2552 St. Philip to Get an Inn with Neighbors

November 4, 2014 by admin

2552stPhilip-300x240Nearly everyone who spoke before the City Planning Commission this week about the proposal to convert the century-old New Orleans Police station at 2552 St. Philip Street into a bed-and-breakfast was in favor of it — including the neighbors, the commissioners and even the city staffers who said it was impossible.

Only the language of the city’s land use bureaucracy stood in the way, an obstacle that proved insurmountable Oct. 28. After the City Planning Commission voted to postpone a decision on the project, District D City Councilman Jared Brossett said he is preparing to amend city law to make it possible.

Please click here for the rest of the Mid-City Messenger’s story.

2552 St. Philip auction

A “Police Jail and Patrol Station” built in the turn of the 20th century in the Esplanade Ridge neighborhood was auctioned off for $175,000 Friday(December 13, 2013), according to city officials.

The 6,291-square foot Queen Anne and French Renaissance Revival-style building, located at 2552 St. Philip Street, was given a market value of $175,000 in September 2012. It is “in very poor condition,” with “substantial flooding and roof damage,” according to an appraisal done by Stegall, Benson and Associates, LLC for the city of New Orleans.

According to Tyler Gamble, the city’s press secretary, Liz and Raul Canache purchased the property.

December 16, 2013
http://midcitymessenger.com/2013/12/16/st-philip-street-police-station-from-1902-auctioned-for-175000/

*************************************************************************************************

by Charlie London
Property Disposition 12/12: Consideration of the sale of 2552 Saint Philip Street, Lots 99 and 100, Square 322, in the Second Municipal District, bounded by Saint Philip, Dumaine, North Rocheblave and North Dorgenois Streets. (ZBM C-13, PD-4)

jailpatrolstation

You may remember that I have been passionate about the restoration of 2552 St. Philip for many years now. I happened upon the property while surveying the area after moving to Faubourg St. John after my previous house was destroyed by the Federal Flood. I literally gasped when I first saw the property. It is a stunning architectural gem of serious historical significance.

I am happy to announce today that dream of getting the property restored may indeed become a reality… with your help. You see, the city wants to auction 2552 St. Philip off to the highest bidder. I hear you saying, “so what, I can’t afford that!” Maybe not, but you may know someone who can. Let’s work together to find someone who will provide the care and restoration this property so desperately needs.

There are many people who helped bring this city property up for auction. Michelle Kimball of the Preservation Resource Center has been a stalwart fan of 2552 St. Philip and deserves much of the credit for keeping the pressure on the city to do something with it. The Louisiana Landmarks Society was also instrumental in bringing attention to 2552 St. Philip when it listed it as one of its “New Orleans 9 Most Endangered Properties”.

Former Councilperson Shelley Midura and present Councilperson Susan Guidry both of New Orleans Council District A and their staffs were also extremely helpful.

2552 St Philip Street was included in a presentation given to the Council Housing and Human Services Committee yesterday. It is among the City’s first list of surplus properties to be auctioned.

2552 St. Philip is just one of the historic city-owned properties being demolished by neglect…

Restoring City-owned historic properties would create anchors of positive development throughout New Orleans and give a big boost to our restoration efforts. My previous blog posts about 2552 St. Philip are in the links below:

PHOTO and DESCRIPTION of 2552 St. Philip
http://katrinafilm.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/2552-st-philip-street/

DONATION OF CITY PROPERTY
http://katrinafilm.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/donation-of-city-property/

CITY DEMOLISHES PROPERTY BY NEGLECT
http://katrinafilm.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/581/

PHOTO and DESCRIPTION of 2552 St. Philip
http://katrinafilm.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/2552-st-philip-street/

Filed Under: HISTORY Tagged With: 2552, 2552 St. Philip, charlie, endangered, historic, historic building, inn, Jail and Police Station, landmarks, london, louisiana, most, New Orleans, North Dorgenois, philip, preservation, renovation, resource, restoration, salmen, society, st.

Lyndon Saia Saves Neighborhood Treasure

April 6, 2014 by admin

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/8810399-171/lyndon-saia-painstakingly-restores-old

1300Moss1-2014mar25

By Mimi Read | Special to The Advocate

As personality types go, the well-heeled bon vivant and the pious preservationist would seem to have little overlap. The guy intent on living with a state-of-the-art surround sound system and an outdoor spa big enough to hold 20 friends is generally not the same sort of person who purchases a dilapidated historic house as fragile as a Ming vase.

But Lyndon Saia is the exception to that rule. He is both of those people. For the past 4½ years, he has funneled profligate sums of money and almost all of his time and attention into the painstaking restoration of one of New Orleans’ neglected treasures: the Old Spanish Custom House at 1300 Moss St., thought by architectural historians to be the oldest surviving residence in the city.

Situated on a half-acre parcel at a hairpin bend of Bayou St. John, the atmospheric West Indies-style plantation house began its life circa 1784 as two rooms downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs, with airy front and back galleries supported by colonnades.

These days, Saia, who at 52 is retired and single with grown children, arrives at the house at 7 a.m. every day to consult with craftspeople and subcontractors, and he stays until they quit work in the late afternoon. For years now, he has wrangled with the folks at the Historic District Landmarks Commission, seeking permission to make small and large alterations to the exterior and grounds.

Working closely with architect David Waggonner, who has restored some of New Orleans’ pre-eminent historic buildings, he spent a year just getting permits.

“This is my project, what I get up for in the mornings,” said Saia, a scion of the local family who founded and later sold Saia Motor Freight Line, now headquartered in Georgia. “It’s the faucet I can’t turn off.”

1300Moss3-2014mar25The property is still a construction site, fragrant with sawdust and littered with piles of bricks, but he hopes to move in this summer. “My friends just laugh at me because every year I say, ‘Oh, I’ll be in next year,’ ” he said.

The Moss Street property is Saia’s first historic house. When he bought it in 2009, he just wanted to keep it from falling down and to make it comfortable. The first objective turned out to be a complex structural puzzle where nothing was as it initially appeared. Termites, rot, water and time had done their worst.

photo courtesy Lyndon Saia
photo courtesy Lyndon Saia
“None of it was easy, and it was all suicidal,” said John Voss, a master craftsman who lives in a trailer in the middle of a north shore cornfield but has made a career of rebuilding the city’s historic houses. “The whole back of the house was rotten. When we took it off, we had to build supports to hold up the roof from the inside so the house didn’t collapse.”

Saia has restored the house’s exterior carefully, expensively and correctly, Waggonner said. All the plaster was removed from fortress-like walls. Studs from a 1927 addition that had crumbled to dust were replaced with treated lumber. Walls were overlaid with a rubber vapor barrier before being replastered. Original cypress exterior doors half the thickness of the ones used today were babied back to life.

“We took a staircase off the façade that probably wasn’t original,” Waggonner said. “The volumes and the openings that were there from earlier times are evident again. The circulations are generally improved.”

Waggonner also applauds Saia for letting him design a new $25,000 fence based on the original fence, which had twisted and was falling down. “It’s what meets the sidewalk, what you’ll see on the street, and it will be a huge benefit to the area,” the architect said.

On the other hand, Saia’s manner of enhancing the house’s comfort level has sometimes made onlookers wonder why he wanted this fragile antique of a house in the first place. He has added everything from a steam shower and wine cellar to geothermal air-conditioning and a security system with 17 cameras. There will be a pond, the 20-person spa, an elaborate Sonos sound system, computers, outdoor lighting and electronic gates — all of it operable from an iPhone. In a house with 16- to 22-inch-thick masonry walls, such high-tech undertakings have proved to be convoluted, if not maddening.

“I call it ‘Star Wars,’ ” said Voss. Or as the writer Stewart Brand said about another important and even earlier house in his book “How Buildings Learn”: “Try putting modern plumbing and heating into a stone Chatsworth — it’s like performing lung surgery on a tetchy giant.”

Saia has has added a barbecue station with marine resin cabinetry and a Versailles-sized fountain that doubles as a spa in the backyard between the house and its two outbuildings. Within viewing distance of bathers will be a 50-inch TV inset into some shutters. None of this is visible from the street, and it all can be removed and hauled away if the house becomes a museum someday, as Saia pointed out to the Landmarks Commission.

pool1300moss2A neighbor once groused about the fountain addition, arguing that people didn’t have spas on their little indigo farms in the 1780s. Saia’s reply: “Well, they did have fountains, and if they could have had spas back then, I’m sure they would have.”

Nevertheless, the arduous restoration process has taught him things.

“I had patience,” Saia said, perching on the rim of the empty limestone fountain recently as men dug trenches in the yard for a Shell refinery’s worth of pipes that will feed the spa. “But I’ve got even more now. Before, if I wanted it a certain way, I expected to get it that way. Now I listen to people, get their ideas. I take into consideration what’s proper for the house, architecturally and aesthetically.”

This psychic evolution was not planned. At the time he bought the house, Saia was living in a Houma subdivision and considering moving to New Orleans. If he did move, he figured, he’d live in the West End boathouse he already owned and had renovated post-Katrina — a low-maintenance bachelor paradise with a titanic TV and a kitchen island surrounded by barstool-height director’s chairs.

1300_Moss_rainbow1But in February 2009, he walked into the Neal Auction Co.’s sale of the Bayou St. John house, held onsite. It felt like a lawn party, with tables of champagne flutes and desserts set up on the ground-floor gallery. At the time, the house was an enticingly romantic wreck, with sagging walls, tumbledown outbuildings and a musty, frozen-in-time charisma that was vividly sensual. Plants that had escaped the garden beds wandered the property.

“I found it to be in a state of charming disarray,” said Ann Masson, the local architectural historian and author who researched the house’s history for Neal. “It had a sense of being remote in time. It didn’t seem like people had just moved out of it. I could catch a glimpse of what it would have felt like to live there in that early time period — how it would have been, walking on that porch over the bayou at night.”

Scores of people turned up to bid. The house’s dappled patina made it irresistible to members of New Orleans’ ever-growing cult of scenic decay. But Saia wasn’t one of them.

“The first time I saw the house was the day of the auction,” he said. “I walked through and thought, ‘This is nice; I can see living here.’ But I wasn’t sure I was going to bid. I really hadn’t planned on bidding.”

Still, something must have worked on him — the graceful façade with its low-key nobility, the broad galleries cooled by steady breezes rippling off the bayou, the friendly neighborhood where everyone seems to have a dog.

“My mother grew up nearby; my grandmother used to live on Bienville Street. I would cut her grass,” Saia said. Bidding spiraled up, and he ended up paying $1,045,000 for the property. “When the gavel went down, I almost fainted,” he said.

At one point, he sold his Ferrari, pouring the proceeds into the ever-hungry house. At times the whole enterprise seemed like a dreadful mistake. “Be glad you didn’t get it,” he said to someone he outbid that day. Fortunately, his buyer’s remorse didn’t last long or cut deep.

“In the end, I think it will be worth it,” Saia said. “I’m very close to my family and friends, and I want to share it with them. I can’t wait to live here. I think it’ll be an amazing place to own and have parties and dinners.”

He’s also come to see the house as his life’s work and a gift to the city.

“Hopefully, my name goes in the history books for saving this house,” he said. “The good part is that it stayed a residence and stayed with a local person. It wasn’t sold to a movie star or somebody that turned it into a restaurant or a hotel to profit off it. My intentions are to live here until I die.”
1300Moss2-2014mar25

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/news/8810399-171/lyndon-saia-painstakingly-restores-old


photos below courtesy Lyndon Saia

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: 1300 moss, bayou st john, faubourg st john, lyndon saia, New Orleans, preservation, restoration

PAGODA

October 28, 2013 by admin

PAGODA1
article by Robert Thompson | iPhone photos by Charlie London

Two of our neighbors, Dan E. and Shawna S. have undertaken a small but superior cafe within walking distance of our neighborhood.

pagoda-cafe1

Pagoda Cafe, at the corner of North Dorgenois and Bayou Road, has preserved and revitalized an old neighborhood curiosity – the Chinese Laundry and created a space for sandwiches and salads with some local specialties. These talented two have combined forces to revitalize the little shopping district with their venture, and should bring responsible business practices and healthy food to the area.

One of the awesome offerings is Terranova’s sausage served in a puff pastry. It is worth the trip from anywhere.

It’s a win every time a local business offers alternatives to corporate chains, and I think this is another neighborhood shop that offers us one more option of staying local.

PAGODA2

Receipts at Pagoda are printed from an iPad used to enter your order.
Receipts at Pagoda are printed from an iPad used to enter your order.

FROM EATER NOLA: Seventh Ward: Pagoda Café | 1443 N. Dorgenois | Ian McNulty reports that Tulane architecture professor Dan Etheridge and business partner Shana Sassoon “are developing the space as a counter service breakfast and lunch joint with an espresso bar. All seating will be outside on new covered decks extending from the historic building” that’s only 300 square feet and has a pretty rad pagoda roof.

http://www.pagodacafe.net/

Pagoda Café

Coffee – Breakfast – Lunch
Made with love in the 7th Ward
Takeout and Outdoor Seating
What We Serve


Visit Us

Hours: Tuesday – Saturday. 7am – 4pm

1430 N Dorgenois St
New Orleans, LA 70119
(Bayou Road and Kerlerec St)
View Map


Contact Us

504-644-4178
[email protected]

IAN McNULTY WROTE ABOUT PAGODA in his October 30, 2013 article…

As the restaurant boom has rolled on, buildings of all description have been converted into new eateries and the dining concepts have grown ever more particular and specific. But even after all we’ve seen lately, two very new, casual additions have managed to turn heads right out of the gate.

One is Pagoda Café (1403 N. Dorgenois St., 504-644-4178; pagodacafe.net), which opened last week in a tiny building along Bayou Road that does indeed look like a pagoda. It was originally built in the 1930s as part of a string of Chinese laundries, though it had sat empty for years as a neglected, idiosyncratic outpost in the Seventh Ward before Tulane University architecture professor Dan Etheridge and business partner Shana Sassoon redeveloped it. They serve a short menu of breakfast tacos, salads and grilled sandwiches (one with Serrano ham, manchego and arugula pesto on Bellegarde Bakery ciabatta hit the spot), and the café doubles as an espresso bar…

http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/features/7411358-171/ian-mcnulty-multiplying-eateries-keep

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: bayou road, breakfast, cafe, great food, New Orleans, pagoda, preservation, quality, restoration

Party for the Bridges

September 16, 2012 by admin

by Mary-jo Webster

REBRIDGE Fall Gala
December 1, 2012

What: The important fundraiser of the year for the REBRIDGE effort.
A lavish and exciting evening along the banks of Bayou St. John!

When: Saturday, December 1, 2012

Where: 1001 Moss Street in beautiful Faubourg St. John in New Orleans

Who: This year’s gala will be at the extraordinary home of Eric Hess and Judge Frank Thaxton III, ret.

Ti Martin is again graciously donating food for the event, so whether it is Commander’s Palace or the wonderful new SoBou, the food will be divine!

More details will be coming soon, but please hold the date and plan to attend the Second Annual REBRIDGE Gala on December 1st!

***

Dear neighbors and Re-Bridge enthusiasts,

What follows is a long-overdue update about our efforts to rehabilitate the Dumaine Street and Magnolia bridges. Although I have not sent out an email recently, much work has been going on, and our progress is on track!

As a preface, I want to emphasize my great appreciation for the amazing support that has been offered and maintained, and without which this project would have died a long time ago:

~ The core group of Re-Bridge worker-bees that stays the course and gets it all done!

~ The Regional Planning Commission, who welcomed our initial proposals, contributed money and expertise, and continues to guide the project through a seemingly bewildering landscape!

~ Councilmember Susan Guidry, who has supported this project from the very beginning and continues to facilitate necessary conversations and collaborations!

~ The Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association, who encouraged the project to launch, provided initial seed money, and has been there to help, support, contribute, attend, participate, and advocate in whatever manner is needed!

Magnolia Bridge

Feasibility Study (completed) $10,000 Funded by the Regional Planning Commission (RPC)

Completed by Volkert, Inc in 2011. This study informed the application for Federal Transportation Enhancement Funds (TE), and in November, 2011 $844,400 was awarded for this project.

Environmental & Historical Analyses (current phase) $67,000 Funded by RPC, to which Re-Bridge has contributed $13,400 in matching funds.

Completed by Volkert and forwarded to State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) for review in July. SHPO considers the impact of proposed work from an historic and archeological perspective and their review and approval is required prior to being able to spend any federal money on a project. A response from SHPO is expected soon, after which all documents will be forwarded to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for approval.

Engineering Design and Permitting (next phase) estimated at $200,000. TE funds cannot be used for this phase.

We have asked the City of New Orleans to provide funding for this phase, and we are awaiting final confirmation that money from an upcoming bond sale will be earmarked as such.

Construction (final phase) estimated at $888,750. The $844K in TE funds will be applied to this phase, leaving a match requirement estimated at $44,450.

The match dollars can be provided from any source: Re-Bridge, the City, or grant funding (as yet unidentified).

Dumaine Street Bridge

Re-Bridge contributed an engineering inspection (thanks to Jim Danner!) in 2011, which concluded that no structural damage exists.

The Department of Public Works inspects every bridge in the City every two years, and they have agreed to use the upcoming inspection of Dumaine to generate a scope of work and budget for beautification.

With a reliable estimate of cost, and once we understand what portions of the scope require professional v. volunteer services, Re-Bridge will pursue a Cooperative Endeavor Agreement (CEA) with the City of New Orleans. This CEA will allow Re-Bridge funding to fulfill a City-approved scope of work for cosmetic repairs and beautification.

Re-Bridge needs and welcomes community support! If you have some time, resources, money, or talent that you would like to contribute to the cause, please email me directly.

Many thanks to all of you,
Mary-jo Webster, Re-Bridge Chair
[email protected]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: bayou, bayou st john, bridge, faubourg, faubourg st john, neighborhood, New Orleans, rebridge, restoration

Crawfish Prove Popular

March 31, 2012 by admin


Rebecca Rapp (in the photo above) did the graphics for the 2012 “Boilin’ for the Bridges” event.

Today’s “Boilin’ for the Bridges” was a huge success! Hundreds of neighbors and friends turned out to support the ReBridge fundraiser.

photos by Charlie London

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: bayou, bayou st john, bridges, crawfish, faubourg, faubourg st john, fsjna, maurepas, mud bugs, New Orleans, orleans, rebridge, restoration

2552 St. Philip Gets New Life

February 28, 2012 by admin

UPDATE December 6, 2014

You can see the WWL’s story in the video below. WWL TV should have the story up on their LINKS ON 4 page soon.

UPDATE: A “Police Jail and Patrol Station” built in the turn of the 20th century in the Esplanade Ridge neighborhood was auctioned off for $175,000 Friday, according to city officials.

The 6,291-square foot Queen Anne and French Renaissance Revival-style building, located at 2552 St. Philip Street, was given a market value of $175,000 in September 2012.  It is “in very poor condition,” with “substantial flooding and roof damage,” according to an appraisal done by Stegall, Benson and Associates, LLC for the city of New Orleans.

According to Tyler Gamble, the city’s press secretary, Liz and Raul Canache purchased the property.

December 16, 2013
http://midcitymessenger.com/2013/12/16/st-philip-street-police-station-from-1902-auctioned-for-175000/

 

by Charlie London | February 28, 2012
Property Disposition 12/12: Consideration of the sale of 2552 Saint Philip Street, Lots 99 and 100, Square 322, in the Second Municipal District, bounded by Saint Philip, Dumaine, North Rocheblave and North Dorgenois Streets. (ZBM C-13, PD-4)


You may remember that I have been passionate about the restoration of 2552 St. Philip for many years now. I happened upon the property while surveying the area after moving to Faubourg St. John after my previous house was destroyed by the Federal Flood. I literally gasped when I first saw the property. It is a stunning architectural gem of serious historical significance.
I am happy to announce today that dream of getting the property restored may indeed become a reality… with your help. You see, the city wants to auction 2552 St. Philip off to the highest bidder. I hear you saying, “so what, I can’t afford that!” Maybe not, but you may know someone who can. Let’s work together to find someone who will provide the care and restoration this property so desperately needs.

There are many people who helped bring this city property up for auction. Michelle Kimball of the Preservation Resource Center has been a stalwart fan of 2552 St. Philip and deserves much of the credit for keeping the pressure on the city to do something with it. The Louisiana Landmarks Society was also instrumental in bringing attention to 2552 St. Philip when it listed it as one of its “New Orleans 9 Most Endangered Properties”.

Former Councilperson Shelley Midura and present Councilperson Susan Guidry both of New Orleans Council District A and their staffs were also extremely helpful.

2552 St Philip Street was included in a presentation given to the Council Housing and Human Services Committee yesterday. It is among the City’s first list of surplus properties to be auctioned.

2552 St. Philip is just one of the historic city-owned properties being demolished by neglect…

Restoring City-owned historic properties would create anchors of positive development throughout New Orleans and give a big boost to our restoration efforts. My previous blog posts about 2552 St. Philip are in the links below:

PHOTO and DESCRIPTION of 2552 St. Philip
http://katrinafilm.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/2552-st-philip-street/

DONATION OF CITY PROPERTY
http://katrinafilm.wordpress.com/2009/05/29/donation-of-city-property/

CITY DEMOLISHES PROPERTY BY NEGLECT
http://katrinafilm.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/581/

PHOTO and DESCRIPTION of 2552 St. Philip
http://katrinafilm.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/2552-st-philip-street/

CITY PLANNING COMMISSION PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE

TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2012

PUBLIC HEARING: 1:30 PM CITY COUNCIL CHAMBER (CITY HALL -1E07)

THE CITY PLANNING COMMISSION IN ACCORDANCE WITH PROVISIONS OF THE REVISED STATUTES OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA AND THE CITY CHARTER REGARDING PROPERTY DISPOSITIONS, WILL HOLD A PUBLIC HEARING ON TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2012 FOLLOWING THE ZONING PUBLIC HEARING, IN THE CITY COUNCIL CHAMBER (CITY HALL 1E07), ON THE FOLLOWING PROPOSED PROPERTY DISPOSITIONS.

Article below sent in by Robert Thompson | click on the article below for a larger view
1984dec28-stphilip2552

Filed Under: HISTORY, Zoning Issues Tagged With: 2552, 2552 St. Philip, charlie, endangered, historic, historic building, landmarks, london, louisiana, most, New Orleans, philip, preservation, resource, restoration, salmen, society, st.

REBRIDGE Fundraiser

November 1, 2011 by admin

JOIN THE FUN AGAIN IN 2012!
CLICK HERE TO PARTY ON!

photos and video by Charlie London

CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO THE LEFT TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS FROM THE 1st ANNUAL REBRIDGE FUNDRAISER

The Creole String Beans put on quite a show for the 1st annual REBRIDGE Fundraiser held November 18, 2011. Click on the arrow above to see them in action.

Gala guests gathered to support the rehabilitation of two historic bridges while enjoying delicious cuisine from Commander’s Palace and dancing to the throw-down tunes of the Creole String Beans. Bubbles flowed — champagne and ice-cold beer — and wine.

For more information call Re-Bridge’s chair, Rachel Dangermond, 504.309.2116 within normal business hours.

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: bayou, bayou st john, bridge, faubourg st john, New Orleans, pedestrian, rebridge, restoration, save the bridges

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