Koepfer House demolished in LSU Footprint

Returning from a funeral this morning, I happened upon the demise of the building at 2101-03 Palmyra, a structure discussed here and here, this morning.

"Let's go get'em" or some other brass band song was on, so I cranked it up and sat back and watched as another great historic home was torn down. It was some strange permutation of a jazz funeral - a sudden need to disconnect.

A real loss in the UMC Footprint

Here's what 2101-03 Palmyra in the LSU (UMC) Footprint looked like until a few days ago.

Note the deep overhanging eave on the south side of the shotgun building:

This creole-inspired building likely dates to before 1880 given a number of architectural details, including the deep south eave, old-style brackets, and the roof lines, visible below.  The front portion of the hipped roof is distinct from the portion in the back.  It's also a corner building, so the cypress drop siding runs along not just the front facade on Palmyra, but also along the entire side elevation along S. Johnson Street.

From what I recall, Mr. Carl lived here back when the VA site was being cleared, as did an old lady who would sometimes clear weeds along the back fence, all the way up to a point several months ago.

Here's a view of the parcel from the Notarial Archives website. It is part of plate 5 of the Robinson Atlas.  Although copyrighted in 1883, it is based on the Braun survey of the late 1870s:

Note that the map shows a building with two distinct roof sections (denoted with blue arrow), indicating that the same structure was standing at that time.

UMC House Moves - Note

It seems concrete steps were being taken yesterday to start preparing for UMC (LSU Footprint) house moves.

I'm not holding my breath, but house moves off the second proposed hospital site would be a positive development at this point, following the demolition of so many fine buildings in the LSU Footprint to date.  Thus far, despite preservationists raising awareness since October of last year, not a single building has moved off the LSU Footprint.  It still doesn't entirely make sense given the uncertainty about financing and a business plan, but the alternative would be demolition...under the same set of conditions.

Any house moves should do two things: 1) keep the roofs on buildings and keep buildings intact to the utmost extent possible to reduce damage to the houses once they've moved to new locations, and 2) place houses in appropriate historic context, to the maximum extent possible, with some notice to neighborhood organizations and immediate neighbors of the destination lots.

A Happy Story

While there's a bittersweet undertone, of course, it was good to run into some of the positive results of the architectural salvage that was mandated for the LSU/VA site preparation.

Pushed for by preservationists and required by the Programmatic Agreement (PA) that came out of Section 106 consultations, salvage of certain architectural elements led to a massive output of salvaged items at Habitat for Humanity's Marigny Re-Store, as I've documented here on the blog.

Last week, however, I was making my rounds in the Lower Garden District, only to learn that several of the historic renovation projects I was touring...used doors and windows, almost exclusively, that had been salvaged from properties in the LSU/VA Footprint.

I've shared photos of two such properties here.  Again, while it's unfortunate that a neighborhood was lost, it is good to see that some elements survived what otherwise would have been outright demolition for reuse in other buildings that are being brought back online from decades of sitting in a blighted condition.

Palmyra Closed

Street construction has erupted all around the VA footprint...and while New Orleans' streets inside and outside the footprint certainly need help, it's interesting to see how the mass of street work has effectively blocked off key points of ingress and egress in the VA footprint.

It's probably coincidental, but it's not too far-fetched to wonder whether it's part of an effort to drive residents out of the place - residents who either continue to own their properties or live as tenants in those properties.  While the hassle likely doesn't yet rise to the level of a government taking, it begins to verge on that tipping point - when one can barely access one's property because of a mess of government actions.

For example, just today, Palmyra, a one way street dense with houses, became impassable at S. Rocheblave, as the photo above shows.  The block of Palmyra between S. Miro and Galvez was already rendered a non-thoroughfare due to construction.  And S. Miro ends now with signs at Cleveland, barring anyone from proceeding to Canal Street.  Construction at Cleveland and S. Rocheblave has also severely reduced the roadway available to go lake-ward on Cleveland.

At every turn, normal life in the VA footprint is being curtailed and limited.  That would be one thing if people no longer lived in the properties - if they had already been acquired by the VA or LSU - but few have.

Demolished: 325 S. Tonti

319 S. Tonti (the little pink shotgun from yesterday with white spandrels at the right of the photo above) appears to be next in line for razing.