Before&after on Grace Street
The CAR Collection has the above photo of 2705, 2703, and 2701 East Grace Street from 1975. Below is the same stretch today. I couldn’t get the same angle today, there are 2 trees blocking the view of the house from that side.
Amazing. The before photo matches my childhood memories of Church Hill. Thanks for posting this John.
After seeing this, how can anyone argue against the benefit of old and historic districts? Go Union Hill!
Wow… What a beautiful transformation.
Beautiful. What a nice gift to Richmond.
these houses look great! I love the fences!
wow houdon. did the historic district rehab/renovate those houses? i believe it was bill heindel that did it, and it was done primarily for the tax credits
Wow, I used to live literally just up the street from these two houses and did not recognize them at all from the before shots.
I took a moment to check out the CAR archive. It’s fascinating and well worth a look. Find your own house! One thing that becomes clear – it’s amazing how much having a few mature trees improves the appearance of a street.
I do too – they really frame the houses. I poked around on the website and saw great pictures. Churchill has come a long way in just a few years.
Check out my house… the fence didn’t do much for the place.
bill didn’t Heindel do the white frame house, which would be the second one in? I guess that would be 2703 East Grace…and did he really do it for tax credits that far back? I thought he was speculating…or maybe it was both for credits and spec…I don’t recall him living there, though maybe he did…
Whoa! That’s quite amazing transformation!
R-
Thank you so much for posting those photos! We live in the white house (2703 East Grace), and we’ve been here for 13 years. I don’t know who Bill Heindel is, but I do know that the major renovation occurred in the 80′s while the St. Amant’s lived here.
I’d never seen this “before” photo until now, although I’ve heard about it. Thank you again so much! (And thanks for waiting until after its recent paint job to take the photo!)
Billie Leeth
Unless it was someone else with the same name, Bill Heindel is still around, he does mostly large projects and does great work. A relative of his is a master carpenter and homeowner in Church Hill.
I am surprised that the CAR Archives doesn’t have our house or the Wills store in it – two of the oldest structures in Church Hill and the oldest in Church Hill North. 401 N 27th (built 1815) and 407 N 27th (built 1812). Nothing in their collection past the 300 block and then spotty from 1 thru 300.
Hi Eric,
I noticed that too – not specifically your properties, but that there would be missing houses in a street collection.
I gathered that the goal at one point might have been to record what may have NOT been acceptable by CAR standards; chain link fences, boarded up windows, replaced windows of different sizes, deteriorating porches, missing balusters and so on.
Here on 36th St my house had the most photos and each was of something historically incorrect. They were very careful to record all that was wrong. They did take a picture of one other house across the street – missing a window, decaying back porch and so on.
deanna… that may be true and wonder “when” the photos were taken? Our house in the 1970s and early 1980s was boarded up and in bad shape (even had ghetto brick on it at one time when it fell as a rooming house)until sold by the HRF to Dan Harrington and he restored it in 1985-86.
The reverse has happened to the Wills store where in the 1970s it was an operating business which has since fell into disrepair then condemned in 2004.
It sounds to me as if they had a specific reason for taking most, if not all, of the photos – to be able to discuss buildings about to have some changes made if an application had been made to CAR for review. I think I’ve seen some shots where the building is next door to something being fixed up, as if the photographer figured on including neighboring dwellings, but in general the shots were for discussion of potential rehab. In one case, I found shots of the rehad in progress, Belfry Condos, which were taken because CAR had been reviewing the rehab. Below is from their website:
“The slides were taken under the auspices of the Secretary to the Commission, a position housed in the Richmond Department of Community Development. The images were used for monthly Commission meetings, and were taken prior to meetings to document existing conditions of buildings and other structures before review. They show how the structures looked before rehabilitation or reconstruction.”
In other words, I don’t think someone was running around taking pictures of something that was historically incorrect unless there was a pending case at CAR. They didn’t just shoot roles of film of things that might not meet standards, unless there was a pending permit to discuss some change.
eric, you aint in the collection so you must not be significant. time to rethink your dance card!
Oops. “They didn’t just shoot roles of film of things that might not meet standards, unless there was a pending permit to discuss some change.”
Sorry, “didn’t just shoot ROLLS of film.” And I’m Ms. Walking Dictionary… :(
“In other words, I don’t think someone was running around taking pictures of something that was historically incorrect unless there was a pending case at CAR.”
I also agree, as there are photos of our house, as well as others that were rehabbed. but I also think Mr. Albers got a little camera happy.(he was known for that, true advocate). As annoying as it was at the time, proved to be positive in making history.
Good point! Permits were pulled for this house in the late 90′s but that was for the interior work. I could see that if they were out in a neighborhood on a case they would shoot other things they came across that needed to be recorded too. Film and it’s processing was expensive back in the day.
In looking over some of the pics I see a lot photographed that was in need of repair and some like this one that just seem to appreciate the form :)
dig.library.vcu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/rca&CISOPTR=…
Regardless, to me, it’s so nice to take a look back at the history of these houses/neighborhoods and reflect on all the restoration Church Hill has gone through.
Eric – I was able to go to the assesment office at city hall and pull the card on this house and on some of the oher houses on N. 36th. Most had small black and white photos of the front of the house attached. Most likely from the 50-60′s. I was told that the city assessment office was trying to photograph every house in these neighborhoods at one time.