| Lampru: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow |
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| Wednesday, 18 April 2007 | |
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Another historically significant Jacksonville building has been deemed unsafe by the City of Jacksonville's Property Safety Department and is being torn down. City engineers deemed the property, located at 8th and Boulevard in Springfield, a hazard to public safety because of the years of neglect that it has suffered as a result of its owners. The Lampru Apartments were designed by Henrietta Dozier, Jacksonville's first and foremost woman architect. Some of the more noted buildings designed by Henrietta C. Dozier in Jacksonville include the Old Federal Reserve Bank Building (1923 - 1924 in association with Atlanta architect, A. Ten Eyck Brown), Lampru Court Apartments (1924), and residences at 1819 Goodwin Street, 2215 River Boulevard and 1814 Powell Place. Henrietta C. Dozier was a devout member of the Church of the Good Shepherd. http://jaxhistory.com/Dozier.html Now you see it. Now you don't. The city's lack of code enforcement has enabled many owners of historic properties to ignore these structures and let them fall into the ground without penalty. Is this how you preserve an historic district?
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April 18, 2007, 1:10 pm
This makes me sick to even look at. Is any structure ever really totally protected?
April 18, 2007, 8:54 pm
Not mad, I want to cry
This makes me so sad. I'm such a sap.
April 19, 2007, 9:29 pm
Lampru - Loss to the ages.
I owned this building. It was badly fire damged and water damaged when I got control from the previous owners who had seriously neglected the property. We tried desperately to come up with a viable plan to save the structure.I do believe we could have saved the fascade but the rest was unsound. We finally decided the economics were not going to work.
April 21, 2007, 3:21 pm
Could have been saved
The fact is the building could have been saved by renovating it incrementally. I would have first gotten the left front 2 apartments up and running, then the right 4 and lastly the portion in the rear would have been rebuilt. It could have been done, assuming the City would have allowed it to be permitted in this way. IMO the previous owners lacked foresight and imagination and should have never bought the place if they couldnt take on a project of its size. Now, thanks to them and others, it belongs only to memory.
April 21, 2007, 3:22 pm
Best Use
BTW, the best use for this property was rental residential. Condos here would not have worked at this time at least.
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