I knew I would have some spare time to wander around before a meeting last Monday, so I took my camera along to photograph more of the streets around Wick Park.  There will probably be some repeated buildings from my fall tour. http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,21041.0.html.  But, I hope you agree they look different in spring.  (I also want to apologize in advance for the sloppy appearance these photos may have.  I've misplaced my photo editing software CD to install on my new computer.  So, they are mostly untouched.)

 

 

New paint job since last fall!

 

I've seen more squirrels in Wick Park than my own yard, and I live adjacent to Mill Creek Park!

 

These next two houses are going up for sheriff's sale soon, and there are a number of interested parties who plan to restore them.

 

 

There are a number of these brightly colored houses throughout the neighborhood.  It's rumored that the owner of these properties deliberately painted them these colors to lower property values, so that he could more easily acquire even more properties. (The picture doesn't do the color justice.  It almost glows in real life.)

 

 

There is still some blight that will need removed.

 

Looks like there is potential for this to be a really nice neighborhood!

What direction would you say the Wick Park neighborhood is moving in?  Is it decling and being renovated more and more?

Gorgeous houses in need!

Nice photography JRC! :hi: What is the architectural style of the houses with four hip-roofed dormers as in photos 5, 6, and 8?  Would anybody care to share their wisdom?

What direction would you say the Wick Park neighborhood is moving in?  Is it decling and being renovated more and more?

 

[disclaimer] I'm not an expert on this neighborhood, and can only draw my conclusions from the history that has been told to me. [/disclamer] :)

Now that that's out of the way, I think this neighborhood has been declining for decades, but the decline has accelerated over the past few years.

 

These large houses become too much for the owner to handle, so they are split up and/or sold to landlords who, over the years, care less and less about the house, and more about the profit margin.  One notorious land owner had several mansions in the area.  At first, his homes were nursing homes for the elderly.  But, as the years went by, these mansions (that were slowly deteriorating from only minimal maintenance) were slowly converted to group homes.  Eventually this person wasn't making enough money to support the properties.  They allowed the taxes to build up, mortgaged them to the hilt, and then went bankrupt.  The house in picture 11 is one of these houses.

 

So, because of things like that, and the mortgage crisis, the neighborhood has started to decline faster over the last few years.  But, within the last several months, this distress, and a number of arsons of vacant houses, has brought a lot of attention to the area, and some investors took notice.  Not a lot has happened yet, (the house in picture 5 was recently renovated, the house is picture 6 is being painted, etc.) so I guess we'll see.

 

I'm still interested in buying a rehabbing a house in this neighborhood, but work just isn't steady enough to jump in.  I don't want to buy a wreck of a house only to get laid off in 2 weeks, you know?  I'll have a better idea after May 4th.

 

Nice photography JRC! :hi: What is the architectural style of the houses with four hip-roofed dormers as in photos 5, 6, and 8?  Would anybody care to share their wisdom?

 

Thanks!

 

I wish I could help you.  I've never been good at identifying house styles, unless they were blatantly obvious.  These all look vernacular to me.  I don't think their styles are defined by the hip roofs and dormers, though.  For example, house #5 looks similar to an American Foursquare.  But, house #6 has a center hall entry, and classical features, like the Paladian window above the front door.

I can shed a little light on the Easter Egg houses, the guy who used to own them and painted them was a relative of a friend. He has since sold them off. It wasn't an intentional ploy to lower property values, he was just a bit of a hippy with a misunderstanding of Victorian color schemes. I think he thought that Haight-Ashbury was the traditional color schemes for the "painted ladies". I was in a few of the building he owned at the time and besides the glaring paint jobs they were pretty well maintained. I believe he also owned the apartment building in the 3rd to the last picture.