Blight

Wrecking homes standard practice

Failure to pay mortgage put houses on demolition list

The population of Detroit plummeted at a catastrophic rate in the ’70s, and abandonment visited the city as a whole, including this vacant lot located at 1951 Elmhurst.

By Cameron McWhirter / The Detroit News

    DETROIT — County land records document how the wrecking crews came to house after house and building after building on Elmhurst in the 1970s and 1980s.

    The pattern was more or less the same: An owner would default; the property would fall into the hands of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development; HUD would give it to the state, which would then give it to the city; and the city would demolish what by then had become a dangerous vacant building.

The Detroit News The houses between Helen McMurry’s (foreground) and her sister Wanda Cowans’ have been demolished. So have the apartments that once stood on the corner.

    For example, the two-family house at 1959 Elmhurst was seized in 1972 for default on an $11,657.58 mortgage. The mortgage holder handed the property over to HUD.

    HUD sold the parcel on a $500 land contract to a Pollie Pinkins. But Pinkins got caught up in a messy divorce and defaulted. In 1981, the land was seized by the state for back taxes. In 1983, the state deeded the land to the city, which tore down the by-then vandalized and unsafe building.

    Pinkins also owned the two-family house at 1951 Elmhurst, according to county land records. In 1980, the building was assessed at $12,347. In 1981, the city sued Pinkins for unpaid taxes. In 1983, the state seized the land, and the following year, deeded it to the city.

    The city demolished the building, plowing the bricks and debris into what had been the basement before filling it in with dirt. Such demolition was standard practice at the time. It was cheaper than hauling the debris away. But in the long run, it made the land prohibitively expensive to develop, because all the debris would have to be dug up and removed.

    Today the land at 1951 Elmhurst is idle. The city assesses the property at $900, and it periodically mows the weeds and removes illegally dumped garbage. The city has not collected any taxes there since President Reagan’s first term.

    The house at 1938 Elmhurst was seized for mortgage default in 1972. Six months later the mortgage holder, an insurance company, deeded the land to HUD for a tax write off. The house sat empty and eventually was demolished. In 1978, HUD transferred the lot to the city for $46. The lot has sat idle ever since.

    Other properties came down, too, including 11827 Rosa Parks, the building that had once housed Nino’s Pizzeria, Skid’s Bar and Gussy’s Candy Store. Sometime in the 1970s, the building had become vacant. It was demolished; the property owners walked away; and the land was seized in 1977 for back taxes. In the early 1950s, the property had been assessed at about $10,000, meaning its market value was at least double that. In 1979, the state sold the parcel to the city for $1.

    The old Elmfour apartments, a 34-unit building, had been about two-thirds full in 1970, but by 1972, the city had ordered it torn down as unsafe.

    It wasn’t until 1977, however, that the city issued a vacating notice to the mortgage holders, Chicago Mortgage. The building was demolished at some point in the late 1970s. In 1979, the land was sold by the state to the city for $1. The city was able to find a buyer in 1980: New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church across the street bought it for a parking lot.