Demolished House on Maplewood Avenue

Does anyone know why the house on Maplewood Avenue was demolished?

Which house?

Saw it when I drove by today.  

I do not recall what style of house was on that property, but I am guessing a non-descript 1920-1940s house.  Someone chose to tear it down, and will probably rebuild with a McMansion.

.

Before

Ah, that house did stand out - it didn't quite fit in with the rest of the block.

the house was probably built in the 70's so not historic...similar to another house down Maplewood Ave.  An old man lived in that house...any idea what happened to him.

Looked up house on realtor.com. There is a picture and states that it sold on June 27th this year for $520,000. I was in that house a few years ago when it was for sale another time. It was a bi-level which is not popular in our town but at that time it was in beautiful condition. It was built in 1972.

For some reason, I always thought that place was cut up into apartments or rooms.  I don't know how I came to that conclusion, but it seems to have originated from the same place my childhood theory that all teachers went back to a secret door in a cave at night came from.  An unquestioned fact.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what gets built there.

nan said:

For some reason, I always thought that place was cut up into apartments or rooms.  I don't know how I came to that conclusion, but it seems to have originated from the same place my childhood theory that all teachers went back to a secret door in a cave at night came from.  An unquestioned fact.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what gets built there.

My sister once saw Mr. Fenstermacher at the supermarket buying food and it freaked her out that he was shopping just like "normal people" do.    

That makes me sad.

I wonder if it's a developer flipping the property?

It was an unattractive house.  The owner sold it. A developer bought it and will likely build a lovely house more in keeping with the neighborhood.  What's the big whoop[?

snowmom said:

It was an unattractive house.  The owner sold it. A developer bought it and will likely build a lovely house more in keeping with the neighborhood.  What's the big whoop[?

I would hardly call people discussing goings on in their neighborhood as a 'big whoop'...

Isn't MOL supposed to be a community conversation anyway?

eh, methinks not so much when it's someone's residence--let's not all start judging the past present or future house? Might be a human involved---maybe knock on the door and ask.

Scully said:

snowmom said:

It was an unattractive house.  The owner sold it. A developer bought it and will likely build a lovely house more in keeping with the neighborhood.  What's the big whoop[?

I would hardly call people discussing going on in their neighborhood as a 'big whoop'...

Isn't MOL supposed to be a community conversation anyway?

??? There is no door.

Starsong said:

eh, methinks not so much when it's someone's residence--let's not all start judging the past present or future house? Might be a human involved---maybe knock on the door and ask.

I looked everywhere  ---but there ain't no door to knock on.

In 100 years, the classic 1970s house will probably be highly prized, all the more so because so many of them have been torn down.

Klinker said:

In 100 years, the classic 1970s house will probably be highly prized, all the more so because so many of them have been torn down.

Considering 1970's construction, most of them will have fallen down.

No big whoop. It's just very unusual for a home to be completely torn down in Maplewood/South Orange. 

snowmom said:

It was an unattractive house.  The owner sold it. A developer bought it and will likely build a lovely house more in keeping with the neighborhood.  What's the big whoop[?

Klinker said:

Before

Thanks.  I drove by the other day and was trying to picture what was there before.

I was always under the impression that tear downs were not allowed in M/SO.  I've witnessed towns being destroyed by McMansions, re: character etc.  I realize this is rare but I was curious about how this was allowed...? Certainly one house doesn't make a trend.  The house was out of sync with the street but I'd hate to see a rush on tear downs...

It's unusual for the economics to make sense for a tear down in Maplewood. The lots are small and the price points are not high like a Millburn or Summit, etc. 

irishclan said:

I was always under the impression that tear downs were not allowed in M/SO.  I've witnessed towns being destroyed by McMansions, re: character etc.  I realize this is rare but I was curious about how this was allowed...? Certainly one house doesn't make a trend.  The house was out of sync with the street but I'd hate to see a rush on tear downs...

Yes, the price point was what surprised me.  Didn't it sell for 540k?  Just for the lot, essentially.

irishclan said:

I was always under the impression that tear downs were not allowed in M/SO.  I've witnessed towns being destroyed by McMansions, re: character etc.  I realize this is rare but I was curious about how this was allowed...? Certainly one house doesn't make a trend.  The house was out of sync with the street but I'd hate to see a rush on tear downs...

Not only are they allowed, all you have to do is file for a demolition permit and pay your fee. The build permit costs more and there are additional hoops to jump through. There are very few protected properties in our two towns.

Maplewood zoning rules re house size vs lot size are pretty strict, so I don't think you will see an outsize "McMansion". It isn't that teardowns are not allowed, but they just aren't usually economically justified.  So far the (relatively few) teardowns/new builds I've seen in town have been in keeping with the housing styles and sizes in the community.  Honestly, having the newest and largest home on a block (especially if excess money poured into the build) is not really that wise from an investment point of view as it likely will not appreciate as rapidly as its neighbor homes.

In the few years I've been here I've seen a few teardown/rebuilds in my area (I'm in South Orange, but all of 500 feet from a Maplewood border so these houses are in both towns in the area) and the houses torn down are never the old/beautiful houses and usually what gets built there is a slightly more presentable version of the modern house that got torn down. So it doesn't end up being a big deal. There are some much more ugly properties around that are approaching Bayonne-boxes that would probably be replaced with something better if they go.

Maplewood Ave has some beautiful homes with large lots selling over a million. Hopefully, this rebuild will be in keeping with those.

FilmCarp said:

Yes, the price point was what surprised me.  Didn't it sell for 540k?  Just for the lot, essentially.

The lot is huge.

Klinker said:

FilmCarp said:

Yes, the price point was what surprised me.  Didn't it sell for 540k?  Just for the lot, essentially.

The lot is huge.

I'm not surprised that a large lot on Maplewood Avenue would fetch that kind of money.