A Wretched Hive Of Scum And Villainy
View allAll Photos Tagged foreclosed,
Not a war zone as in conflict but it is a war zone with economy. What was once a thriving granary for the county is now succumbed to farmlands being foreclosed and business going elsewhere.
"Coming to Take Me Away" Butcher Babies
www.youtube.com/watch?v=23ywNYOde4Y
"Your home the one the bank foreclosed
You cried monogamy
To the happy home with trees and flowers and chirping birds
I cooked your food
I cleaned your house
And this is how you paid me back
To the funny farm
Where life is beautiful all the time
And I'll be happy
Well you just wait they'll find you yet, and when they do they'll put you in the ASPCA you fucking mutt
To the happy home
They sit and smile and twiddle their thumbs and toes
To the loony bin with all you need prescription drugs
Like Thorazine, and lithium
Electric shock and insulin
To the fucking funny farm
They're coming to take me away
They're coming to take me
They're coming to take me
They're coming to take me away
They're coming to take me away"
Photo For #AdamsPhotoChallenge
www.flickr.com/groups/4483128@N24/
New Pose coming to After Midnight Fashion
maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Storm%20Coast/186/152/2984
Photo taken: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Miller%20Creek/132/164/24
The Peninsula Hotel at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th Street is an 18 story structure the opened in 1905 as the Gotham Hotel directly across the street from the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. Over the years the hotel has been closed, foreclosed when its owner took his own life in his own apartment in the Gotham Hotel itself. Beautiful architectural detail very common of the edifices built during that era particularly because of its proximity to Central Park. In this image done up for the holiday with seasonal exterior lighting. - [ ] #developportdev @gothamtomato @developphotonewsletter @omsystem.cameras #excellent_america #omsystem @bheventspace @bhphoto @adorama @tamracphoto @tiffencompany #usaprimeshot #tamractales #omd #microfourthirds #micro43 @kehcamera @thepeninsulanyc @nycurbanism @nycprimeshot @nybucketlist
The former Binghamton Masonic Temple on Main Street could finally get new life under the vision of its newest owner.
John Diehl, of Binghamton, purchased the 74,299 square-foot landmark for $7,500 at the Broome County tax foreclosure auction on Feb. 21.
Diehl, 40, said he and a small group want to renovate the existing theater inside the building and use it to bring live music shows back to the area.
“There is a lot of desirability now for bands to play smaller venues,” Diehl said. “Talking to people in the industry, they want something here. People in the community want to see it here.”
In addition to renovating the theater, Diehl said he would like to create a community performing arts center in the building, with classrooms and opportunities for instruction for residents.
The six-story stone structure at 66 Main St. has sat vacant and deteriorating since the 1990s. Once a community gathering hub and the center of regional Mason activities, the building slid into disrepair after it was first foreclosed on in 1997.
I just now noticed the two-tone paint job on the electrical outlet.
It's the details that make or break these things....
I have taken so many more pictures under the piers and bridges than on them.... for everyone who never looked under the piers – look , just be careful , you may not be alone.
Pier in Crescent Beach , place that I really like , few more weeks and this place will not be that easy to photograph. Nice part of cold is ... it keeps people away from the beach ;-)
PLEASE ... Please ... please - View Large On Black
See where this picture was taken, Crescent Beach , White Rock / Surrey , BC , Canada [?]
Explore Feb 27, 2009 #479
I could futz with the exact values of black, shadows, whites, and highlights for hours, and probably will.
HDR via Lightroom, plus contrast masking - the dynamic range here was pretty 'xtreme," as the kids say. Hopefully it doesn't look too manipulated....
Day 4 of a ten-day course of powerful antibiotic (for bronchitis).
Went because the opportunity presented itself and ... these things don't come around twice.
The difficulty of this series is starting to present itself - there are only a few ways you can frame dilapidated rooms.
We shall see.
For this particular setup I actually did bracket down a lot, which means there's relatively little highlight clipping. HDR plus contrast masking, VSCO Kodacolor Gold Warm preset (which is one I've used a lot with the Houses At Night Series.
I'm still not crazy about the greenish yellow tint in some of the windows, and the time of day is more "night" than "twilight."
So, it's a nice place to visit. But would you want to live there?
The place is for sale, so it's not a completely rhetorical question. The Nasty Socks on Flickr can direct you to the Bank who's trying to unload it.
Updated: The asking price is $1,287,390, which is actually a bit less than the typical Franklin Lakes tab. And it's 4600 feet. Guess finished basements don't count, no matter how extensively "finished" they are.
It was built in 66, but extensively refurbed this spring, which explains the cheap-ass doors.
I found Lamont and Walter (a new acquaintance) in their "new digs". When he told me yesterday that they were sleeping in a doorway, I took that as an approximate location, like "OK, they are NEAR a doorway."
Nope, actual doorway. A padlocked foreclosed business front. I can only assume that this residence is temporary, as a neighbor is bound to complain sooner or later. Not faulting the neighbors, it's just part of the deal. I'm sure Lamont and Walter are used to it at this point.
Sadly, they have all the transporatation they need when it's time to move.
Old rotten wooden door chained and padlocked in downtown Clifton.
Clifton, Arizona, USA. Once a booming copper mining town but now mostly declining or already in decay and the majority of people and business have moved just up the road to Morenci. The Freeport McMoRan copper mine located in Morenci is one of the largest in the world
Cliff dwellings along the San Francisco and Gila Rivers are evidence of an advanced civilization that existed long before Caesar ruled Rome. Many specimens of pottery and stone implements are still to be found in these ancient dwelling places. In the mid-1500s, both Fray Marcos de Niza and Francisco Vasquez de Coronado passed through the area, following the San Pedro north to the Gila River. Geronimo was born in 1829 near the confluence of Eagle Creek and the San Francisco and Gila Rivers.
In 1856 the first mineral discoveries of the Morenci/Clifton area were found by California volunteers pursuing Apaches, and conflicts between the Apaches and advancing Anglo settlers touched off a 26-year-long war. Mining for gold and silver began in 1864, followed by copper in 1872, and the mine at Morenci quickly grew to become the largest copper producer in North America. Clifton's population ballooned from 600 in 1880 to 5000 by 1910, and it quickly earned its reputation as the wildest of the "Wild West" boomtowns. Neighboring Morenci was swallowed up by an open pit mine in the 1960s, but Clifton was preserved, and today Chase Creek Street is still graced with lovely Victorian-era buildings from the town's halcyon days as the place to quickly make and lose a fortune.
In 1983, Clifton survived two nearly fatal blows, first a nearly three-year-long strike that began on June 30, 1983. Then later that same year, on October 2, 1983, Tropical Storm Octave sent 90,900 cubic feet of water per second into the San Francisco River, which burst its banks, destroying 700 homes and heavily damaging 86 of the town's 126 businesses.
Explore 21 September, 2021
Early morning sun was reflected on this building entrances.
The Coup Salon is in a registered heritage building on Shanghai Alley, part of Vancouver's Historic Chinatown.
The salon at 524 Shanghai Alley, was established in 2009 by Rosie Zollinger.
Door 522 leads to a residence above the salon.
ABOUT SHANGHAI ALLEY:
Of the 770 streets in Vancouver, Shanghai Alley and Canton Alley are the only names with Chinese origins. Most of the 2,100 Chinese counted in the 1900 census lived here.
Packed full of people, these alleys formed a self-contained community within Vancouver, hosting all sorts of businesses from barber shops to tailors, meeting halls to a 500-seat theatre.
This community was not, however, segregated from the rest of the city: many white patrons frequented businesses here while hundreds of Chinese worked all across Vancouver.
The people who lived here came overwhelmingly from a small part of the Canton Delta just north-west of Hong Kong. They were ethnically and culturally distinct from the Han Chinese, speaking a dialect of Cantonese.
They brought with them a rich culture that had developed over 5,000 years, though some of aspects of it unnerved Vancouver's white population. One practice in particular, that of burying their dead for seven years before exhuming them and shipping their bones back to China, was the subject of horrified accounts in the white press.
The massive recession that followed the boom times of 1913 hit the Chinese community particularly hard. Many people fell behind on their property taxes and were foreclosed on. Soon the two alleys had decayed and were classed as slums. In the 1940s they were almost entirely demolished. All that remains of this neighbourhood is this short stretch of Shanghai Alley and the street signs.
There was a brief period, around 1907, when the Alley and Canton Alley became home to the city’s red-light district. Chased off Dupont Street (East Pender today, a block or two to the east of here), the madams sub-leased space in the upper floor rooms of the buildings.
When the police continued to raid and prosecute the ladies, the madams moved once more, to Shore Street (also nearby), before having to move again in the early 1910s to Alexander Street, away from the main Downtown of the day, where they built a number of decorative and expensive establishments.
At the very least, theology, even in its most academic or speculative mode, ought not to foreclose the possibility of grace, surprise, or resonance in the community for which it is intended. In short, to do Christology as Merton reflexively understood and practiced the term is not only to “become fully impregnated in our mystical tradition,”3 it is also to “bring out clearly the mystical dimensions of our theology, hence to help us to do what we must really do: live our theology …, fully, deeply, in its totality.”
… For, indeed, the more I tried to force-fit Merton’s Christology into preconceived or abstract conceptual categories, the more I found that that was assuredly “not it.” Yet the more I listened, meditated, and pored over his writings, the more I discerned an unmistakable music, a kind of unifying harmonic key, awakening in me the remembrance of God, a sense of a real Presence, and stirring dormant seeds of hope.
-Sophia The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton, Christopher Pramuk
Ring-a-ring-Opposes, a pocketful-Forecloses©
What advancement has been spelled out this morning?
Or any other morning for the matter with us is not yet found,
Still somehow uncolonized is the space within our heart
Overrun as it may be by so much as the duty bound
Ways radiating the loss of our own habitat that now sets us apart
From the roads we build atop the past trampled underfoot
Cobbles give way to the gobbles of hungry economic pressure
Drink your coffee quick so you may be full of beans in readiness
For the trek that gives a heck for seizing a rightful expressure
Over distinctive burials of hurt and all of life's bloodiness
Emotion rather resembles archaeology with origin unknown
It's a treasure worth having yet it's value cannot be easily told
We may hold such an artifact in our hand yet flinch in someone else's
And crack as we might it is only time that can find out before we're sold
By which time living memory has been and gone where history convulses
When we're done and dusted our image of ourselves speaks of tribal beliefs
Those narrow-minded policies handed-down from government to bleeder
Oh! and what stories shall we tell when our rich soil becomes political?
My childhood garden now a by-word for by-pass, a ruddy road's northern feeder
For no truth is harder to bear than next year's road map, ahead lies, lies, lies so hypocritical
Motions passed in my backyard by persons who'll have been and gone
Before my oats are cold...I jest, of course,
For the planners I never see live far, faraway from the likes of you or me
They have job descriptions that even google doesn't yet know, how coarse!
Yet real their decisions are, for their administrative cocoon may leave me a solitary tree
As swathes of childhood memory are churned-up why must we build over
Areas of greatest worth? leaving but a dust bowl to live out of
Only queried when the going gets tough and the tough have long gone
I speak of the Wensum valley and Norwich's soon to be northern ring of cupboard love
The atlas speaks what councils forgot to tell us...now preservation has been foregone.
by anglia24
10h30: 21/11/2008
©2008anglia24
Lonely farmhouse east of Stillwell,IL. Many places in this area of Illinois still is in the throes of a depression that started in the '70s and reached its peak in the early '80s.Family farms were shuttered,rural towns and businesses dried up,and lives were shattered.Big farms got bigger as they bought up foreclosed farms for pennies on the dollar.Now 30 years later,many areas have seen a rebound in farmland prices but with sinking commodity prices,are we set for a repeat of the '80s?Hopefully the lessons learned from that time will guide us now...
The door of this abandoned farm may be open,but the door is pretty much closed for anyone hoping to get into farming now.
Wharf Street, one of the most picturesque scenes in Maine, gets its name from the fact that it used to be on Portland's waterfront, home of the wharves that brought in many tons of trade from across the world. Fore Street occupied the same function Commercial Street does today. So how did it get there? In the 1800's the land behind Fore Street was filled in for several hundred yards out into Portland Harbor, making it possible for establishments like DiMillo's, RiRa's, and Chandler's Wharf to exist today.
I've been wanting to get a good shot of this street for a while. It's a great nightlife spot (I used to party here in my crazy days), but is under the threat of massive gentrification. Under current proposals, six of the buildings currently lining this section of the street would be demolished and replaced by taller, more modern buildings, with a large metal skywalk connecting them across Wharf Street. Now, I am all for change and modernization. These properties were foreclosed on in 2011 and bought at auction. However, I think that maintaining the historic context and character of this street is extremely important to the City of Portland and all of Maine, for that matter. A large metal skywalk just doesn't do it for me.
My role as a photographer is primarily one of being an observer, but I believe we all advocate our values in our choice of subjects and presentation. I value community and a sense of place, two values that seem to be under constant threat in our modern world of connected disconnection and fast-food, big-box, retail chain stores everywhere you go.
This location is not far from my farm,and is on a foreclosed property so the slow destruction will continue to play out.This was a nice milking barn into the '70s,but now a subdivision is located nearby and most of the other farm buildings have been torn down.The pasture where the cows grazed are now the home of pools and gardens.I know progress is a good thing,but why does it have to come with such a high price?
We are heading out west for the next week,so my postings and comments will be pretty sporadic.Everyone have a great week!
"A macabre part of Canada’s hidden history made headlines last week after ground-penetrating radar located the remains of 215 First Nations children in a mass unmarked grave on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
Like 150,000 Indigenous children that were taken from their families and nations and placed in residential schools, the 215 bodies of children, some as young as three, located in Tk’emlúps were part of a larger colonial program to liquidate Indigenous nations of their histories, culture and foreclose on any future. To do this, Canada put into motion a system to “kill the Indian in the child.”
This system often killed the child.
While we currently have no evidence to determine the cause of death for each child, we know that they died a political death — these children were the disappeared."
Carey Price said it BEST:
"If you have not spent any time in a First Nations community and listened to their stories then you have NO RIGHT to pass judgement on them. Racism is TAUGHT, please be mindful of your "opinions" and think about how you came to your conclusions about our First Nations peoples. Canada was NOT discovered, it was invaded. I am sick of the ignorant stereotypes and lack of respect and empathy that many have for First Nations. Our history is based on lies and omits many truths from coast to coast. The Federal Government with no apologies or accountability for the wrong doings and pain another generation survived in Residential School, that is not something you simply "get over" - educate yourselves before taking the cop out road of ignorant stereotyping. The truth is that the recent past and current oppression is still effecting our First Nations and the road to healing is not going to happen overnight, but what CAN happen overnight is the way we all acknowledge the wrong doings, the way we listen to their stories in order to give them closure and help them heal, we all deserve to have a sense that we all matter and are all respected. The road forward is long and it is not easy but together we rise. "
~Carey Price
The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, USA, was built around the former Lorraine Motel at 450 Mulberry Street, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
The Lorraine Motel remained open following King's assassination until it was foreclosed in 1982. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation purchased the property at auction in December of that year. In 1987 construction of the museum started, opening its doors to visitors on September 28, 1991.[1] The exhibits of the museum tell the story of the struggle for African American civil rights from the arrival of the first Africans in the British colonies in 1619 to the assassination of King in 1968.
An expansion project in 2001 added the Young and Morrow Building to the museum, the latter being a former rooming house at 418 South Main Street from which James Earl Ray fired the shots that killed King. The exhibits in the rooming house relate the events of the assassination, the Poor People's Campaign, and the legacy of the civil rights movement.[1] It includes a panel describing the murder of the Reverend James Reeb in Selma, Alabama.
A member of Historic Hotels of America since 1999, The Colony Hotel & Cabana Club is among the most historic holiday destinations in all of Florida. Many have hailed this spectacular resort as a timeless masterpiece, often calling it “the best-known landmark” in Delray Beach. The facility debuted as the “Alterep Hotel” in 1926, after a group of investors led by Albert T. Repp had spent some $350,000 to finance its construction. Repp and his colleagues had decided to build such a magnificent structure due to Delray Beach’s growth as a prestigious resort community during the Roaring Twenties. Florida itself was in the midst of a lively—yet short-lived—real estate boom, in which Americans from across the nation built countless residential and commercial structures as a means of escaping the harsh northern winters. Delray Beach was no different from any other coastal community in Florida at the time, as businesspeople like Repp developed its shoreline with new luxurious retreats.
Designed by architect Martin Luther Hampton at the behest of Repp, The Alterep Hotel was perhaps the greatest structure built within the city in the 1920s. Standing three stories tall, its brilliant Spanish Colonial Revival-style architecture brilliantly commemorated the state’s Hispanic heritage. The resort’s gorgeous stucco walls and iconic domed towers made it incredibly unique when compared to many of its fellow local destinations. Inside, a Spanish Galleon was carved into the lobby’s central mantle, highlighted in hues of gold and silver. Stunning terrazzo floor tiles proliferated throughout the space, as did wrought iron chandeliers and sumptuous antique floor lamps. An Otis & Company elevator ferried guests throughout the building to one of several dozen guestrooms located onsite. The contraption was absolutely beautiful, for it featured cut-glass panels, dark wood trim, and even a hand-closed metal gate. Fixx Reed wicker furniture filled every public space and guestroom, too, which Reep had acquired directly from the upscale John Wanamaker Store in Philadelphia.
Despite its grand, luxurious character, the Alterep Hotel struggled immensely to generate business during the first few years of its existence. Right when it seemed that Repp and his associates were about to turn a corner financially, the Great Depression struck with merciless fury. Businesses and property values collapsed all over Florida, spelling doom for entrepreneurs like Albert T. Repp. With no way to save the enterprise, Repp subsequently foreclosed on the Alterep Hotel. Fortunately, salvation arrived in the form of George and Agnes Boughton. The two were newlyweds who had stumbled into Delray Beach almost by accident. They initially wanted to drive straight down to Key West, where they would take a cruise to Havana. But social unrest in the Cuban capital caused the two to unexpectedly cancel their trip. George then contacted his father, Charlie, for help, as the latter was a veteran hotelier up in New Jersey. Finding new accommodations in Atlantic City, the couple started the long drive back to the northeast. Yet, when the two briefly stopped in Delray Beach, they immediately fell in love with the abandoned Alterep Hotel. George and Agnes eventually spoke with Charlie about the prospect of acquiring the bankrupted business. After much discussion, the Boughton's paid some $50,000 to buy the ailing resort in 1935. Renaming it as “The Colony Hotel,” the family’s subsequent stewardship saw the resort emerge as the hottest attraction in Delray Beach. They invested thoroughly into its revitalization, installing a wealth of new amenities and facilities throughout the structure. George even developed the famous “Cabana Club” on a 250-foot strip of land along the Atlantic Ocean. This fabulous venue contained a heated saltwater pool, authentic tropical fauna, and complimentary cabanas. The Colony Hotel and Cabana Club have since remained in the Boughton family to this very day. Much of the original architecture and décor remains the same, too! The resort even has 50 pieces of the historic Fixx Reed furniture that first arrived over a century ago. The Colony Hotel and Cabana Club is thus one of Florida’s best historic destinations.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_Hotel_&_Caba%C3%B1a_Club
colonyflorida.com/about/#!/history
www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/colony-hotel-and...
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
I must say, rich people foreclosures are nicer on the inside than poor people foreclosures.
I have not examined whether death is better when you're rich. That exercise is left for the student.
on Jackson Ave & S 4th St-developed in 2017 to house small businesses. The Containery was foreclosed in the beginning of June 2021. There is still no word on what the bank might do with this property or if there are any potential buyers
The State Theatre in Anderson, IN opened in 1930. There were attempts to to renovate in 2000. But due to property owners not resolving their issues, the property was forced to foreclose.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzkAaM0HjnU&t=177s
How to be a person:
1. Find your voice, know that not all languages contain words, your voice could be music it could be dance, it will be what expresses you most sincerely, your voice, is an art, if your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.
2. Remember that you are an artist, regardless of how constantly the world will try to drive it out of you or how a "real job" will try to bury the part of you that communicates your feelings when language fails, you, are an artist. Whether it's with food, or building robots, you will know your medium the instant you realize how in love you are with what it brings out of you,
3. Apologize, you will not always be right, you will not always be wrong, you will hopefully always be learning, atonement is a sacrifice of pride, explanation of why you did what you did or said what you said will not vindicate you, if the cost to heal someone is only your pride, then apologize and be grateful that you received peace at such a bargain.
4. Forgive, realize that some are still learning, if forgiveness is not possible then think of everything you have ever wanted to be forgiven for but weren't, hold that uneasiness in your mind until you feel your desire for absolution becoming a wish, realize you can grant this wish for others, if you are waiting for forgiveness, be prepared to wait, be prepared to stand in the path of time and wither, respect that forgiveness, is difficult, not all trespasses are equal, and not everyone will heal according to your schedule.
5. Accept that farting, is funny, granted, not always appropriate, and sometimes unpleasant, but if you cannot laugh, if you are more offended by a fart, than by war, famine, political corruption, deforestation, racism, sexism, classicism, the wrongfully imprisoned, the treatment of women, the foreclosing on homes while banks debts are forgiven, if a fart offends you more than any of that, then you are not a person and cannot be helped, join a cult, have some koolaid.
6. Know that love, is a vulnerability, but not a weakness, love is the volunteer that raises it's hand and steps forward without needing to be rewarded, love is a currency that functions in reverse because the only way to be wealthy with it, is to give more of it away.
7. Don't laugh to fit in, laughter, should be honest, if there is no sincerity in your joy then your happiness will be a forgery that fools only yourself.
8. Do not fear to be hated, but be cautious towards those inhabited by hate, you will be hated, regardless of who you are what you say or what you do, you will be hated for your successes or failures, for good looks, bad looks, for intelligence or stupidity, hate, is the child of the hater, nurtured by the beliefs it is fed, you often will have no control over what you are hated for, know that in Tipothy, becomes the master of it's owner, know that if you are going to be hated regardless of who you are, then be fearless enough to be who you want to be, hate is, no more eloquently articulated than in the poetry of the expression, "Not your fuckin' problem".
9. Try... the tiniest dream that you try to make happen is worth more than the biggest dream you never attempt.
10. Be savagely thankful, and continuously in awe at the power you possess, you are alive, inside of an endless cosmos with a freedom that shines brightest in the dark, choices, your choices, belong to you so intimately, that they will never leave you, they, are like the changing nature of love where the failing machinery of our bodies will abandon you to time, good or bad they will stay always, an antique, that shows the future of who you were and what you stood for, so know that what you choose to stand for, is what will inform you of what you've chosen to stand against, so stand! like each foot crash land into what you believe, then plant them there firmly, so they may take root in your convictions, and stand.
The Dixie Walesbilt Hotel, known as the Grand Hotel in later years, is one of a small number of skyscrapers built in the 1920s that still stand today and is a prime example of how optimistic people were during the Florida land boom. Built in 1926, it found financing through a stock-sale campaign in the local business community, costing $500,000 after it was completed(which equates to about $6 million today.)
The building architecture, masonry vernacular with hints of Mediterranean-Revival, is also a good example of the time is was built. It was designed by two well-known architects at the time, Fred Bishop who designed the Byrd Theatre in Virginia, and D.J. Phipps, whose designed both the Wyoming County Courthouse and Jail and the Colonial Hotel in Virginia.
The hotel was constructed using the “three-part vertical block” method, which became the dominant pattern in tall buildings during the 1920s. Three-part buildings are composed of a base, shaft and a cap, all noticeably visible.
The hotel opened as the “Walesbilt” in January 1927, shortly after the land boom had started to collapse and two years before the Great Depression began. It’s also best to note that the hotel opened around the same time the Floridan Hotel in Tampa opened, another hotel built during the Florida land boom.
In 1972, the hotel was purchased by Anderson Sun State and renamed the “Groveland Motor Inn”. The firm completely renovated the hotel and used it to host visitors to the area who were interested in Green Swamp, land sectioned off for land development. At the time there was heavy speculation in the land because of it’s close proximity to Walt Disney World and were selling for around $5,000 an acre at the time. That ended after a state cabinet designation of the swamp as an area of critical state concern, placing the land off-limits to any large land developments. The firm filed for foreclosure and the hotel was auctioned off in 1974. Despite RCI Electric purchasing the hotel, it remained empty for many years afterwards.
n 1978, the hotel was signed over to the Agape Players, a nationally known religious music and drama group, who would assume the mortgage and would pay the costs to make improvements to meet city fire and safety standards. The hotel was renamed the “Royal Walesbilt” and after extensive improvements were made, it became the headquarters for the Agape Players; using it as a teaching facility and the base from which the group launched their tours. In addition, they operated a restaurant, an ice cream parlor on the lobby floor and a “Christian hotel” on the upper floors, catering mostly to groups. The Agape Players disbanded in 1985 and put the property up for sale
Victor Khubani, a property investor from New York acquired the property and renamed the hotel “Grand”. The hotel closed briefly in December 1988, due to a variety of code violations and causing the owner to later pay $14,000 in fines. On August 31, 1990 it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, possibly for tax exemption reasons. In October 1991, The State Fire Marshall’s Office gave the owner one year to install a new sprinkler system and in May 1993, the code enforcement board gave Khubani until March to complete the work.
In March 1994, the hotel closed due to multiple code violations and was to remain closed until a new fire sprinkler system was installed. To reopen, the fire escapes and elevator, which did not function, would have to be repaired as well. In 1995, the hotel was auctioned off to a redevelopment firm, which dismantled part of the interior for reconstruction, which was never completed.
Since then, the hotel has deteriorated, becoming an eyesore to many of the residents of Lake Wales and nicknamed “The Green Monster” for the greenish color it has acquired from over the years. In 1995, it was even jokingly mentioned to become a sacrifice to “the bomb”, an economic boom that occurred in parts of Florida where movie production companies would pay cities to blow up buildings for their movies. In 2007, the city foreclosed on the structure for more than $700,000 in unpaid code fines, with hopes in finding someone to restore it.
Development firm, Dixie-Walesbilt LLC announced plans to restore the hotel, signing into an agreement with the city of Lake Wales in February 2010. By the agreement, the city would retain ownership of the building until a defined amount of work had been accomplished. The work must be completed within 16 months and the amount of money invested must succeed at least $1.5 million. The building would then be handed off the Dixie Walesbilt LLC, where they may continue with private funding or other methods to for debt funding.
Ray Brown, President of Dixie Walesbilt LLC, planned to invest $6 million into the renovation, with original plans to put retail stores on the ground floor and using the upper floors for as many as 40 condominiums.
On June 2, 2011, the city of Lake Wales agreed to deed the building off to Ray Brown in a 4-1 vote, after meeting the requirements of the redevelopment agreement. Though Brown submitted a list of costs to the city totaling $1.66 million, Mayor Mike Carter wasn’t satisfied with the results so far, pointing out that Brown failed to repair the windows and repaint the building. Previous owners had put tar on the building and then painted over it, so much of Brown’s investment went to stripping the tar off the exterior walls.
To repaint the building, Brown would also have to resurface the hotel with hydrated lime to replicate the original skin as well as the window frames would need to be constructed of Douglas fir, red cedar and gulf cypress. According to Brown, previous owners who renovated the building rarely removed the building original elements. They carpeted over intricate tile flooring, stuck tar paper above skylights and placed modern drinking fountains in front of the originals. He estimated about 98 percent of the building is still in it’s original form.
Restoration of the building’s exterior began in January 2015 and included surface repair, pressure washing, paint removal, chemical treatment, and a comprehensive resurfacing of the exterior.
While the original plans were for turning the building into condominiums, that has since changed and current plans call for operating the building as a boutique hotel. The hotel will feature geothermal cooling as opposed to traditional air conditioning, a permanent art gallery as well as theme gallery showings throughout the year, and the best WiFi/internet in the city. The project is expected to be completed in 18 to 24 months.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.cityoflakewales.com/505/Dixie-Walesbilt-Hotel
www.abandonedfl.com/dixie-walesbilt-hotel/
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
When we discuss rising inequality, poverty, imprisonment, foreclosed homes and other injustices, simply engaging in familiar discussions about these increases in disparities does not capture the larger reality we must face. We need new language. I use the term "expulsions" to mark the radicalness of that necessary shift.
Saskia Sassen, Expulsions: Brutality and Complexity in the Global Economy
The Dixie Walesbilt Hotel, known as the Grand Hotel in later years, is one of a small number of skyscrapers built in the 1920s that still stand today and is a prime example of how optimistic people were during the Florida land boom. Built in 1926, it found financing through a stock-sale campaign in the local business community, costing $500,000 after it was completed(which equates to about $6 million today.)
The building architecture, masonry vernacular with hints of Mediterranean-Revival, is also a good example of the time is was built. It was designed by two well-known architects at the time, Fred Bishop who designed the Byrd Theatre in Virginia, and D.J. Phipps, whose designed both the Wyoming County Courthouse and Jail and the Colonial Hotel in Virginia.
The hotel was constructed using the “three-part vertical block” method, which became the dominant pattern in tall buildings during the 1920s. Three-part buildings are composed of a base, shaft and a cap, all noticeably visible.
The hotel opened as the “Walesbilt” in January 1927, shortly after the land boom had started to collapse and two years before the Great Depression began. It’s also best to note that the hotel opened around the same time the Floridan Hotel in Tampa opened, another hotel built during the Florida land boom.
In 1972, the hotel was purchased by Anderson Sun State and renamed the “Groveland Motor Inn”. The firm completely renovated the hotel and used it to host visitors to the area who were interested in Green Swamp, land sectioned off for land development. At the time there was heavy speculation in the land because of it’s close proximity to Walt Disney World and were selling for around $5,000 an acre at the time. That ended after a state cabinet designation of the swamp as an area of critical state concern, placing the land off-limits to any large land developments. The firm filed for foreclosure and the hotel was auctioned off in 1974. Despite RCI Electric purchasing the hotel, it remained empty for many years afterwards.
n 1978, the hotel was signed over to the Agape Players, a nationally known religious music and drama group, who would assume the mortgage and would pay the costs to make improvements to meet city fire and safety standards. The hotel was renamed the “Royal Walesbilt” and after extensive improvements were made, it became the headquarters for the Agape Players; using it as a teaching facility and the base from which the group launched their tours. In addition, they operated a restaurant, an ice cream parlor on the lobby floor and a “Christian hotel” on the upper floors, catering mostly to groups. The Agape Players disbanded in 1985 and put the property up for sale
Victor Khubani, a property investor from New York acquired the property and renamed the hotel “Grand”. The hotel closed briefly in December 1988, due to a variety of code violations and causing the owner to later pay $14,000 in fines. On August 31, 1990 it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, possibly for tax exemption reasons. In October 1991, The State Fire Marshall’s Office gave the owner one year to install a new sprinkler system and in May 1993, the code enforcement board gave Khubani until March to complete the work.
In March 1994, the hotel closed due to multiple code violations and was to remain closed until a new fire sprinkler system was installed. To reopen, the fire escapes and elevator, which did not function, would have to be repaired as well. In 1995, the hotel was auctioned off to a redevelopment firm, which dismantled part of the interior for reconstruction, which was never completed.
Since then, the hotel has deteriorated, becoming an eyesore to many of the residents of Lake Wales and nicknamed “The Green Monster” for the greenish color it has acquired from over the years. In 1995, it was even jokingly mentioned to become a sacrifice to “the bomb”, an economic boom that occurred in parts of Florida where movie production companies would pay cities to blow up buildings for their movies. In 2007, the city foreclosed on the structure for more than $700,000 in unpaid code fines, with hopes in finding someone to restore it.
Development firm, Dixie-Walesbilt LLC announced plans to restore the hotel, signing into an agreement with the city of Lake Wales in February 2010. By the agreement, the city would retain ownership of the building until a defined amount of work had been accomplished. The work must be completed within 16 months and the amount of money invested must succeed at least $1.5 million. The building would then be handed off the Dixie Walesbilt LLC, where they may continue with private funding or other methods to for debt funding.
Ray Brown, President of Dixie Walesbilt LLC, planned to invest $6 million into the renovation, with original plans to put retail stores on the ground floor and using the upper floors for as many as 40 condominiums.
On June 2, 2011, the city of Lake Wales agreed to deed the building off to Ray Brown in a 4-1 vote, after meeting the requirements of the redevelopment agreement. Though Brown submitted a list of costs to the city totaling $1.66 million, Mayor Mike Carter wasn’t satisfied with the results so far, pointing out that Brown failed to repair the windows and repaint the building. Previous owners had put tar on the building and then painted over it, so much of Brown’s investment went to stripping the tar off the exterior walls.
To repaint the building, Brown would also have to resurface the hotel with hydrated lime to replicate the original skin as well as the window frames would need to be constructed of Douglas fir, red cedar and gulf cypress. According to Brown, previous owners who renovated the building rarely removed the building original elements. They carpeted over intricate tile flooring, stuck tar paper above skylights and placed modern drinking fountains in front of the originals. He estimated about 98 percent of the building is still in it’s original form.
Restoration of the building’s exterior began in January 2015 and included surface repair, pressure washing, paint removal, chemical treatment, and a comprehensive resurfacing of the exterior.
While the original plans were for turning the building into condominiums, that has since changed and current plans call for operating the building as a boutique hotel. The hotel will feature geothermal cooling as opposed to traditional air conditioning, a permanent art gallery as well as theme gallery showings throughout the year, and the best WiFi/internet in the city. The project is expected to be completed in 18 to 24 months.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.cityoflakewales.com/505/Dixie-Walesbilt-Hotel
www.abandonedfl.com/dixie-walesbilt-hotel/
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
The Dixie Walesbilt Hotel, known as the Grand Hotel in later years, is one of a small number of skyscrapers built in the 1920s that still stand today and is a prime example of how optimistic people were during the Florida land boom. Built in 1926, it found financing through a stock-sale campaign in the local business community, costing $500,000 after it was completed(which equates to about $6 million today.)
The building architecture, masonry vernacular with hints of Mediterranean-Revival, is also a good example of the time is was built. It was designed by two well-known architects at the time, Fred Bishop who designed the Byrd Theatre in Virginia, and D.J. Phipps, whose designed both the Wyoming County Courthouse and Jail and the Colonial Hotel in Virginia.
The hotel was constructed using the “three-part vertical block” method, which became the dominant pattern in tall buildings during the 1920s. Three-part buildings are composed of a base, shaft and a cap, all noticeably visible.
The hotel opened as the “Walesbilt” in January 1927, shortly after the land boom had started to collapse and two years before the Great Depression began. It’s also best to note that the hotel opened around the same time the Floridan Hotel in Tampa opened, another hotel built during the Florida land boom.
In 1972, the hotel was purchased by Anderson Sun State and renamed the “Groveland Motor Inn”. The firm completely renovated the hotel and used it to host visitors to the area who were interested in Green Swamp, land sectioned off for land development. At the time there was heavy speculation in the land because of it’s close proximity to Walt Disney World and were selling for around $5,000 an acre at the time. That ended after a state cabinet designation of the swamp as an area of critical state concern, placing the land off-limits to any large land developments. The firm filed for foreclosure and the hotel was auctioned off in 1974. Despite RCI Electric purchasing the hotel, it remained empty for many years afterwards.
n 1978, the hotel was signed over to the Agape Players, a nationally known religious music and drama group, who would assume the mortgage and would pay the costs to make improvements to meet city fire and safety standards. The hotel was renamed the “Royal Walesbilt” and after extensive improvements were made, it became the headquarters for the Agape Players; using it as a teaching facility and the base from which the group launched their tours. In addition, they operated a restaurant, an ice cream parlor on the lobby floor and a “Christian hotel” on the upper floors, catering mostly to groups. The Agape Players disbanded in 1985 and put the property up for sale
Victor Khubani, a property investor from New York acquired the property and renamed the hotel “Grand”. The hotel closed briefly in December 1988, due to a variety of code violations and causing the owner to later pay $14,000 in fines. On August 31, 1990 it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, possibly for tax exemption reasons. In October 1991, The State Fire Marshall’s Office gave the owner one year to install a new sprinkler system and in May 1993, the code enforcement board gave Khubani until March to complete the work.
In March 1994, the hotel closed due to multiple code violations and was to remain closed until a new fire sprinkler system was installed. To reopen, the fire escapes and elevator, which did not function, would have to be repaired as well. In 1995, the hotel was auctioned off to a redevelopment firm, which dismantled part of the interior for reconstruction, which was never completed.
Since then, the hotel has deteriorated, becoming an eyesore to many of the residents of Lake Wales and nicknamed “The Green Monster” for the greenish color it has acquired from over the years. In 1995, it was even jokingly mentioned to become a sacrifice to “the bomb”, an economic boom that occurred in parts of Florida where movie production companies would pay cities to blow up buildings for their movies. In 2007, the city foreclosed on the structure for more than $700,000 in unpaid code fines, with hopes in finding someone to restore it.
Development firm, Dixie-Walesbilt LLC announced plans to restore the hotel, signing into an agreement with the city of Lake Wales in February 2010. By the agreement, the city would retain ownership of the building until a defined amount of work had been accomplished. The work must be completed within 16 months and the amount of money invested must succeed at least $1.5 million. The building would then be handed off the Dixie Walesbilt LLC, where they may continue with private funding or other methods to for debt funding.
Ray Brown, President of Dixie Walesbilt LLC, planned to invest $6 million into the renovation, with original plans to put retail stores on the ground floor and using the upper floors for as many as 40 condominiums.
On June 2, 2011, the city of Lake Wales agreed to deed the building off to Ray Brown in a 4-1 vote, after meeting the requirements of the redevelopment agreement. Though Brown submitted a list of costs to the city totaling $1.66 million, Mayor Mike Carter wasn’t satisfied with the results so far, pointing out that Brown failed to repair the windows and repaint the building. Previous owners had put tar on the building and then painted over it, so much of Brown’s investment went to stripping the tar off the exterior walls.
To repaint the building, Brown would also have to resurface the hotel with hydrated lime to replicate the original skin as well as the window frames would need to be constructed of Douglas fir, red cedar and gulf cypress. According to Brown, previous owners who renovated the building rarely removed the building original elements. They carpeted over intricate tile flooring, stuck tar paper above skylights and placed modern drinking fountains in front of the originals. He estimated about 98 percent of the building is still in it’s original form.
Restoration of the building’s exterior began in January 2015 and included surface repair, pressure washing, paint removal, chemical treatment, and a comprehensive resurfacing of the exterior.
While the original plans were for turning the building into condominiums, that has since changed and current plans call for operating the building as a boutique hotel. The hotel will feature geothermal cooling as opposed to traditional air conditioning, a permanent art gallery as well as theme gallery showings throughout the year, and the best WiFi/internet in the city. The project is expected to be completed in 18 to 24 months.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.cityoflakewales.com/505/Dixie-Walesbilt-Hotel
www.abandonedfl.com/dixie-walesbilt-hotel/
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
The former Binghamton Masonic Temple on Main Street could finally get new life under the vision of its newest owner.
John Diehl, of Binghamton, purchased the 74,299 square-foot landmark for $7,500 at the Broome County tax foreclosure auction on Feb. 21.
Diehl, 40, said he and a small group want to renovate the existing theater inside the building and use it to bring live music shows back to the area.
“There is a lot of desirability now for bands to play smaller venues,” Diehl said. “Talking to people in the industry, they want something here. People in the community want to see it here.”
In addition to renovating the theater, Diehl said he would like to create a community performing arts center in the building, with classrooms and opportunities for instruction for residents.
The six-story stone structure at 66 Main St. has sat vacant and deteriorating since the 1990s. Once a community gathering hub and the center of regional Mason activities, the building slid into disrepair after it was first foreclosed on in 1997.
Too many people just eat to consume calories. Try dining for a change.
John Walters
Naniboujou Lodge (Naniboujou is the Cree god of the outdoors) was first conceived in the 1920's as an ultra exclusive private club. Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and Ring Lardner were among its charter members. A membership of 1000 was originally sought, but when the stock market crashed on "Black Tuesday" precipitating [Naniboujou; orignal paint from 1928] the 1929 depression, the club began to fail. In the mid 1930's the club reached a state of financial shambles. The mortgage was foreclosed, and it was sold.
Throughout the succeeding years the Lodge has been owned and operated by various corporations or private individuals and families. Today you will find an exciting revitalized Naniboujou. Still reflecting the aura of the 20's, Naniboujou is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The Lodge boasts Minnesota's largest native rock fireplace, a 200 ton work of art which stands in the 30 x 80 foot Great Hall (now the dining room)...
Built in 1897 in the Gothic Revival style, this building housed St. Mark’s Lutheran Church for over 110 years. Formed in the 1890s as the Independent Martini Evangelical Protestant Church, the congregation faced financial difficulty upon the completion of their grand church edifice, and was accepted into the Lutheran Church in 1897, which helped to make the church find more steady footing, but the financial issues lingered, and the building was foreclosed upon in 1903. Thanks to efforts by the local community, the church was rescued from its financial problems, and became self-sufficient by 1905. In 1927, the building was renovated, with a one-story Sunday school wing added to the rear along the alley, also being built in the Gothic Revival style. Starting in the mid-20th Century, with changes in the surrounding neighborhood, the church became more mission-focused. As the neighborhood continued to change, the church went into decline, eventually closing its doors in 2014. Shortly thereafter, the building was sold to a local investor, whom completed major renovations to the building, which has since become occupied by Movement Church, a nondenominational church founded in 2014, meeting for several years in a local elementary school before moving into the building in 2016. Presently, the building houses many annual charity events, as well as regular worship services of the new congregation.
www.brentmcguirtphotography.com
Please look at this one on black!
Shenandoah Farm
Shenandoah Valley Virginia
Between Raphine and Fairfield Virginia on Ridge Rd.
We are currently in the process of moving into our new home in Fairfield, Va, and it has been pretty crazy for us. We purchased a foreclosed home and got a spectacular deal on it, so we are really thankful for the Lord blessing us with a renter for our old home and taking us through all the steps to get a home up here. This farm is between the house we were staying in and the new house we are moving into, between Raphine and Farfield, VA in the Shenandoah Valley. We were driving yesterday morning over to our new home and I just had to stop for a quick shot when I saw this! My favorite part was that blanket cloud on the Blue Ridge. I'm so excited for the greens to move up into the mountains over the next couple of weeks!
Last year while on a drive to Minnesota we took a brief break at Wisconsin Dells, a major tourist destination in Wisconsin. The river scenery is gorgeous. The town, not so much.
Wisconsin Dells is a city in in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. A popular Midwestern tourist destination, Wisconsin Dells is home to several water parks and tourist attractions. The city takes its name from the Dells of the Wisconsin River, a scenic, glacial-formed gorge that features sandstone formations along the banks of the Wisconsin River.
The natural formation of the Dells was named by Early French explorers as dalles, a rapids or narrows on a river in voyageur French. Wisconsin Dells is located on ancestral Ho-Chunk and Menominee land. The Ho-Chunk name for Wisconsin Dells is Nįįš hakiisųc, meaning "rocks close together".
The city of Wisconsin Dells, was founded in 1856 by the Wisconsin Hydraulic Company, a dam-building and real estate investment business. In 1859, lumbermen destroyed the Wisconsin Hydraulic Company's new because it blocked the flow of timber rafts down the river. This led the company's main creditor, Byron Kilbourn, to foreclose on its property and take ownership of most of the city's real estate. The city quickly became a popular travel destination in the Midwest due to the scenery of the Dells of the Wisconsin River and the ready railroad access. [Wikipedia]
DEAR HONORABLE PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA,
The pictured above realtor signage are engulfing my street and neighborhood.
PLEASE, Sir, place on the agenda an urgency and high priority of HOUSING ECONOMICS, so that the young and the retired senior citizen homeowners can stay in their prized possessions....their hard owned homes.
Thank you.
Below, is one the many sad scenes that I have witnessed this year. Please let me share it with you.
Thank you for your compassion, and congratulations on your election.
FORECLOSURE...FORECLOSURE....FORECLOSURE.....FORECLOSURE
by
James Hiram Malone
TODAY IS TUESDAY. Atlanta's sun beams brightly down on a displaced furniture pile on the front lawn of a family's residence. The mountainous array of items evicted from the now empty house have no privacy. A great big Atlanta blue sky is the roof over the household personal belongings.
YESTERDAY WAS MONDAY. Every piece of the now open-air furniture was neatly and functionally arranged in that now abandoned seven room house. The sleep-good full size bed, matching dresser, and the chest of drawers that passers-by gawk at, once held fort in a ten foot by twelve foot upstairs bedroom. Nearby, on the grass, an electric alarm clock, whose face reflects the sun rays is set at six am as it was on the family's night table.
TODAY, TUESDAY, the open door refrigerator is bringing slow death of the freezer foods. Water drains like life's blood from the box and vapor steams wave to the waiting sky. The popular king-pin refrigerator that once coolly cornered the nine by nine foot kitchen succumbs to the heat of the day.
The leaning-on-the-side stove fizzes an aroma of gas that escapes from a dangling unplugged coil outlet. Circling flies engage in fierce battle as they hover over food remnants on dishpan plates. A laundry basket longing for soapsuds testifies that this home dweller was taken by surprise.
A tossed-on-its-back lounger, crushed under the impact of pots, pans and table lamps, misses being in that thirteen by thirteen foot living room in front of that TV set. And this unplugged TV electronic device screen now reflects and focuses all-day news to the pedestrians gawking at the front lawn's disarray. This is the picture of the tragedy of a family that got lost in the budget crunch economy and received foreclosure notice and was evicted to the streets.
A round dining room table strained with books, jars, cleaning supplies remembers being loaded down with plates of food in that nine by nine foot dining room. And especially on holidays. Unopened gallon cans of beige interior wall paint, a hammer, nails, screwdriver will not decorate and repair the house, scatter leisurely on the lawn. An ironing board, relaxes forlornly under the heat of the sun. Various brands of alcoholic beverage bottles and glasses lay huddle together, ready for another Saturday night party.
Flung-out-of-the-closets, mother-of-the-house dresses and father-of-the house suits lay wrinkled on top of an empty bookcase. Walking, jogging and playing family shoes lay inactive in the corner of the lawn. Ripped-from-the-windows, curtains, shades, now not giving privacy to household items, resign themselves in the shrubberies.
Pages of photo album leap out family memories onto the lawn. Baby Molly's first steps and grandma's birthday. Children's dolls, trains, checkers say “Come play with me!” Banged-up card table and scattered playing cards miss Uncle Joe's laughing, “I bid six!”
Broken picture frames, flower pots, and spilled prescription medicines onto the lawn suggest the movers were not sympathetic in evicting the family.
Pedestrians and motorists later seeing the AUCTION sign, mutter, “Ain't it a shame,” knowing full well that FORECLOSURE can happen to them without a moment's notice.
jhm
jhmalone@att.net
*************************************
malone.imagekind.com/masterpieces
(click at top of page at jhmalone and
"Laughing Trees" site )
The Dixie Walesbilt Hotel, known as the Grand Hotel in later years, is one of a small number of skyscrapers built in the 1920s that still stand today and is a prime example of how optimistic people were during the Florida land boom. Built in 1926, it found financing through a stock-sale campaign in the local business community, costing $500,000 after it was completed(which equates to about $6 million today.)
The building architecture, masonry vernacular with hints of Mediterranean-Revival, is also a good example of the time is was built. It was designed by two well-known architects at the time, Fred Bishop who designed the Byrd Theatre in Virginia, and D.J. Phipps, whose designed both the Wyoming County Courthouse and Jail and the Colonial Hotel in Virginia.
The hotel was constructed using the “three-part vertical block” method, which became the dominant pattern in tall buildings during the 1920s. Three-part buildings are composed of a base, shaft and a cap, all noticeably visible.
The hotel opened as the “Walesbilt” in January 1927, shortly after the land boom had started to collapse and two years before the Great Depression began. It’s also best to note that the hotel opened around the same time the Floridan Hotel in Tampa opened, another hotel built during the Florida land boom.
In 1972, the hotel was purchased by Anderson Sun State and renamed the “Groveland Motor Inn”. The firm completely renovated the hotel and used it to host visitors to the area who were interested in Green Swamp, land sectioned off for land development. At the time there was heavy speculation in the land because of it’s close proximity to Walt Disney World and were selling for around $5,000 an acre at the time. That ended after a state cabinet designation of the swamp as an area of critical state concern, placing the land off-limits to any large land developments. The firm filed for foreclosure and the hotel was auctioned off in 1974. Despite RCI Electric purchasing the hotel, it remained empty for many years afterwards.
n 1978, the hotel was signed over to the Agape Players, a nationally known religious music and drama group, who would assume the mortgage and would pay the costs to make improvements to meet city fire and safety standards. The hotel was renamed the “Royal Walesbilt” and after extensive improvements were made, it became the headquarters for the Agape Players; using it as a teaching facility and the base from which the group launched their tours. In addition, they operated a restaurant, an ice cream parlor on the lobby floor and a “Christian hotel” on the upper floors, catering mostly to groups. The Agape Players disbanded in 1985 and put the property up for sale
Victor Khubani, a property investor from New York acquired the property and renamed the hotel “Grand”. The hotel closed briefly in December 1988, due to a variety of code violations and causing the owner to later pay $14,000 in fines. On August 31, 1990 it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, possibly for tax exemption reasons. In October 1991, The State Fire Marshall’s Office gave the owner one year to install a new sprinkler system and in May 1993, the code enforcement board gave Khubani until March to complete the work.
In March 1994, the hotel closed due to multiple code violations and was to remain closed until a new fire sprinkler system was installed. To reopen, the fire escapes and elevator, which did not function, would have to be repaired as well. In 1995, the hotel was auctioned off to a redevelopment firm, which dismantled part of the interior for reconstruction, which was never completed.
Since then, the hotel has deteriorated, becoming an eyesore to many of the residents of Lake Wales and nicknamed “The Green Monster” for the greenish color it has acquired from over the years. In 1995, it was even jokingly mentioned to become a sacrifice to “the bomb”, an economic boom that occurred in parts of Florida where movie production companies would pay cities to blow up buildings for their movies. In 2007, the city foreclosed on the structure for more than $700,000 in unpaid code fines, with hopes in finding someone to restore it.
Development firm, Dixie-Walesbilt LLC announced plans to restore the hotel, signing into an agreement with the city of Lake Wales in February 2010. By the agreement, the city would retain ownership of the building until a defined amount of work had been accomplished. The work must be completed within 16 months and the amount of money invested must succeed at least $1.5 million. The building would then be handed off the Dixie Walesbilt LLC, where they may continue with private funding or other methods to for debt funding.
Ray Brown, President of Dixie Walesbilt LLC, planned to invest $6 million into the renovation, with original plans to put retail stores on the ground floor and using the upper floors for as many as 40 condominiums.
On June 2, 2011, the city of Lake Wales agreed to deed the building off to Ray Brown in a 4-1 vote, after meeting the requirements of the redevelopment agreement. Though Brown submitted a list of costs to the city totaling $1.66 million, Mayor Mike Carter wasn’t satisfied with the results so far, pointing out that Brown failed to repair the windows and repaint the building. Previous owners had put tar on the building and then painted over it, so much of Brown’s investment went to stripping the tar off the exterior walls.
To repaint the building, Brown would also have to resurface the hotel with hydrated lime to replicate the original skin as well as the window frames would need to be constructed of Douglas fir, red cedar and gulf cypress. According to Brown, previous owners who renovated the building rarely removed the building original elements. They carpeted over intricate tile flooring, stuck tar paper above skylights and placed modern drinking fountains in front of the originals. He estimated about 98 percent of the building is still in it’s original form.
Restoration of the building’s exterior began in January 2015 and included surface repair, pressure washing, paint removal, chemical treatment, and a comprehensive resurfacing of the exterior.
While the original plans were for turning the building into condominiums, that has since changed and current plans call for operating the building as a boutique hotel. The hotel will feature geothermal cooling as opposed to traditional air conditioning, a permanent art gallery as well as theme gallery showings throughout the year, and the best WiFi/internet in the city. The project is expected to be completed in 18 to 24 months.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.cityoflakewales.com/505/Dixie-Walesbilt-Hotel
www.abandonedfl.com/dixie-walesbilt-hotel/
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
The Dixie Walesbilt Hotel, known as the Grand Hotel in later years, is one of a small number of skyscrapers built in the 1920s that still stand today and is a prime example of how optimistic people were during the Florida land boom. Built in 1926, it found financing through a stock-sale campaign in the local business community, costing $500,000 after it was completed(which equates to about $6 million today.)
The building architecture, masonry vernacular with hints of Mediterranean-Revival, is also a good example of the time is was built. It was designed by two well-known architects at the time, Fred Bishop who designed the Byrd Theatre in Virginia, and D.J. Phipps, whose designed both the Wyoming County Courthouse and Jail and the Colonial Hotel in Virginia.
The hotel was constructed using the “three-part vertical block” method, which became the dominant pattern in tall buildings during the 1920s. Three-part buildings are composed of a base, shaft and a cap, all noticeably visible.
The hotel opened as the “Walesbilt” in January 1927, shortly after the land boom had started to collapse and two years before the Great Depression began. It’s also best to note that the hotel opened around the same time the Floridan Hotel in Tampa opened, another hotel built during the Florida land boom.
In 1972, the hotel was purchased by Anderson Sun State and renamed the “Groveland Motor Inn”. The firm completely renovated the hotel and used it to host visitors to the area who were interested in Green Swamp, land sectioned off for land development. At the time there was heavy speculation in the land because of it’s close proximity to Walt Disney World and were selling for around $5,000 an acre at the time. That ended after a state cabinet designation of the swamp as an area of critical state concern, placing the land off-limits to any large land developments. The firm filed for foreclosure and the hotel was auctioned off in 1974. Despite RCI Electric purchasing the hotel, it remained empty for many years afterwards.
n 1978, the hotel was signed over to the Agape Players, a nationally known religious music and drama group, who would assume the mortgage and would pay the costs to make improvements to meet city fire and safety standards. The hotel was renamed the “Royal Walesbilt” and after extensive improvements were made, it became the headquarters for the Agape Players; using it as a teaching facility and the base from which the group launched their tours. In addition, they operated a restaurant, an ice cream parlor on the lobby floor and a “Christian hotel” on the upper floors, catering mostly to groups. The Agape Players disbanded in 1985 and put the property up for sale
Victor Khubani, a property investor from New York acquired the property and renamed the hotel “Grand”. The hotel closed briefly in December 1988, due to a variety of code violations and causing the owner to later pay $14,000 in fines. On August 31, 1990 it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, possibly for tax exemption reasons. In October 1991, The State Fire Marshall’s Office gave the owner one year to install a new sprinkler system and in May 1993, the code enforcement board gave Khubani until March to complete the work.
In March 1994, the hotel closed due to multiple code violations and was to remain closed until a new fire sprinkler system was installed. To reopen, the fire escapes and elevator, which did not function, would have to be repaired as well. In 1995, the hotel was auctioned off to a redevelopment firm, which dismantled part of the interior for reconstruction, which was never completed.
Since then, the hotel has deteriorated, becoming an eyesore to many of the residents of Lake Wales and nicknamed “The Green Monster” for the greenish color it has acquired from over the years. In 1995, it was even jokingly mentioned to become a sacrifice to “the bomb”, an economic boom that occurred in parts of Florida where movie production companies would pay cities to blow up buildings for their movies. In 2007, the city foreclosed on the structure for more than $700,000 in unpaid code fines, with hopes in finding someone to restore it.
Development firm, Dixie-Walesbilt LLC announced plans to restore the hotel, signing into an agreement with the city of Lake Wales in February 2010. By the agreement, the city would retain ownership of the building until a defined amount of work had been accomplished. The work must be completed within 16 months and the amount of money invested must succeed at least $1.5 million. The building would then be handed off the Dixie Walesbilt LLC, where they may continue with private funding or other methods to for debt funding.
Ray Brown, President of Dixie Walesbilt LLC, planned to invest $6 million into the renovation, with original plans to put retail stores on the ground floor and using the upper floors for as many as 40 condominiums.
On June 2, 2011, the city of Lake Wales agreed to deed the building off to Ray Brown in a 4-1 vote, after meeting the requirements of the redevelopment agreement. Though Brown submitted a list of costs to the city totaling $1.66 million, Mayor Mike Carter wasn’t satisfied with the results so far, pointing out that Brown failed to repair the windows and repaint the building. Previous owners had put tar on the building and then painted over it, so much of Brown’s investment went to stripping the tar off the exterior walls.
To repaint the building, Brown would also have to resurface the hotel with hydrated lime to replicate the original skin as well as the window frames would need to be constructed of Douglas fir, red cedar and gulf cypress. According to Brown, previous owners who renovated the building rarely removed the building original elements. They carpeted over intricate tile flooring, stuck tar paper above skylights and placed modern drinking fountains in front of the originals. He estimated about 98 percent of the building is still in it’s original form.
Restoration of the building’s exterior began in January 2015 and included surface repair, pressure washing, paint removal, chemical treatment, and a comprehensive resurfacing of the exterior.
While the original plans were for turning the building into condominiums, that has since changed and current plans call for operating the building as a boutique hotel. The hotel will feature geothermal cooling as opposed to traditional air conditioning, a permanent art gallery as well as theme gallery showings throughout the year, and the best WiFi/internet in the city. The project is expected to be completed in 18 to 24 months.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.cityoflakewales.com/505/Dixie-Walesbilt-Hotel
www.abandonedfl.com/dixie-walesbilt-hotel/
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
The Dixie Walesbilt Hotel, known as the Grand Hotel in later years, is one of a small number of skyscrapers built in the 1920s that still stand today and is a prime example of how optimistic people were during the Florida land boom. Built in 1926, it found financing through a stock-sale campaign in the local business community, costing $500,000 after it was completed(which equates to about $6 million today.)
The building architecture, masonry vernacular with hints of Mediterranean-Revival, is also a good example of the time is was built. It was designed by two well-known architects at the time, Fred Bishop who designed the Byrd Theatre in Virginia, and D.J. Phipps, whose designed both the Wyoming County Courthouse and Jail and the Colonial Hotel in Virginia.
The hotel was constructed using the “three-part vertical block” method, which became the dominant pattern in tall buildings during the 1920s. Three-part buildings are composed of a base, shaft and a cap, all noticeably visible.
The hotel opened as the “Walesbilt” in January 1927, shortly after the land boom had started to collapse and two years before the Great Depression began. It’s also best to note that the hotel opened around the same time the Floridan Hotel in Tampa opened, another hotel built during the Florida land boom.
In 1972, the hotel was purchased by Anderson Sun State and renamed the “Groveland Motor Inn”. The firm completely renovated the hotel and used it to host visitors to the area who were interested in Green Swamp, land sectioned off for land development. At the time there was heavy speculation in the land because of it’s close proximity to Walt Disney World and were selling for around $5,000 an acre at the time. That ended after a state cabinet designation of the swamp as an area of critical state concern, placing the land off-limits to any large land developments. The firm filed for foreclosure and the hotel was auctioned off in 1974. Despite RCI Electric purchasing the hotel, it remained empty for many years afterwards.
n 1978, the hotel was signed over to the Agape Players, a nationally known religious music and drama group, who would assume the mortgage and would pay the costs to make improvements to meet city fire and safety standards. The hotel was renamed the “Royal Walesbilt” and after extensive improvements were made, it became the headquarters for the Agape Players; using it as a teaching facility and the base from which the group launched their tours. In addition, they operated a restaurant, an ice cream parlor on the lobby floor and a “Christian hotel” on the upper floors, catering mostly to groups. The Agape Players disbanded in 1985 and put the property up for sale
Victor Khubani, a property investor from New York acquired the property and renamed the hotel “Grand”. The hotel closed briefly in December 1988, due to a variety of code violations and causing the owner to later pay $14,000 in fines. On August 31, 1990 it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, possibly for tax exemption reasons. In October 1991, The State Fire Marshall’s Office gave the owner one year to install a new sprinkler system and in May 1993, the code enforcement board gave Khubani until March to complete the work.
In March 1994, the hotel closed due to multiple code violations and was to remain closed until a new fire sprinkler system was installed. To reopen, the fire escapes and elevator, which did not function, would have to be repaired as well. In 1995, the hotel was auctioned off to a redevelopment firm, which dismantled part of the interior for reconstruction, which was never completed.
Since then, the hotel has deteriorated, becoming an eyesore to many of the residents of Lake Wales and nicknamed “The Green Monster” for the greenish color it has acquired from over the years. In 1995, it was even jokingly mentioned to become a sacrifice to “the bomb”, an economic boom that occurred in parts of Florida where movie production companies would pay cities to blow up buildings for their movies. In 2007, the city foreclosed on the structure for more than $700,000 in unpaid code fines, with hopes in finding someone to restore it.
Development firm, Dixie-Walesbilt LLC announced plans to restore the hotel, signing into an agreement with the city of Lake Wales in February 2010. By the agreement, the city would retain ownership of the building until a defined amount of work had been accomplished. The work must be completed within 16 months and the amount of money invested must succeed at least $1.5 million. The building would then be handed off the Dixie Walesbilt LLC, where they may continue with private funding or other methods to for debt funding.
Ray Brown, President of Dixie Walesbilt LLC, planned to invest $6 million into the renovation, with original plans to put retail stores on the ground floor and using the upper floors for as many as 40 condominiums.
On June 2, 2011, the city of Lake Wales agreed to deed the building off to Ray Brown in a 4-1 vote, after meeting the requirements of the redevelopment agreement. Though Brown submitted a list of costs to the city totaling $1.66 million, Mayor Mike Carter wasn’t satisfied with the results so far, pointing out that Brown failed to repair the windows and repaint the building. Previous owners had put tar on the building and then painted over it, so much of Brown’s investment went to stripping the tar off the exterior walls.
To repaint the building, Brown would also have to resurface the hotel with hydrated lime to replicate the original skin as well as the window frames would need to be constructed of Douglas fir, red cedar and gulf cypress. According to Brown, previous owners who renovated the building rarely removed the building original elements. They carpeted over intricate tile flooring, stuck tar paper above skylights and placed modern drinking fountains in front of the originals. He estimated about 98 percent of the building is still in it’s original form.
Restoration of the building’s exterior began in January 2015 and included surface repair, pressure washing, paint removal, chemical treatment, and a comprehensive resurfacing of the exterior.
While the original plans were for turning the building into condominiums, that has since changed and current plans call for operating the building as a boutique hotel. The hotel will feature geothermal cooling as opposed to traditional air conditioning, a permanent art gallery as well as theme gallery showings throughout the year, and the best WiFi/internet in the city. The project is expected to be completed in 18 to 24 months.
Credit for the data above is given to the following websites:
www.cityoflakewales.com/505/Dixie-Walesbilt-Hotel
www.abandonedfl.com/dixie-walesbilt-hotel/
© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.
The housing crisis has changed our world. We may not sense it completely yet, but it has changed the fundamental idea of home ownership in the United States. For generations the idea of owning a home served as both a passport to the middle class dream and an outward sign that you have made it. Your house certified you as a respectable member of society and a fine citizen.
This insatiable drive for respectability led to the ever upward spiral in home prices. This incredible bull market attracted all sorts of promoters and schemers, seeking to skim off their share from the money machine. Buying a house was a classic “no- brainer”. Nothing down, sign here, don’t worry about the risk just flip the property if you can’t make the payment. It all survived on the “greater fool” theory. Then one day the fools smartened up. Now we are left with this incredible inventory of foreclosed and vacant real estate and a culture that no longer values owning a home in the same way. For older cities like Detroit, this situation will delay revitalization for a generation. The task is to find new uses for the land. This is the new creative challenge.
The housing crisis has changed our world. We may not sense it completely yet, but it has changed the fundamental idea of home ownership in the United States. For generations the idea of owning a home served as both a passport to the middle class dream and an outward sign that you have made it. Your house certified you as a respectable member of society and a fine citizen.
This insatiable drive for respectability led to the ever upward spiral in home prices. This incredible bull market attracted all sorts of promoters and schemers, seeking to skim off their share from the money machine. Buying a house was a classic “no- brainer”. Nothing down, sign here, don’t worry about the risk just flip the property if you can’t make the payment. It all survived on the “greater fool” theory. Then one day the fools smartened up. Now we are left with this incredible inventory of foreclosed and vacant real estate and a culture that no longer values owning a home in the same way. For older cities like Detroit, this situation will delay revitalization for a generation. The task is to find new uses for the land. This is the new creative challenge.