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Will We See More of This?

Kansas City has a beautiful 1920's era district known as the Country Club District. The prominent street through the district is Ward Parkway - a large grassy parkway designed in 1906 by JC Nichols and George Kessler.

Many influential families lived along the parkway in it's heyday. Here are some examples of the beautiful and extravagent architecture along the parkway...........




Above photos from Wikipedia


Photo: KMBC
This once-lovely English/Georgian style home was designed by Edward Tanner in 1926 and was modeled after a Sir Christophen Wren design. The mansion was home to the Bloch family of H&R Block for over 50 years. The house was also the Kansas City Symphony Designer's Showhouse home for 2006.


Well, this once beautiful estate was completely demolished earlier this week. The current owners defaulted on their loan and the bank could not find a buyer who could meet the minimum amount due on the loan. Neighbors were purportedly "tired of the trash piling up and crooks stealing items from the vacant house."

Photo: Fox4KC.com
So a beautiful historic home is now a pile of rubble.

Photo: Fox4KC.com



As the economy continues to worsen and more homes are foreclosed and more people file for bankruptcy, are we going to continue to lose historic homes? Or was this simply ONE House that slipped through the cracks?

Please visit Julia at Hooked on Houses for more housing posts this week!

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Comments

Shanty 2 Chic said…
Oh I hate that... I LOVE old homes and think they have so much character. I recently saved 2 windows from a demo down the street... such a waste! Thanks for sharing!
~Whitney
September 25, 2009 at 8:20 AM
Rue said…
I'm sure you know how sick this made me. I can't even bring myself to watch the video for fear of a puffy face after crying my eyes out. I really hop and pray that this is just one house that slipped through the cracks.

rue
September 25, 2009 at 8:56 AM
Fifi Flowers said…
That is AWFUL!!! I hate to see this!
September 25, 2009 at 1:51 PM
Anonymous said…
I hate to see old homes being lost. It makes me so sad. My house was built in 1876 - a baby here in Plymouth, MA! But my father in law to be said "couldn't you find something newer?", it's sad but that kind of mentality is what a lot of people have today and why old homes are being bulldozed.
September 25, 2009 at 7:50 PM
Living the life in The Little City said…
How horrible. I hope the neighbors think back when something new eventually goes into that lot. Yikes.
September 27, 2009 at 10:30 AM
Susan said…
Just visiting from The Nester's blog and saw this post. Oh, it just breaks my heart and makes me wonder how many other homes like this have fallen through the cracks.

I love your artwork!
September 28, 2009 at 2:33 PM
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