Empty Lot of the Week-- November 17th

Ruin of the Great Locust Lot

217-221 South 9th Street

Craptonius, this is.

                        Yes, I know.. this empty lot is tiny and goes mostly unnoticed compared to some of the huge empty lots nearby... but it really fucking irks me that this pile of dirt has managed to stay vacant for so long. Its only 3 rowhomes wide, but seems like a hole the size of Godzilla's asshole. It has existed for over 30 years but has been covered by a picket fence for at least the last 10. Recently. the fence was removed and this piece of assbang had now been exposed.
                          The lot consists of three separate properties, two owned by the same group since 1994, and one that just changed hands on April 29th. I suspect this is why the fence had been removed. This little shitbag piece of dirt,weeds, and bum-debri was once filled with large, once-stately rowhomes.

The lot in 1958.

                During the mid-70's urban revitalization plan known as Knock Everything the Fuck Down, these rowhomes were destroyed along with most of the rest of the block bounded by 9th, 8th, Locust, and Walnut.

This is like the 500th time I've posted this picture on this blog. This was the original version of this Empty Lot, the Great Locust Lot of 1977.

                            Over the decades, the massivesupermega lot got itself all filled in, except for this little 3-property wide sliver that is more or less untouched from how the rest of the lot looked in the photo above. The old rowhouses on either side of this dirtpile still stand... it makes one wonder what the fuck happened that made the houses that were standing here be removed. What a shame.

The lot when it had that rickety-ass wooden fence in front of it.