Prospect Avenue From Linwood Boulevard to E 34th Street
My blocks on Prospect Avenue extended from Linwood Boulevard to East 34th Street. In the present, there are many defining features that describe my blocks. There are heavy-duty metal gates that fence in large areas around apartment buildings and businesses. These buildings are concentrated on the East and West sides of Prospect Avenue from Linwood Boulevard to East 33rd Street as well as the East side of Prospect Avenue from East 33rd Street to East 34th Street. The West side of Prospect Avenue from East East 33rd Street to East 34th Street is all single family residential houses. Many of these homes are relatively close tother compared to others on the block. A couple houses were vacant, with one of the vacant buildings being labeled as a “dangerous building” A large portion of the single family homes were similar in style to a shirtwaist house.
Gates Around Apartment Complex
Shirtwaist Houses
Before 1895, my blocks were outside of city limits at the edge of development. By 1909, the area was filling up, primarily with residential development with the exception of two greenhouses. The residences were primarily single family dwellings and were not nearly as dense as they are today. More buildings had been built by 1925. More residences had been built as well as a few businesses. By 1951, a few more residences had been built, but this also marks the appearance of smaller secondary structures behind some of the residences. This time period is the first evidence in my blocks where structures were demolished and replaced with drastically different buildings. Namely, the two greenhouses and a few other buildings on that block were torn down and replaced. Now, in 2016, the landscape has been radically changed. The northern and eastern sections of my blocks many buildings were torn down and replaced with businesses, apartment buildings, and the non-profit Palestine Senior Activity Center. For example, most of the residences in the western portion of the block from Linwood Boulevard to East 33rd Street were torn down and replaced with a Walgreens and an Auto Zone. There are still single family dwelling on the western portion of Prospect Avenue from East 33rd Street to East 34th Street, but few of these appear to have been demolished based on comparing the figure grounds for this time period to that of previous time periods.
2016
One of the main changes over time that I noticed in my blocks was the change from being primarily residential to being primarily business oriented. Almost all of the buildings were residential, either apartment complexes or single family dwellings when development was first noted in 1909. Now, however, the areas once dominated by residences are now replaced with business buildings. For example, the Walgreens mentioned above is in the previous location of a large apartment complex that lasted until sometime between 1951 and 2016. Thus, there have been many changes in zoning in my blocks over time.
