Walk down the alleys of older sections of town. You'll see structures that, I'll bet, would never get past the building/zoning cops. They certainly date from earlier days, when people were happy just to have a barn or a shed to protect ... whatever. As a result, they've no doubt been grandfathered and can stand as long as they can stand. Unless you try to improve them.
That's usually a mistake. Change catches the eye of zoning watchdogs and a big hurrah is the likely result. So the old barns and garages and sheds remain, often unpainted, for me to photograph. Makes me happy.
Then there's this beauty left over from the past. On Lincoln, near Whipple. Painted proudly so that a passer by can't miss it. As for me, I wonder what is stored behind all those doors. I have oodles of Stuff that need a home, I do. Maybe we could reach an arrangement....
Walk down the alleys of older sections of town. You'll see structures that, I'll bet, would never get past the building/zoning cops. They certainly date from earlier days, when people were happy just to have a barn or a shed to protect ... whatever. As a result, they've no doubt been grandfathered and can stand as long as they can stand. Unless you try to improve them.
That's usually a mistake. Change catches the eye of zoning watchdogs and a big hurrah is the likely result. So the old barns and garages and sheds remain, often unpainted, for me to photograph. Makes me happy.
Then there's this beauty left over from the past. On Lincoln, near Whipple. Painted proudly so that a passer by can't miss it. As for me, I wonder what is stored behind all those doors. I have oodles of Stuff that need a home, I do. Maybe we could reach an arrangement....
Thanks for the pix. I love old wood buildings and barns.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I love walking down the alleys and seeing what kind of stuff people have in the back, where they don't think anybody is looking.
ReplyDeleteThanks GJ, for this glimpse of Prescott past that endures today!
ReplyDeleteqd -- me too; always surprised to see them in the city, however.
ReplyDeletetombo -- once you've seen all the tidy and fresh paint, that's it for the street view. Give me the alleys almost any time.
brain -- we're lucky that these little bits of not so imposing structures are left...
From covering the P&Z meetings in your town, I can tell you that usually it's the neighbors who alert the gov't types to changes in those old buildings. And it's amazing the hoops the owners have to jump through to improve their property.
ReplyDeleteCat-A -- I believe every word you said! After all, I lived in Chicago all those years. It seemed to us that P&Z was the prime means used to control/keep the populace in line (and paying up, of course.)
ReplyDeleteGreat captures of buildings, which will eventually just drop and fade away.
ReplyDeleteOwners can't dooooooo anything to them, hu? Without paying for building permits and etc., etc., I suppose.
Good for your photography. Sad for the buildings. :-)
Mari-Nanci
Chicago was my first dip into the pool of real estate brokerage - actually, my only really active experience.
ReplyDeleteAnd I still insist that the primary function of both P&Z, and Building Inspection in that city, was for FG&C: Fraud, Graft, and Corruption.
argh!
The neighbors calling in? They didn't get any of the dirty money. NO, they just got their jollies out of telling others how to live...
argh again!
I always KNOW I can come here in perfect communion with a fellow Old Building Lover.
This new stuff? Ain't got no soul.
SnS -- the amusing part is that for such a long time, Prescott was Very Western in its out look before the Nicelys showed up & we actually got a building code. So you can find all sorts of wonderful non-conformances on a walk through very hoity-toity neighborhoods.
ReplyDeletek -- some day I'll pull myself together to tell about the time the city task force that swooped down on our little cottages. Fortunately, we did have a small bit of Clout.