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Tuesday, August 16, 2016
While we don’t normally cover residential demolition projects in this space, the one on deck this week actually slipped through our initial filter, so we decided to give it a closer look.
Wake County
1213 South Person Street
As it turns out, the duplex at 1213 South Person Street was first built all the way back in 1930. Such a long life deserves at least a brief eulogy, no? And what better place to memorialize a home originally owned by Oscar Jones, who purchased the land in 1911, than with a brief write-up in an online column?
The 1,232 square foot house has one and-a-half bathrooms was, as we mentioned, first built in 1930. According to County records, it was most recently remodeled 23 years ago in 1993. While the demolition permits describe it as a duplex…I don’t know. Maybe. You saw the picture, right?
The land upon which it now stands, although not for much longer, was acquired by Oscar Jones from Sally Busbee on April 10, 1911. It was one of many lots laid out by the 1885 map of South Park, a long-standing Southeast Raleigh community.
The home is located on the east side of Person Street between Branch and Bragg.
1213 is lot 18
No site plans have been filed to indicate what might be coming next for the site, nor does it appear that the property has come up at any recent Council or Commission meetings in Raleigh.
However, the land was purchased by a private individual for an undisclosed amount back in May of this year, so we imagine he’s got plans for a new single-family home. Not surprisingly, the land was a bit more valuable than the actual house: $37,500 vs. $30,872.
Over the years, this conventional style wood home has gone through a number of owners since Oscar Jones decided to sell it to Walter & Lelia Harris in 1946. The Harris family owned the house all the way into the new millennium, until the heirs decided to sell it to Walter & Melinda Cole in 2004.
Although the property is zoned to allow relatively high residential density, the small acreage of the lot — .17 — doesn’t leave a whole lot of options for 1213’s newest owner. We probably won’t notice when permits are issued for whatever’s coming to this site, but if you really want to know, just write in and complain.
It’s likely there’s going to be a lot of projects like this over the next few years: rundown homes built nearly 100 years ago with no real renovations to speak of since the 90s getting torn down to make way for something better. Hopefully whatever that “better” is isn’t so good that it drives up the surrounding property values to the point where long-standing residents are forced out, but at this point, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise.
Wake County
1213 in 1996
