Share your City's "Mansion" District

McBane · #1 Posted **Aug 14, 2014, 1:35 PM**

Every city has one. That one leafy prestigious suburban-esque neighborhood brimming with extravagant mansions (mostly in single/detached form) often tucked in a far off corner, away from the bustle of downtown.

NYC has several of them, including Todt Hill in Staten Island, Forest Hills in Queens, Mill Basin in Brookyln, and Riverdale in the Bronx.

Philadelphia has Chestnut Hill and W. Mount Airy.

New Orleans has their famous Garden District.

Sorry I have no pictures of my own to post, but if you have a few, please post with a brief (1-3 sentence) intro.

PLEASE, no more than five pics and neighborhoods must be within city limits.

mhays · #2 Posted **Aug 14, 2014, 3:14 PM**

Seattle has Queen Anne Hill, Capitol Hill, and pretty much every hilside overlooking Puget Sound or Lake Washington, such as Laurelhurst, Madrona, and Seward Park.

jd3189 · #3 Posted **Aug 14, 2014, 8:03 PM**

Coconut Grove and the Venetian Islands for Miami.

McBane · #4 Posted **Aug 14, 2014, 8:44 PM**

Thanks for sharing, but is anyone able to post pics?

10023 · #5 Posted **Aug 14, 2014, 9:01 PM**

I think most of London qualifies... at least for having lots of huge single family homes on leafy streets, if not all detached. But single-family detached, connected rowhouses and multi-family buildings are all intermingled throughout the city.

Some examples...

Kensington & Chelsea has a lot of single family houses, occasionally detached, but not consistently so. This is the Boltons... technically not detached as each building generally consists of two houses side by side, but close enough:
https://goo.gl/maps/XdhR4

West Hampstead... quite a few detached houses: https://goo.gl/maps/ccHjr

Highgate... pretty suburban: https://goo.gl/maps/jZy6H

Going west, here's Chiswick: https://goo.gl/maps/d266Z

And south of the river, Richmond: https://goo.gl/maps/gqtxi

Wimbledon is pretty suburban: https://goo.gl/maps/LQfVk

And Barnes: https://goo.gl/maps/Ky6ls

I could go on and on but won't. Maybe I'll post some pics tomorrow, but Streetview is just as good.

Nineties Flava · #6 Posted **Aug 14, 2014, 9:28 PM**

Oakland has a number of them, the ones I like the most though are Trestle Glen, Crocker Highlands and Upper Rockridge.

Trestle Glen:

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8086...ZLEObURfag!2e0

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8095...oQidlB-Pfw!2e0

Crocker Highlands:

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8123...1amTklWByQ!2e0

Upper Rockridge:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Up...d4858ffb4cc6e6

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.8457...ftNx5tpmuw!2e0

KevinFromTexas · #7 Posted **Aug 14, 2014, 10:00 PM**

In Austin there are some nice large houses in the Clarksville, Old Enfield and Deep Eddy neighborhoods, but the true mansions can be found in Tarrytown, Rollingwood and especially in West Lake Hills. The last two are actually inner suburbs in West Austin. It's possible to find 13,000 square foot houses there priced at $10 million or more. Most of those are either along the Colorado River along the section that becomes Lake Austin or the ones sitting on the hilltops.

Looking over the foundation of what will be someone's new mansion.

hudkina · #8 Posted **Aug 14, 2014, 10:37 PM**

Detroit has several distinct mansions districts.

Detroit's original mansion district was the Grand Circus Park area toward the north end of the CBD. That area developed primarily in the mid to late 1800's, but unfortunately nothing of the era remains. In the early 1900's, most of the old mansions were torn down to build skyscrapers.

Detroit's second mansion district was called Brush Park which was mostly built in the late Victorian era. The area started losing its prestige by the early 1900's, with many of the mansions being chopped up into multiple units. In the 50's a huge chunk of the neighborhood was torn down to build a massive housing project, and within the next few decades much of the historic mansions became abandoned. Beginning in the 90's, but especially into the early 2000's, the few remaining mansions were restored (again often into apartments/condos) and many others were stabilized for future renovation.

Here are some picks of Brush Park:

Midtown, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr

Midtown, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr
(The apartment rows are a new addition from the mid 2000's)

Midtown, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr
The northern end of Brush Park was developed more in the early 20th century and remained a bit more stable than the older late 19th century blocks toward the south.

Brush Park is basically the lower east "6th" of the larger Midtown neighborhood. The neighborhoods that comprised what is now called Midtown were relatively wealthy compared to the areas that developed closer to the river. While the neighborhood as a whole has become much more urban, you'll find plenty of examples of Detroit's turn-of-the-century wealth in what is now Midtown.

Here are a few examples of the mansions within the Midtown neighborhood outside of Brush Park:

Midtown, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr

Midtown, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr

By the early 1900's, Detroit's wealthy elite began moving further away from the core. Two distinct mansions districts popped up during this era. The Boston-Edison/Arden Park area to the north and the Indian Village/Joseph Berry area to the east. Most of the housing in these neighborhoods was built roughly between 1900 and 1920, though you'll find a few earlier and later examples in either area. The Indian Village area is still a relatively wealthy area, while the Boston-Edison area has lost much of its prestige and is now more economically middle-class.

Here are some examples from Indian Village:

Indian Village, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr

Indian Village, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr

During the rapid expansion of the city in the 1920's, three new distinct mansion districts popped up. The Palmer Woods/University district at the northern edge of the city, The Grandmont/Rosedale district in the vast Northwest side of the city, and the Grosse Pointe area on the East Side of the city. The Grosse Pointes were never annexed by the city and all developed as individual cities, with most of the largest mansions closer to the massive Lake St. Clair.

Here are some picks of Palmer Woods and Detroit Golf Club on the north end of the city:

Palmer Woods, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr

Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr

Detroit Golf Club, Detroit, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr

There are plenty of mansion districts in the suburbs. The city of Bloomfield Hills doesn't really have compact "urban" mansions, but the small city developed as a sort of summer estate home for Detroit's wealthy elite. The island of Grosse Ile south of the city is also known for it's pre-war mansion estates along the Detroit River. The city of Birmingham just south of Bloomfield Hills was originally a typical suburban node, but in recent decades the city has become a de facto "urban/suburban" mansion district, with many of the early, more modest homes being torn down and replaced with small lot/large footprint mansions. A similar pattern is occuring in the tiny nodes of Plymouth and Northville to the west of the city. To the south of Birmingham is the Royal Oak area. Downtown Royal Oak is mostly young college-grads and hipsters, but just to the east of Downtown Royal Oak the city of Huntington Woods has somewhat of a mansion district and just to the south of Downtown Royal Oak the city of Pleasant Ridge has another decent mansion district.

Here are few shots of Pleasant Ridge:

Pleasant Ridge, Michigan by hudkina, on Flickr

brickell · #9 Posted **Aug 15, 2014, 12:20 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by jd3189

Coconut Grove and the Venetian Islands for Miami.

Meh close enough.
Star, Hibiscus and Palm Islands are more exclusive and not considered part of hte Venetian Islands.

North Bay Rd on Miami Beach is probably 2nd place

Then there's Key Biscayne, Cocoplum, Golden Beach, Indian Creek, Bayshore Dr in the Grove, Coral Gables

src: http://www.buymiami.net/

ColDayMan · #10 Posted **Aug 15, 2014, 12:39 AM**

Cincinnati: Too many. The best of the best are sections of Hyde Park, East Walnut Hills, North Avondale, Clifton, and Observatory in Mount Lookout.

Columbus: Neil and Buttles in the Victorian Village, Bryden in Olde Town East, North Broadway in Clintonville, and Old Beachwold come to mind.

Dayton: University Row, Huffman, Nottingham Hills, and Grafton Hill

austlar1 · #11 Posted **Aug 15, 2014, 5:43 AM**

My hometown of Fort Worth has no 19th Century mansion neighborhoods. Summit Ave., once home to a row of magnificent Victorian mansions, was mostly demolished in the 1950s and 1960s. There are other beautiful neighborhoods built mainly in the first half of the 20th Century that meet the criteria for this thread. Use street view feature of these maps to explore various streets. Most Google Streetview shooting took place in the winter, so the landscape is a bit forlorn.

Two very wealthy neighborhoods in Fort Worth that can hold their own with similar neighborhoods anywhere in the US are Rivercrest and Westover Hills:

Rivercrest area built mostly between 1910 and 1950. Check out the streets around the golf course, especially to the west of the clubhouse area:

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7482...!3m1!1e3?hl=en

Westover Hills area built mostly between 1930 and the present. Check out the streets north of Crestline Drive, Byers Ave, and Merrymount:

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7416...!3m1!1e3?hl=en

Two other less opulent but quite beautiful and largely pre WW2 Forth Worth neighborhoods :

Park Hill built mostly from 1920-1960. The area in the center north of Park Hill Drive is the most interesting-

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7170...!3m1!1e3?hl=en

Colonial Country Club area- 1930- present- some streets are very opulent and others are rather ordinary. Best streets are north of Park Hill Drive-

https://www.google.com/maps/@32.7175...!3m1!1e3?hl=en

Derek · #12 Posted **Aug 15, 2014, 6:00 AM**

Portland city limits have a couple "mansion districts".

The most prominent ones are on the western side of the city in the Tualatin Mountains, aka the West Hills. Arlington Heights, Hillside, and the Southwest Hills have some amazing homes, many of which have views of the city, Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens.

Arlington Heights:

Hillside:

Southwest Hills:

There are also some mansions on the eastern side of the city in the Laurelhurst neighborhood.

Chef · #13 Posted **Aug 15, 2014, 6:09 AM**

In the Twin Cities the classic Victorian mansion district is Cathedral Hill in St Paul. I did a photo tour in 2011:

Gilded Era Splendor | Cathedral Hill, St Paul

fflint · #14 Posted **Aug 15, 2014, 6:34 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by McBane

Every city has one. That one leafy prestigious suburban-esque neighborhood brimming with extravagant mansions (mostly in single/detached form) often tucked in a far off corner, away from the bustle of downtown.

San Francisco's "leafy suburban-esque" neighborhood "brimming with extravagant mansions" is St. Francis Woods.

If we drop the "leafy" and "suburban-esque" aspects, we get at the most prestigious neighborhoods in SF, with the biggest mansions inhabited by billionaires and millionaires: Pacific Heights, Presidio Wall, and Seacliff.

hauntedheadnc · #15 Posted **Aug 15, 2014, 10:25 AM**

We have quite a few, and the interesting thing about them is that each neighborhood was built in quick succession, meaning that wealth chased its tail all over town. I can give history, but as I'm at work as I type this, I can't post any pictures.

The first mansion district was arguably Montford, which came to life in the late 1800's. Among the mansions, however, were blocks upon blocks of housing for regular people -- by which I mean giant Queen Anne-style homes just right for enormous families with eight kids apiece. However, Montford is also home to one of Asheville's three castles, Homewood, which started life as a doctor's residence and is now an event venue and wedding hall.

Next came Grove Park around 1910, developed by Edwin Wiley Grove, a patent medicine magnate who also built the Grove Park Inn, now the city's biggest hotel. Grove Park is filled with bonafide mansions, plus more prosaic houses that are just obscenely large. Grove was also responsible for the construction of the city's second castle, Seely's Castle, on a mountaintop overlooking downtown. Seely's Castle used to be fairly close to the city's third castle, Zealandia, until the Beaucatcher Cut was blasted through Beaucatcher Mountain to make way for I-240. Now they're a canyon between them. Seely's is still a private home, while Zealandia is now the headquarters of a timeshare resort corporation.

Meanwhile, there were mansions downtown until well into the 1900's, until urban growth made them less desirable and they were sold. A few still survive, including one that is now used as a private school.

The story of mansions in Asheville is not complete, though, until Biltmore enters the picture. We have three castles, and one palace, and Biltmore House is definitely the palace. It was, and remains, the biggest house in America, and gave birth to entire districts of other extravagant houses. Biltmore was completed in 1895, and immediately the neighborhoods of Victoria and Biltmore Village just outside its gates set out to impress. Most of the mansions of Victoria were later demolished, and a large college now occupies the site where the entire neighborhood once stood -- three mansions remain on the campus and are used as a museum, offices, and as part of the culinary school. Biltmore Village fared better, and some of its mansions are now bed-and-breakfast inns.

Then came Biltmore Forest, in 1923. It became, and remains, the neighborhood where the very richest live. It was the reason that Montford dropped dead, when all the wealthy people decamped for Biltmore Forest instead. It resisted efforts by Asheville to annex it, and incorporated as its own insular, moneyed bubble. It is, even today, building newer, ever more exclusive enclaves such as The Ramble, where new money settles comfortably in new houses among the 90-year-old mansions. There are few houses in Biltmore Forest that would sell for less than a million, and many that would sell for more than ten million. The most expensive house I've ever seen sell in the Asheville area cost more than forty million dollars, and it was in Biltmore Forest.

And lastly, it bears noting that from the early 1800's onward, most of the southern part of Buncombe County was little more than a patchwork of large estates. Most were later sold off and developed. The neighborhood I live in, in fact, was originally the Blake family estate. Their house still stands at its heart, and is used as an inn today. Another mansion nearby burned down in 1912, and its ivy-shrouded ruins are visible from the road. Most of the roads on this end of the county are named either for the estates they led to, or the families who owned those estates.

Tuckerman · #16 Posted **Aug 15, 2014, 2:18 PM**

Of course Atlanta has some incredible mansion areas - in fact, Peachtree street was once full of them, but now replaced by high rises. Buckhead is the area that is most famous with the Swan house setting a standard. The best visulas are to simply go to google aerial and zoom in on some of these monsters.

KevinFromTexas · #17 Posted **Aug 28, 2014, 6:18 PM**

Here is a list of the top 10 wealthiest zip codes in Austin. 78746, which is where Rollingwood and West Lake Hills are, has a median home value of $712,704.

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/pr...=image_gallery

dc_denizen · #18 Posted **Aug 28, 2014, 6:26 PM**

Some jokester should take some of the (European and British?) 'ruin porn' visitors to Detroit and invert the whole experience by shuttling them around the mansion nabes in these photos.

dave8721 · #19 Posted **Aug 28, 2014, 6:38 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by brickell

Meh close enough.
Star, Hibiscus and Palm Islands are more exclusive and not considered part of hte Venetian Islands.

North Bay Rd on Miami Beach is probably 2nd place

Then there's Key Biscayne, Cocoplum, Golden Beach, Indian Creek, Bayshore Dr in the Grove, Coral Gables

src: http://www.buymiami.net/

If you were bound to just the City of Miami city limits then Coconut Grove would be the answer.

Prahaboheme · #20 Posted **Aug 29, 2014, 6:20 AM**

Orlando: College Park, Lake Eola Heights, or Delaney Park