Finding Leah - January 6th, 2006

Yesterday I spent a good deal of time wasting on the net. 217 Stanford Dr. is in a small neighboorhood called University Heights which borders the Silver Hill Neighboorhood West and Nob Hill neighboorhood to the East. I don't know if the Silver Hill Neighboorhood Assoc. covers the territory or not. University Heights Neighboorhood doesn't appear to have an association of its own. I must write the SHNA to find out. IF SHNA doesn't include the U. Heights neighboorhood (though I believe it does) I might just have to create a new neighboorhood assoc.
The Silver Hill neighboorhood is registered with the National Historic Registry, and so, some revamping of properties covered in it's territory may be tax deductible.
I discovered a tiny bit about 217's witchiest neighboor--the doubly barbwired fenced in, run down, caving in and overgrown none-the-less enticingly beautiful HAUNTED HOUSE on Cornell Dr. that backs to the same alley as 217. Namely, it's name; The Werner-Gilchrist House. It too is registered on NHR, but the only info I found besides its name and address was its registry number which I don't know how to use to find more info.
UNM must have more info in its inaccessible to outsiders library-maybe too the ABQ Museum of History does..
The Werner-Gilchrist house has an awesome greenhouse- where the witch made her concoctions no doubt. I WANT TO KNOW MORE!! AND I want the blessed favormaking Blogs to use their digital on some fab Werner-Gilchrist photos before the place is torn down. (Please?!)
I also learned that NM annually holds nominations for electing the 11 most at risk preservation properties in the state. Unfortunately October was the deadline for nominating the 2006 loser-winners, so I'll have to wait until next Oct. to nominate Werner-Gilchrist--by then, hopefully I'll have been able to research more on the Adams like family that inhabited it once upon a time and their historically significant insignificance...
www.alleygardens.com is sort of fun in the meanwhile. Their alley is easy walking distance from my witchy alley, for sure I'll be an abq alleycat...

  

The 97-year-old Werner-Gilchrist house, subject of a demolition request, might instead earn a longer life as a designated city landmark. At the very least, a landmark designation buys the property a little more time, said Mayor Martin Chavez, whose office made the application.

Developers interested in buying the property at Cornell and Silver SE made an offer contingent on the owners tearing down the house. The city decided against issuing a demolition permit and Chavez applied to designate the house a landmark, "the best way to ensure (that it) will remain standing long enough to be rehabilitated and reoccupied," according to a city news release.

The house was built in 1908 at what was then the city's eastern border, a trail ride up from Downtown and fields away from the University of New Mexico, at the time little more than one building.

It was built with adobe bearing walls, typical of the pre-railroad era, and with a post-railroad era lumberframed hipped roof and milled lumber doors, windows and trim.

Inside, a 12-foot-wide Territorialstyle entry hall runs the length of the house. The entire second floor is one room, with dormers on each side.

Now the house appears every moment of its age, lost in a tangle of trees and vines, but its "condition is better than might be expected," according to the city.

The house is on state and national registers of cultural properties and historic places, but that doesn't protect a property from demolition.

Chavez said he remembers the "haunted" looking house from his college days.

"I wanted to buy some time, to assess whether it's truly a landmark or historic," he said.

Owners Dan Kelley and Reeves McGuire bought it as an investment but discovered the high costs of restoring a home built on a stacked stone foundation and in need of major repairs.

McGuire said this week that he doesn't know whether or not the landmark designation would devalue the property. The only offer the partners have had was for the property without the house.

"It can come down to a whole philosophical issue about how a community feels about infill projects and growth and going forward, as opposed to saving something that some may feel has historical value or significance," McGuire said. "Frankly, I can see both sides of that issue."

The designation process includes an economic impact study and a public hearing scheduled for Jan. 11, he said, so it's not a certainty.

Developer Juno Raby has said it would cost about $500,000 to restore the house. He wouldn't say what was planned for the property.

Neighbors Divided On Historic Home's Future ; Permit to Demolish 1908 House, One of First in University Heights, Could Be Issued This Week

Source: Albuquerque Journal
Publication date: 2005-11-08

By ISABEL SANCHEZ Journal Staff Writer

Somewhere behind the tangle of weed trees and ropey vines, behind the decaying porch shrouded in forlorn sheets of plastic, survives the house that had been a city pioneer.

An application for a permit to demolish it is likely to be granted this week -- and while some neighbors look forward to new housing there, others hope for a reprieve, another chance.

At the time the house was built in 1908, the site at Cornell and Silver was Albuquerque's version of prairie -- grassland and scrub, with a sandy road to Downtown.

"It was one of the first, if not the first, in the University Heights addition," said Tom Drake, spokesman for the state Historic Preservation Division.

The house was built by Laura Werner and her son-in-law Ralph Gilchrist, a family "in the vanguard of the thousands of people" who would settle on Albuquerque's constantly eastwardmoving border. It is listed on state and national registers of historic places.

For the University Heights Neighborhood Association, the Werner- Gilchrist house represents a chance to preserve a piece of history and retain a little open space on the four-lot property.

"We would like for there to be a good outcome," said David Miertschin, association president. "A good outcome would be for the house to be renovated and stay."

For developer Juno Raby, the property could become home to a "catalytic" project, such as the $380,000 townhouses he and partner Rick Goldman are building in nearby Nob Hill. By catalytic, he said, he means coming "into a neighborhood that needs redevelopment, we get them going, kicked off."

For Dan Kelley and Reeves McGuire, who bought the house about three years ago, it had investment potential -- until they realized the costs.

The 16-inch adobe walls were true to their times. So was the stacked stone foundation, which could now never pass a building inspection, and which McGuire said would cost more to replace than the property is worth. The house also needs a new roof, wiring and plumbing.

Raby estimated it would take about $500,000 to restore the house and said any sale would be contingent on its being demolished. He said he has "no idea" yet of how the property might be developed.

Miertschin said that maybe a nonprofit foundation would be interested in the property but that he isn't overly optimistic.

"Somebody's going to have to step up and say, 'I want that and I'm willing to pay whatever it takes.' I don't know anyone in that position," he said.

Ed Boles, the city's historic preservation planner, said a property could be saved if the mayor or his representative, or the owner, applied to have it designated as a landmark.

There's no real consensus in the neighborhood about what should happen, Miertschin said -- some are sad about the house's condition, some are upset that it might be destroyed, most just want to see an improvement.

"They want the corner to be nice again," he said.