Wanna Be My Neighbor?
Two houses south of the 1894 Cross House is house built circa-1910, and at 510 Union.
I suspect it was designed by architect Charles Squires, who also designed my house.
510 is now listed for sale! Originally, it was a one-family home but was long ago converted into three units: one in the basement, one on the first-floor, and one on the second-floor.
My dream?
That somebody buys the home and converts it back into a single family!!!!!!!! Once the Cross House exterior, and the carriage house exterior, are restored, it would be incredible if other houses on the block were also restored! In time, the 500 block of Union could be the most fabulous block in the city!
Come! Join in the adventure!
The asking price is $79,900. The exterior looks largely original, and could be transformed by a period-correct color scheme. And black sashes! The listing has the build date as 1920 but a 1911 Sanborn map shows the house. The listing images do not show a staircase and I assumed it had been torn out during the apartment conversion. Today however…
…one of the tenants graciously let their nosy neighbor inside! And there was a fully intact and very beautiful staircase! The wall kissing it was build to enclose the original entry so it could be used as a laundry room! This would be easy to undo. How glorious to fully reveal the stair!
The original front parlor.
This is, I think, the original dining room.
This was originally the main bedroom on the second floor. Almost all the woodwork in the house has never been painted. Nice. The exposed wood floors are gorgeous.
More beautiful original details. The listing has many more images.
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I feel like you are quoting Mr. Rogers, who came to TV too late for those of us of a certain age to do anything, but mock. I would rather be your far neighbor, but much closer than I am now, in the McInteer Villa in Atchison. Then I could take the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe and play Judy Garland records and videos all of the time, alas, it is not in the cards at this time. Am I succeeding in establishing that I am crazier than you are?
I wish! On the positive side, I would return it to a single family home, use the “Ross standards” of renovation, and definitely have black sashes! On the negative side, I would constantly be bugging you with questions. Maybe you could talk young Brian into buying the house or somehow trick Bo into moving to Emporia. If all else fails, I definitely think the city should give you veto rights on who can buy the house!
Young Brian has considered it heavily, logic and financial responsibility be damned.
Remember that Kansas has grants. Those who decide to grant money might see a restoration of 510 as a step toward, to quote Ross, “the 500 block of Union could be the most fabulous block in the city!” It may therefore be more financially responsible than you think. 510 would not need nearly the amount of work as the Cross House due to its smaller size, and you already know you would like your neighbor.
That would be so great and a relief to all of us, especially Ross, to see someone like you buy the house. Keeping my fingers crossed!
This is a continuation of my reply to young Brian.
First, I meant to say “more logical and financially responsible than you think” in the post above.
-The biggest advantage for you, young Brian, would be to have Ross’s experienced advice and enthusiasm. You have already developed a friendship that many would envy. You would feed each other’s positive energy highs and be supportive of each other’s creative process. Ross strikes me as the type to make you feel great about your choices even when they aren’t what he would choose. The exception would be if you even consider vinyl windows, granite countertops, and the whole H@#$%^&TV, big box store horror show, which serves the companies that sponsor them through there ads. I expect that Ross will delight in your individual take on everything you would do with 510, as well as really being able to understand the reasons for your choices. Do you know how hard it is to find a friend who actually understands you?
-You would be making a valuable contribution to the town of Emporia and may end up being the catalyst for making Emporia a center for the restoration of historic properties, thus confounding Ross’s early prediction that there is no way that he could get his money out of the Cross House in the end. Your life is a journey, if you don’t follow the really good paths, having more money won’t make up for it. You have an automatic audience for your own blog from those of us who are already Ross’s disciples. i believe that all of us have feelings of friendship for you already and will be cheering you on. You have already seen how we weigh in on Ross’s dilemmas, I have seen very little, if any, mean spirited comments about what he does, (politics aside).
-Maybe one day you both could start a fund to buy up properties like the neighborhood car wash and move the business to another location, leaving the land as a green space. You could even move an endangered house to the lot and sell it to another like minded person. I bet that there are even endangered Squire houses that could be moved there. You could keep the moved car wash, suitably placed outside of any historic neighborhoods, as an income producing business, I understand that they are quite profitable. Maybe Emporia could become the location for a foundation for the study and promotion of accurate restoration of historic houses. Your purchase of 510 might be the catalyst for great things. I tend to like to fantasize about such things.
-Step one is —–BUY 510 !!!!! —– I doubt that any fears you may have will come true and, if they do, they will be outweighed by the joys that 510 will bring you. The fact that Ross calls you “young Brian” means that you will have the time to follow the historic restoration path in a way that I, who came to it late, envy.
-You might have to start calling Ross, Sensei. You may become the heir to his legacy of positive energy and enthusiasm.
As you can tell, I am very shy of expressing what I really think.
—
-On the other hand, I have made it sound so good, maybe I should drop everything that I am doing, and rush to buy 510 myself, although I don’t think my wife would let me.
Great ideas all of you!!! I vote Brian should be encouraged to buy 510 Union!! I hope & pray if that is not feasible then the other person would restore to 510 single family glory & be Ross’ new best friend or at least let Ross mentor with expertise!
$79,900. That house in Toronto would be about 1.2 million dollars. Maybe more.
I have really thought about it unfortunately I cannot take my 10 year old daughter away from her dad or we would be packing up the house its time for a change from Jokeahoma!!
The listing for 510 seems to have been pulled, was it taken off the market? I did check out the house for sale at 824 Union Street. The description makes me wince: “If your (sic) looking to buy a home for your son or daughter to live in while going to college this is the home. Needs some TLC but can have it all fixed up and ready before school starts.”
Ugh.
510 sold already!