As the Point Breeze neighborhood went through a prolonged downturn, countless handsome buildings fell into disrepair. While many were eventually demolished, others survived but became disfigured over time thanks to suboptimal repair and renovation jobs. But times have changed and the last few years have meant a huge development surge in the neighborhood. For the most part, this has meant a wave of new construction, but many properties have been rehabbed too. This brings us to 1701 S. 19th St., an example of a building that we'd guess was once an architectural gem.
We can't find any historical images of this property but we'd guess that the first floor was once a small store of some kind, the cornice wasn't always covered in vinyl, and the turret at the corner once had windows. An added bonus, at some point the corner turret and bay window were covered in an unfortunate material that evokes a wool couch from the 1970s. According to some old listings, the building is a legal triplex, and contained a studio, a 1-bedroom, and a 2-bedroom unit. But new owners came on the scene a little over a year ago and have totally renovated the property.
The renovation of the building definitely improved the layout, as there's now a 1-bedroom, a 2-bedroom, and a 3-bedroom unit inside. And we're pretty sure that the building looks better than it did before, though we find ourselves wishing for less stucco and a restored cornice. It's the turret though, that gave us pause when we passed by the other day. There's something about the blank, windowless space that just seems off. But we get it, adding curved windows here would have been really expensive and probably well outside of the budget for the folks that did the renovation.
On the plus side, those colors make it look like it was a project from our parent company, OCF Realty.
Disclosure: It wasn't.