One of Plainfield's 'painted ladies' is suddenly baring all.
You may never have noticed the mansion at 525 West 7th Street, across from the United Synagogue and the Boys & Girls Club. Ever since I've lived in Plainfield it has been hidden behind a screen of dense ivy and saplings gone wild.
525 West 7th Street. Tree at left edge of image has been removed.
When its most recent owner, John Krause, passed away many wondered what the fate of the desirable 310-foot wide double lot might be, and whether the house would survive or be razed to give way to townhomes.
Suddenly, in the last week or two, there is a great buzz of activity.
A tree company has removed almost all of the trees to the left of the house, and over the holiday weekend seems to have attacked the vacant lot to the right of the house.
Dumpsters have come and gone and come again in the driveway, filling up with material from inside the three-story mansard-roofed structure.
At the rear of the property is one of Plainfield's most spectacular and spectacularly neglected carriage houses. One wonders if it is beyond reclamation.
The carriage house is spectacularly neglected.
Will the property once again serve as a grand single-family residence as it did in the early part of the 20th century, when the owner-occupant was one Cornelius Tyler?
On Monday, the official Martin Luther King holiday, I noticed that two of the first floor windows had been removed and covered with plywood. Good sign or bad sign?
A 1934 view of the house, once the Tyler Mansion.
-- Dan Damon
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3 comments:
Dan, I've always wondered about that house, it is beautiful. I never realized that C. Tyler was the original occupant, but I have always known about and admired the azaleas on 8th St., as they are called the Tyler azaleas. The ones I'm speaking of are by the townhouses on 8th St. I can't picture in my mind if they back on the 7th St. property, it was most likely sub-divided. I can only hope that someone is restoring the home.
Jo-Ann
Dan, Its a shame that such a grand home has been reduced to an ugly stucco tear down from what it once was. Historic preservation at its worst. And whats with the clearance sale collection of fencing? Are they planning on new homes in each of the fenced areas? Gracious gardens perhaps?
This is a blatant case of architectural vandalism. This charming residence and property survived, mostly intact, since the 1870's. It was a refreshing look back at Plainfield's genteel past amid the more tawdry sights of West Seventh Street.
The owner would have done better to tear it down completely, rather than leave a bitter monument to his own tasteless brand of vulgarity.
What purpose has been served through debasing the property in this manner? It certainly cannot be economic.
This is of distressing portent to the fate of historic preservation in Plainfield.
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