had no legitimate business in the house. Keep an eye out for people like this and call the cops if you see anything suspicious. The last thing we need is looters, vandals, or another fire!

8. posted by UnionHill RVA at July 7, 2008 10:18 pm :
   

   Babar,

   There is nothing I can find via city records that indicates any owner relationship between 2116 Cedar (now demolished) and 800 N. 22nd.

   ACORN’s Dave Herring, did mention that the owner of 800 N. 22nd wasn’t interested in sharing any funding for retaining wall repair/replacement between the two structures.

   You’re clearly more familiar with the former residents; I live 4 blocks and around a couple corners from the house; I didn’t realize what a nuisance they were.

   The place always did have an “animal house” look to it, but that’s no excuse for the owners not to a) fix the code violations or b) kick the tenants out if they were destructive, not paying rent and repeat offenders in the nuisance category.

   I’ve been kicking myself all day for not being more of a “busy body neighbor” and getting involved sooner with this situation. I actually talked myself out of calling the city last year ’cause I was afraid that bringing attention to 800 N. 22nd would lead to yet another boarded-up house.

   Now we have a burned out century-old house that is at risk of demolition for no good reason other than owner/tenant negligence.

   Union Hill has already lost so many houses since the Federal/State historic district designation. It would be a shame to let this one go too. I hope it can be saved.

9. posted by Window Watcher at July 7, 2008 10:29 pm :
   

   By the way, these "pretty broke" men and women were seen several times lugging about VERY EXPENSIVE amplifiers, mixing boards, instruments, speakers, etc. and wearing leather jackets and other leather clothing items. Their friends drove a Volvo, and their parents visited several times in a fairly nice vehicle, so I doubt "this was all they could afford."

   P.S. They looked more like delinquent 30-somethings than broke college kids.

10. posted by Babar at July 7, 2008 10:33 pm :
    

    UnionHill RVA,

    I wasn’t suggesting that there is a “owner relationship between 2116 Cedar (now demolished) and 800 N. 22nd.” But I had heard through members of the Union Hill Civic Association that the folks at 800 N. 22nd had been asked if some form of retaining wall could be built along the border of the two properties that would have allowed 2116 Cedar to be saved….. and I heard that 800 N. 22nd refused.

11. posted by Window Watcher at July 7, 2008 10:37 pm :
    

    Don’t get me wrong. I am not suggesting that the owners should be let off the hook for making the necessary repairs. I think it is deplorable that the house was let go the way it was. Incidentally, there was a broken window for over 1 year… We (the neighbors) figured the tenants must be itching like crazy from all the mosquito bites in the summer and freezing their toes (and other extremities) off in the winter.

12. posted by Baber at July 7, 2008 10:58 pm :
    

    For the record, (and as mentioned in my initial post for this thread) I do agree completely that the owners are primarily responsible for this disaster. But I also think it should be pointed out that the tenants didn’t do much to improve the situation (and they certainly didn’t strike me as deserving of sympathy). I do pity the work crew that has to go in and clean up after them!

13. posted by UnionHill RVA at July 7, 2008 10:59 pm :
    

    Babar, yup, the retaining wall issue came up, and as I understand it, it all came down to money…lots and lots of it would have been necessary to rebuild the wall.

    My memory of ACORN’s presentation was that the wall was on the property line and the ownners of 800 N. 22nd were not interested in sharing the cost to rebuild it. The owners of 2116 Cedar weren’t in a position to foot the bill themselves.

    But that wall wasn’t the only reason 2116 Cedar came down. It was the “perfect storm” of old houses. 800 N. 22nd was simply one aspect, but not the deciding factor.

    Nancy–good gosh! Is this house cursed, or what?

14. posted by Babar at July 8, 2008 1:35 am :
    

    Union Hill RVA,

    Right on. I keep trying to agree with you… but am not sure that the signal is getting through. The retaining wall issue was not at all intended to be the main point of any of my posts, but rather a side note to my main emphasis, which is to AGREE that the owners of 800 N. 22nd don’t seem to have taken very good care of their property. I also piggy-backed on your initial post by adding that the most recent tenants failed to be a totally positive element in the neighborhood too.

15. posted by Eric S. Huffstutler at July 8, 2008 1:40 pm :
    

    Think I mentioned this elsewhere but think about the house next door to me… the John Alvey house (aka Slater house) built in 1835. It is a wonderful old brick home but when slumlord Stanley Smith owned it there was a revolving door of evictions and seedy tenants (lots of crime on the block then). The house was in such disrepair that the tenants themselves didn’t even want to live there. The roof leaked, the basement was flooded, the heating system didn’t work, the water was turned off more than once, and eventually the attached kitchen rotted away and had to be torn down (without permits). The tenants were using a hot water heater that was sitting on the ground in the back yard! There was also broken piano and car parts all over the back yard. More than once we and friends of ours had offered to buy the house outright from Mr. Smith for well more than it was worth but he kept refusing until it eventually was condemned and he soon died. Fortunately his son sold it to someone who loves historic homes and restored it to it’s proper glory. But this gives you an idea that sometimes no matter how many fines for violations, how often people complain, or even offer to purchase property, some “owners” just don’t want to do anything period with it!

    Eric

16. posted by Cadeho at July 8, 2008 11:31 pm :
    

    I had to look for this house in my pics… and man they need to set that apartment building on fire too…

17. posted by Eric S. Huffstutler at July 9, 2008 9:33 am :
    

    Cadeho… from a quick look at the fire pictures, 800 N 22nd doesn’t look that bad on the outside. There are a LOT worse in town!

    BTW… you never did answer my question about your photo collection… what you are doing with it?

    Eric

18. posted by UnionHill RVA at July 9, 2008 10:32 am :
    

    Yesterday, 7-8-08, I called the fire inspector who was on the scene the day of the fire and asked about his final assessment of the damage to 800 N. 22nd.

    He said he thinks the house wasn’t “totaled” and is not beyond repair. The fire didn’t penetrate the roof, tho it did make it into the wall on the 2nd story.

    In the words of the inspector “I’ve seen houses with much worse fire damage get restored, and this one doesn’t appear to be a total loss.”

19. posted by Babar at July 9, 2008 11:32 am :
    

    What sucks is that the house appeared to be in relatively good structural shape before the fire. It was a GREAT candidate for a complete restoration (other homes all around it have been fixed up nicely over the past few years). However, the owners seem to have decided to do nothing with it other than to rent it out to a bunch of deliquents who trashed the place. As I think someone else mentioned in this thread, some windows were even knocked out at one point - and were not replaced for like a year (even though people were living in there). Word on the street is that the police showed up about a week ago and evicted the motley crew that was residing there, and a lot of folks in the neighborhood were hoping that the next step for owners would be to rennovate. Instead, they had this fire. The house does appear to be completely salvageable, but it’s defitinely a LOT worse for the wear now than it was a year ago… or even a week ago!

20. posted by Joe at August 6, 2008 10:06 pm :
    

    Well actually what all of these people have seen is different from what is real. The occupants of this house were hard working, although, many different bands practiced here and not all of them lived here all of the bands being active, in other words were on tour, releasing records, etc. The other occupants were students, had full time jobs, or did many other things.

    It seems all you people care about is your precious neighborhood that you’ve been running all the less well off people out of. Sure they were not necessarily broke but when you have a craphole house that is run down and when the slumlords wont come to fix it no matter how often you ask things like this happen. They were all in their early 20’s and indeed had raging parties, but no one complained or came over to ask them to keep it down, or anything because you are all rich cowards and have NO sense of community outside of making your neighborhood look like richwhitepeopleville.

    Let me just say that I know the people from the house they ALL had better morals and decency than probably most of you and there are many lies and exaggerations told about them on this page and they had NOTHING to do with the fire starting. A slumlord with a broke down house might be thankful for such a fire if they have insurance.

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