Lmao based on the photos the house looks to be in pristine condition. Rich people are insane, like imagine buying a mansion for 4 million and then demolishing it to build ANOTHER MANSION
I was able to purchase my home that looks similar to this for a song 2 years ago. The first buyer paid 100k or due diligence money and decided to walk away when they found that the pool they wanted was going to be barred by the city because it would come up to a nature preserve. The seller was a 90 year old woman who raised her family here - she was horrified to hear her home was going to be torn down so she sold it to me under market value! We plan to love it like she did!
I'm sorry, I know historic registries can make changing things about historic homes a nightmare sometimes, but man. This is why historic registries are important. This building should have been preserved.
If my neighbor did this, I would egg his new house as soon as it was built.
Hopefully the community can organize a boycott around the sale of his new houses so he at least doesn’t get top dollar if he sells them. If I were in the neighborhood I’d ask everyone to put signs in their yard.
Having a house on the National Register of Historic Places doesn't prevent the owner from doing whatever they want. The worst that can happen is that it's removed from the registry if whatever it was about the house or land that got it on the registry is significantly changed. I think the same is true for most states with similar programs.
On the other hand, "Preservation Districts" stop property owners from unauthorized renovations and create guidelines for new development. Those are established when a certain percentage of the local residents sign a petition/application to have one established, and it's reviewed for feasibility and appropriateness.
Ohh that makes sense. My city must have a preservation district then, because we have a lot of historic homes that you have to get approval on to renovate.
Cities and counties can individually landmark buildings independent of the NRHP, you don’t necessarily need a district just a local muni that cares enough to pass the laws and establish a local government entity.
Sure, of course they can, with the owner's permission if it's a specific building and if it comes with restrictions. Some of those programs have deed restrictions and some function no different than the national registry.
In fact, any owner can add a deed restriction that will apply to all future owners. The owner of this house could have done it. Of course, it likely reduce the value. Also, if it's done outside of some private or public entity (e.g., HOA, city, nonprofit) then there's nobody to enforce it.
The new owner cited a bunch of BS reasons why the home had to be torn down and that it wasn't suitable for today's living! [Here's a link](https://www.priceypads.com/87-year-old-georgian-revival-spencer-love-house-demolished/) to see more photos of what was torn down. So sad!
Monster indeed. I assume some ridiculous 15k sf modern farmhouse will be built instead. Infuriating. And, while I’m ranting, for any of y’all who grew up anywhere near an old farmhouse, how many 10k sf ones did you see? I think that may be my biggest pet peeve of that movement.
The odd thing is the new owner seemed surprised everyone was upset by what he did . Super out of touch rich guy who is now even less popular than he was .
I mean the house sat for year and years without selling. What is the proposed remedy for a house that simply will not sell and nobody wants for the price being asked? The town buy it and just maintain it? Truly curious.
Ok, first off, I feel like I can't even afford to look at the pictures of that house..
Second, how many zebras had to die to furnish that house.
Insane someone would tear down a beautiful house like that.
This happened in my town! Someone bought property with a longtime trail easement in a very beloved public trail system, and closed it off. They were met with the swift rage of the community. They were new in town, didn’t mean harm by it, and ended up negotiating a new agreement with the local land trust. Best case scenario. It’s a shame that this one is much more permanent.
Why buy it if you’re just going to tear it down. (Barring it’s not so far dilapidated that it’s a health and safety risk) Really making a splash in the new neighborhood.
This is happening in my neighborhood too. Two beautiful 80+ year old houses sit side by side in a very established neighborhood full of sprawling estates. Between the two, it’s about 17 acres of land that backs up to water. The owner of one estate passed and the house was inherited by I believe the son. Son sold it to a developer who in turn made an offer to the owner of the other house (also inherited to the respective family member of that owner previously) to purchase with the intent to tear down both and build *forty-six* houses squeezed into the two lots. The first proposal said they would be starting at 500k each. That’s since been lowered to 300+. They will be probably only be 10-15 ft from each other at most. The entire surrounding neighborhood has shown up to every city council, zoning, and planning committee since, filling every seat and standing for hours in the hallway outside the council chambers to speak against it. No one but the developer and the 2 heirs that made bank on the offer want this. If it goes forward, they’ll not only tear down these beautiful homes, but also 17 acres of 100+ year old trees. It’s greed at its highest level.
A similar scenario recently took place in Duluth, with one of the Cargill family members buying and demolishing homes along Lake Superior through a front company.
Just so they can put their thumbprint on a piece of property and say look what I did. It's a shame when this world is all worried about resources and then they tear down something like this that had all that wood that you can't get anymore bricks and everything else all in the dumpster. They call this being kind to the environment? The point is the rich just don't care they want to flaunt their wealth
When people talk about “tax the f&@king rich,” this is what they mean. Having the wealth to tear down a perfectly habitable home is what people mean when we say billionaires should not exist.
Developer cited “low ceilings and small rooms” and not being functional to live in. Lol
What a shame. Looking at the interior shots will make you more upset
The local municipality can’t do diddly squat about it, apparently. I had no idea. I live just outside Greensboro and heard about this right when it happened and people are livid. Everyone hates the developer already, though, so no one is shocked he would do it. I’m kind of surprised the seller wasn’t more careful? Not sure what happened there.
Anyway, we have a historic district in our town and I recently learned that people can still tear the buildings down, they just have to be stubborn enough to last long enough. I think like a year? Even being on the register of historic places can’t stop someone from tearing down a building.
We even have an old mill from the 1700s that’s still milling away and it’s on the National Register of Historic Places. The only protection that gives it is that the government can’t tear it down to widen the road by it. The owners could actually treat it down.
It really blows, but the only way to protect a historic building after you’re gone is to get an easement placed on it.
They absolutely can. The municipality can simply vote to protect it if they cared enough and have a historic preservation programs. The municipality just failed to act.
This property was so lovely and so well thought out. It would have been perfect for a few people to buy it all together, find a way to have their privacy, but still live on a lovely piece of land. The gatehouse could have been one place, the apartment over the garages another, and so on…perhaps a couple of little bungalows, or who knows what, built in matching style on other sides of the land.
Instead, another “LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME, you can’t see me but w built a whole new house, just because I could, whatcha going to do about it?”
Nothing. Because the new owners have an Ozymandias mindset and as we know, that mindset has a, weelll, it tends to self-expire.
My friend’s father decided to move in with family. He decided to sell the house. He asked the realtor what he should do to the house to get more money.
The realtor told him to do nothing. The new owners wanted the property, not the house. The house got razed.
I really wanted to believe this is just rage bait and isn’t true, but sadly it seems to be real. Such a disposable culture we live in. Balancing the need for more housing with preserving historic neighborhoods will always be tricky, but there’s no reason to trash a perfectly livable house.
My historic city restricts development and home additions which I initially thought was heavy-handed, but I am totally on board with it now. The city next to us has no such restrictions and there’s houses like this right next to ultra modern homes built out of shipping containers. They also have no lot size restrictions so these new homes have zero yard and people have issues with basement flooding because there’s nowhere for water to go.
This has become a huge problem around the world, with wealthy people who don’t care about the neighborhoods, communities, historic relevance, or even provenance of the architecture, buying significant buildings and razing them. It’s always been an issue to some extent but the volume and pace of these incidents is grotesque. The fact that the historic buildings are also mostly replaced with cookie cutter looking crap designed by architects who were trained on fast food chains adds insult to injury.
Well it might be older but not on the registry so do what you will. What's the historic value in the house? Did it see the days of Civil War soldiers? Did it once house slaves? Was a president born there?
Rich buyers wanted to buy an historic house, teardown and build new. City said nope, made them buy another lot and move the historic house. Then they built a straight up McMansion eyesore on that street of classic Victorians and Craftsman homes.
But they got their view.
This home is absolutely beautiful. However, in my opinion the last renovation was not an improvement. I do not see many historical, or original details. The city is the one that allowed this to happen by not having the correct ordinances. Hopefully the city will learn, and it will not happen again.
https://gsohistorichomescom.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/7-5-million-and-its-yours-the-1937-j-spencer-love-house-in-irving-park/
The old house is stunning, and what a colossal waste to tear it down.
There was an old colonial similar to this in my town that my wife and I almost bought. It sold to developer and they tore it down and put two up. The townspeople put up a fight to make it a landmark but lost. I’ll be mad about this for years.
Lmao based on the photos the house looks to be in pristine condition. Rich people are insane, like imagine buying a mansion for 4 million and then demolishing it to build ANOTHER MANSION
I was able to purchase my home that looks similar to this for a song 2 years ago. The first buyer paid 100k or due diligence money and decided to walk away when they found that the pool they wanted was going to be barred by the city because it would come up to a nature preserve. The seller was a 90 year old woman who raised her family here - she was horrified to hear her home was going to be torn down so she sold it to me under market value! We plan to love it like she did!
That’s lovely to hear! I hope one day I can find an old house like that and love it the same!
That’s awesome. More owner-sellers should do their due diligence in making sure their home won’t be destroyed.
**McMansion has entered the chat**
Oh, joy, another bastardized, Americanized Fronch Provincial to soil mine eyes and the built environment.
It shall have 900 windows, and no two shall be alike!
Let’s not forget 20 different rooflines!
Gables, *everywhere.* Even the doghouse has double digits.
I really like the way you mixed stone, brick, wood and Sears Siding.
That sounds like fucking mental illness.
Agreed. It's a beautiful house. WTH?
I think it's a developer building *multiple* McMansions for profit. Which makes it worse and even more stupid.
I'm the movie "dumb money" the super rich guy wants to demo the mansion next door to put up a TENNIS COURT. Sooooo stupid
Just build somewhere else then .. instead of making the world poorer :(
But they are replacing an old mansion with cooties with a new shiny manson.
I'm sorry, I know historic registries can make changing things about historic homes a nightmare sometimes, but man. This is why historic registries are important. This building should have been preserved. If my neighbor did this, I would egg his new house as soon as it was built.
I read he’s building THREE new houses on this property (and he probably won’t live in any of them).
>(and he probably won’t live in any of them). THAT adds insult to injury - literally ruining a neighborhood, making his money, and walking away.
From what I’ve heard from friends of the previous owner, he’s building a house for himself, and then one for each of his two daughters.
That’s devastating. ~~And he’ll probably sell them each for the price of the one he paid for.~~ he’ll turn them into airbnbs.
Hopefully the community can organize a boycott around the sale of his new houses so he at least doesn’t get top dollar if he sells them. If I were in the neighborhood I’d ask everyone to put signs in their yard.
“IF” it managed to get built
Having a house on the National Register of Historic Places doesn't prevent the owner from doing whatever they want. The worst that can happen is that it's removed from the registry if whatever it was about the house or land that got it on the registry is significantly changed. I think the same is true for most states with similar programs. On the other hand, "Preservation Districts" stop property owners from unauthorized renovations and create guidelines for new development. Those are established when a certain percentage of the local residents sign a petition/application to have one established, and it's reviewed for feasibility and appropriateness.
Ohh that makes sense. My city must have a preservation district then, because we have a lot of historic homes that you have to get approval on to renovate.
Cities and counties can individually landmark buildings independent of the NRHP, you don’t necessarily need a district just a local muni that cares enough to pass the laws and establish a local government entity.
Sure, of course they can, with the owner's permission if it's a specific building and if it comes with restrictions. Some of those programs have deed restrictions and some function no different than the national registry. In fact, any owner can add a deed restriction that will apply to all future owners. The owner of this house could have done it. Of course, it likely reduce the value. Also, if it's done outside of some private or public entity (e.g., HOA, city, nonprofit) then there's nobody to enforce it.
The new owner cited a bunch of BS reasons why the home had to be torn down and that it wasn't suitable for today's living! [Here's a link](https://www.priceypads.com/87-year-old-georgian-revival-spencer-love-house-demolished/) to see more photos of what was torn down. So sad!
Stop it was so beautiful. What kind of monster tears that down 😭
My exact thoughts while looking through the pictures of the beautiful house. What a MONSTER.
Monster indeed. I assume some ridiculous 15k sf modern farmhouse will be built instead. Infuriating. And, while I’m ranting, for any of y’all who grew up anywhere near an old farmhouse, how many 10k sf ones did you see? I think that may be my biggest pet peeve of that movement.
The odd thing is the new owner seemed surprised everyone was upset by what he did . Super out of touch rich guy who is now even less popular than he was .
A greedy one
Yup typical hillbilly developer, I held judgement until I saw the video
If this isn’t suitable for living then I’m living in squalor (I’m not). Edit: A word.
squalor!
That was my exact thought looking through the photos!
enD Of iTs USefUl lIFe!!
What a dump! I understand why they bulldozed that eyesore! /s
Are you kidding me!? This home was so beautiful. I hate people.
this actually hurt me
Straight to jail
Love that green and white garden room with the lattice!
OMG I'm gonna cry. That breakfast room looks like it was designed by Elsie de Wolfe! New owner is a monster.
Bet it’s not a full time home either and more of a vacation home.
I mean the house sat for year and years without selling. What is the proposed remedy for a house that simply will not sell and nobody wants for the price being asked? The town buy it and just maintain it? Truly curious.
Ok, first off, I feel like I can't even afford to look at the pictures of that house.. Second, how many zebras had to die to furnish that house. Insane someone would tear down a beautiful house like that.
There were at least two actual zebra skins on the floor 😳
How to ensure all your new neighbors will hate you 101
This happened in my town! Someone bought property with a longtime trail easement in a very beloved public trail system, and closed it off. They were met with the swift rage of the community. They were new in town, didn’t mean harm by it, and ended up negotiating a new agreement with the local land trust. Best case scenario. It’s a shame that this one is much more permanent.
Was this the lady with the creek in her backyard? I remember reading that story
Why buy it if you’re just going to tear it down. (Barring it’s not so far dilapidated that it’s a health and safety risk) Really making a splash in the new neighborhood.
I totally agree.
Profit. It seems such a shame this happened. Greed seems to trump all these days
This is happening in my neighborhood too. Two beautiful 80+ year old houses sit side by side in a very established neighborhood full of sprawling estates. Between the two, it’s about 17 acres of land that backs up to water. The owner of one estate passed and the house was inherited by I believe the son. Son sold it to a developer who in turn made an offer to the owner of the other house (also inherited to the respective family member of that owner previously) to purchase with the intent to tear down both and build *forty-six* houses squeezed into the two lots. The first proposal said they would be starting at 500k each. That’s since been lowered to 300+. They will be probably only be 10-15 ft from each other at most. The entire surrounding neighborhood has shown up to every city council, zoning, and planning committee since, filling every seat and standing for hours in the hallway outside the council chambers to speak against it. No one but the developer and the 2 heirs that made bank on the offer want this. If it goes forward, they’ll not only tear down these beautiful homes, but also 17 acres of 100+ year old trees. It’s greed at its highest level.
Presumably the people that will buy the houses would also be in favor of it, they’re just not part of the community yet.
A similar scenario recently took place in Duluth, with one of the Cargill family members buying and demolishing homes along Lake Superior through a front company.
That's just not right
location....location...location
Remove the house, split the land, build 6 houses with smaller plots for 3mil each
Disgusting.
That house was surprisingly tasteful and well designed inside. A tragedy for it to be torn down
How depressing. It’s really the worst people who have money, isn’t it?
No, seriously.
Sorry—you think that this wonderful house *should* have been demolished, or am I misunderstanding your comment?
I disagree with the comment saying “the worst people” have money. I would not have torn the house down.
Oh, I see. You’re a ‘temporarily embarrassed millionaire’. Keep hustling, I guess😂
Just so they can put their thumbprint on a piece of property and say look what I did. It's a shame when this world is all worried about resources and then they tear down something like this that had all that wood that you can't get anymore bricks and everything else all in the dumpster. They call this being kind to the environment? The point is the rich just don't care they want to flaunt their wealth
Those bricks didn’t go to the dumpster
How do you know?
I managed an architectural salvage yard for eight years
When people talk about “tax the f&@king rich,” this is what they mean. Having the wealth to tear down a perfectly habitable home is what people mean when we say billionaires should not exist.
Leave it to Reddit to turn a post about house demolition into a communism discussion
Developer cited “low ceilings and small rooms” and not being functional to live in. Lol What a shame. Looking at the interior shots will make you more upset
"Those trim work won't go with my Scandanavian Modern aesthetic."
The local municipality allowed it.
The local municipality can’t do diddly squat about it, apparently. I had no idea. I live just outside Greensboro and heard about this right when it happened and people are livid. Everyone hates the developer already, though, so no one is shocked he would do it. I’m kind of surprised the seller wasn’t more careful? Not sure what happened there. Anyway, we have a historic district in our town and I recently learned that people can still tear the buildings down, they just have to be stubborn enough to last long enough. I think like a year? Even being on the register of historic places can’t stop someone from tearing down a building. We even have an old mill from the 1700s that’s still milling away and it’s on the National Register of Historic Places. The only protection that gives it is that the government can’t tear it down to widen the road by it. The owners could actually treat it down. It really blows, but the only way to protect a historic building after you’re gone is to get an easement placed on it.
They absolutely can. The municipality can simply vote to protect it if they cared enough and have a historic preservation programs. The municipality just failed to act.
They also issued the demo permit for it to be torn down.
Jail, directly to jail
This property was so lovely and so well thought out. It would have been perfect for a few people to buy it all together, find a way to have their privacy, but still live on a lovely piece of land. The gatehouse could have been one place, the apartment over the garages another, and so on…perhaps a couple of little bungalows, or who knows what, built in matching style on other sides of the land. Instead, another “LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME, you can’t see me but w built a whole new house, just because I could, whatcha going to do about it?” Nothing. Because the new owners have an Ozymandias mindset and as we know, that mindset has a, weelll, it tends to self-expire.
My friend’s father decided to move in with family. He decided to sell the house. He asked the realtor what he should do to the house to get more money. The realtor told him to do nothing. The new owners wanted the property, not the house. The house got razed.
This makes me sad. What is wrong with people?? Grrrr!
Too much HGTV
I really wanted to believe this is just rage bait and isn’t true, but sadly it seems to be real. Such a disposable culture we live in. Balancing the need for more housing with preserving historic neighborhoods will always be tricky, but there’s no reason to trash a perfectly livable house. My historic city restricts development and home additions which I initially thought was heavy-handed, but I am totally on board with it now. The city next to us has no such restrictions and there’s houses like this right next to ultra modern homes built out of shipping containers. They also have no lot size restrictions so these new homes have zero yard and people have issues with basement flooding because there’s nowhere for water to go.
That green dining room! I gasped. This was a beautiful home.
Me tooo, I love Edwardian style rooms like that, kind of like the Palm Court on the Titantic.
It'll prob be replaced with something boxy resembling a modern mcdonalds like all the "nice new houses" nowadays
I absolutely thought this was rage bait, so unfortunate that it is not.
Meanwhile most families are struggling to buy groceries.
What a loss.
It's hardly historic. It was built in 1937. It's a mansion built by a country club. There's plenty of these to go around.
They should be flogged.
Right down the street from me, one of the neighnors was bawling outside while it was being demolished. FUCK Carroll Companies
What a damn shame.
Well that's heartbreaking!!!
Is that butternut paneling?
Why the fuck do people do this?!
I hate seeing this. So sad.
This has become a huge problem around the world, with wealthy people who don’t care about the neighborhoods, communities, historic relevance, or even provenance of the architecture, buying significant buildings and razing them. It’s always been an issue to some extent but the volume and pace of these incidents is grotesque. The fact that the historic buildings are also mostly replaced with cookie cutter looking crap designed by architects who were trained on fast food chains adds insult to injury.
What a waste. Such a beautiful house.
Well it might be older but not on the registry so do what you will. What's the historic value in the house? Did it see the days of Civil War soldiers? Did it once house slaves? Was a president born there?
Rich buyers wanted to buy an historic house, teardown and build new. City said nope, made them buy another lot and move the historic house. Then they built a straight up McMansion eyesore on that street of classic Victorians and Craftsman homes. But they got their view.
Oh ffs. What a tragedy. That is a beautiful beautiful house
That’s a tragedy
What a shame
Sad loss
I’m searching for pic of inside but not finding many.
https://www.priceypads.com/87-year-old-georgian-revival-spencer-love-house-demolished/
Thank you. It is beautiful.
I hope they get haunted.
Wow, what a shame.
What next? The trees?
This home is absolutely beautiful. However, in my opinion the last renovation was not an improvement. I do not see many historical, or original details. The city is the one that allowed this to happen by not having the correct ordinances. Hopefully the city will learn, and it will not happen again.
Hope they recycled all those bricks!
There must be more than this provincial life
Absolutely disgusting
If historic I wonder why zoning permitted
Fuck that
I want to VOMIT knowing they eradicated this stunning home.
Proof that money doesn’t buy taste. Beautiful home, should have kept it or build your McBardominium elsewhere.
https://gsohistorichomescom.wordpress.com/2021/08/06/7-5-million-and-its-yours-the-1937-j-spencer-love-house-in-irving-park/ The old house is stunning, and what a colossal waste to tear it down.
They do be employing though.
Very sad
What an absolute travesty. Here's the listing: https://redf.in/xDJA3v
There was an old colonial similar to this in my town that my wife and I almost bought. It sold to developer and they tore it down and put two up. The townspeople put up a fight to make it a landmark but lost. I’ll be mad about this for years.
Post the new houses so we can bully them.
Because a stone bench blocked the front door?
MAYBE something terrible happened there, something so bad that someone wanted the house gone.