The outer wall of a Shaw row house collapsed Monday night, and with it a 107-year-old home that community leaders say was abandoned by its current owner — the D.C. government — is now gone.
The incident left neighbors wondering what other buildings under the District’s purview might be on the verge of buckling.
“It’s infuriating to see this kind of demolition by neglect,” said Cary Silverman, president of the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association. “It gets you mad when it comes by a private owner. When it’s a District government-owned vacant property, it really gets your blood pressure through the roof.”
D.C. owns at least 290 properties citywide that are currently defined as “vacant,” of which 194 are under the purview of Housing and Community Development or the D.C. Housing Authority, according to the Office of Property Management.
The long-vacant home at 460 Ridge St. NW, built in 1900, was acquired by the District in 2004. It was to be transferred to a nonprofit for renovation under the Home Again initiative, a program designed to reduce blight in struggling communities like Shaw, Ivy City and Anacostia. But the deal fell apart, and the house was boarded up.
At about 11 p.m. Monday, the outer wall of the property crumbled to the ground. Engineers with the Department of Housing and Community Development say a garage that once stood next door had been removed long ago, eliminating critical support for the surrounding structures.
The wall’s collapse, “along with existing damage to [the house], rendered the building unsafe,” Najuma Thorpe, agency spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. The home was razed within 24 hours.
The property had suffered previous fire damage when it served as a crack house, neighbors say, but Thorpe said it was “being maintained regularly and had no prior indication of external wall damage.”
“Anytime you leave a historic house to just sit there eventually, it’s going to fall down,” said Si Kailian, a five-year Mount Vernon Square resident.
Thorpe said DHCD plans a “more in-depth review of building conditions” in the future. All property in the agency’s inventory “is on a regular maintenance schedule,” she added.
