Share your City's "Mansion" District - Page 3

jg6544 · #41 Posted **Sep 3, 2014, 4:53 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quixote

Hancock Park

http://media.trb.com/media/photo/2012-02/68332652.jpg

This one looks more like Bel Air than Hancock Park.

philatonian · #42 Posted **Sep 4, 2014, 1:47 AM**

North of Philadelphia in Elkins Park is a compound of Gilded Age mansions built for the Widener and Elkins families by Horace Trumbauer. Lynnewood Hall is the 18th largest house ever built in the U.S. (I'm not sure where it ranks among those still standing) and is vacant and will likely be demolished. On the same compound is Elstowe Manor and Chelten House. As far as I know both are currently vacant.

Elstowe Manor
[IMG]http://media.philly.com/images/600*450/20140602_inq_selkins02z-a.JPG[/IMG]

Chelten House

Lynnewood Hall

philatonian · #43 Posted **Sep 4, 2014, 1:49 AM**

North of Philadelphia in Elkins Park is a compound of Gilded Age mansions built for the Widener and Elkins families by Horace Trumbauer. Lynnewood Hall is the 18th largest house ever built in the U.S. (I'm not sure where it ranks among those still standing) and is vacant and will likely be demolished. On the same compound is Elstowe Manor and Chelten House. As far as I know both are currently vacant.

Elstowe Manor

Chelten House

Lynnewood Hall

philatonian · #44 Posted **Sep 4, 2014, 2:07 AM**

Aside from various neighborhoods in West Philadelphia, Montgomery County's Main Line is probably best considered Philadelphia's "mansion district."

My favorite is in Gladwynne. It's called Woodmont and it's home to "Mother Divine," leader of the International Peace Movement Mission, a dwindling cult. The house is freakin' amazing...

The story is even more amazing, a long read but well worth it...

http://www.mainlinetoday.com/Main-Li.../Prodigal-Son/

Ardrossan Estate in Villanova was part of the inspiration for the movie Philadelphia Story...

La Ronda is one of the many Main Line mansions demolished for something more modern...

Aside from architecture buffs, I don't think a lot of people know that Philadelphia has Newport, RI in its back yard, and a lot of the houses are threatened.

Bloomfield Mansion in Villanova was destroyed by a fire, but the owners are rebuilding it...so it's not all bad...

pico44 · #45 Posted **Sep 4, 2014, 3:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10023

Eh, I don't think there's any chance of mistaking most of these areas for Forest Hills. At least not if you go into Streetview or look at the high (main) streets.

But then this is in Hampstead, still within Greater London's "city limits":

So there are areas that look like an English Beverly Hills.

Yeah, Forest Hills is much more attractive than any of those neighborhoods.

10023 · #46 Posted **Sep 4, 2014, 4:05 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by pico44

Yeah, Forest Hills is much more attractive than any of those neighborhoods.

Forest Hills is actually more suburban. And the nice part of Forest Hills is actually much smaller than the vast swath of north London that looks like that.

Plus, Forest Hills doesn't have Hampstead Heath:

And I will actually laugh out loud if you suggest Corona Park.

Crawford · #47 Posted **Sep 4, 2014, 7:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by 10023

Forest Hills is actually more suburban. And the nice part of Forest Hills is actually much smaller than the vast swath of north London that looks like that.

Forest Hills is much more urban than almost anywhere in London. It's one of the densest neighborhoods in NYC.

Forest Hills is 90% apartment blocks, most of them pretty sizable. The two "fancy" parts, the Gardens, and Cord Meyer, do have some single family homes with yards, but are a relatively small proportion of the overall neighborhood.

dc_denizen · #48 Posted **Sep 4, 2014, 7:14 PM**

Hampstead seemed kind of more middle class, rowhomes with bearded middle age dudes and ladies puttering around in the garden, whereas Primrose Hill was the high rent district (Beverly Hills in London).

Although obviously I must have missed those homes.

10023 · #49 Posted **Sep 4, 2014, 7:28 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crawford

Forest Hills is much more urban than almost anywhere in London. It's one of the densest neighborhoods in NYC.

Forest Hills is 90% apartment blocks, most of them pretty sizable. The two "fancy" parts, the Gardens, and Cord Meyer, do have some single family homes with yards, but are a relatively small proportion of the overall neighborhood.

Yeah I should have specified that I was referring to what I subsequently called "the nice part" of Forest Hills. I assume that when Pico said that Forest Hills was more attractive, he wasn't talking about Queens Boulevard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

Hampstead seemed kind of more middle class, rowhomes with bearded middle age dudes and ladies puttering around in the garden, whereas Primrose Hill was the high rent district (Beverly Hills in London).

Although obviously I must have missed those homes.

The area near Primrose Hill is really St Johns Wood, which is very nice and has a lot of Americans (the American school is there). To the other side is Camden Town, which is less nice.

There are very few middle class areas left in central, west or north London (at least anywhere reasonably close to the middle). Hampstead village is really nice.

Overview:
https://goo.gl/maps/IHNZr

The high street:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.55...uATljmgd2A!2e0

Residential area:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.55...TkwyaVVEwQ!2e0

Some local listings:
http://www.foxtons.co.uk/properties-...le-in-nw3.html

Things get more expensive up around Highgate, but those are bigger houses:
http://www.primelocation.com/for-sal...icxSRQpWDBY.97

And that one's basically a fixer-upper.

dc_denizen · #50 Posted **Sep 4, 2014, 7:48 PM**

Thinking more of the rowhomes at the foot of Parliament hill basically...

McBane · #51 Posted **Sep 5, 2014, 2:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by philatonian

Aside from various neighborhoods in West Philadelphia, Montgomery County's Main Line is probably best considered Philadelphia's "mansion district."

No - this thread is for mansion districts WITHIN CITY LIMITS. Philadelphia's is Chestnut Hill and West Mt. Airy and I'd love to see someone post pics of those neighborhoods.

As the OP, I don't want this thread to devolve into people just posting pics of big homes in the suburbs. Sorry to be a cranky pants!

Nomayoplease · #52 Posted **Sep 5, 2014, 10:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hudkina

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

The first one is amazing...wonder how much it costs

JohnMarko · #53 Posted **Sep 12, 2014, 7:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Austinlee

Pittsburgh: I'd say around 30% of the neighborhoods in the city are mansion districts. These old cities like Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland were just unbelievably wealthy for a few decades in time, hence the term gilded age. A lot of these places will probably never be matched because of anti-monopoly laws that exist now. Hence the term robber barons.

Made me almost spit all over my computer! What you wrote about the "guilded age" couldn't be more wrong! WE ARE CURRENTLY LIVING IN THE NEW "GUILDED AGE"!!! The "monopolies" are back STRONG! There are now only 4 companies owning ALL the newspapers/TV & Radio Stations. There are now only 6 corporations owning ALL food production & consumer goods! The "robber barons" (remember Rmoney anyone?) are back and increasing. The wealth gap is wider now that is was during the last "guilded age" during the 1900's and the "middle class" is almost extinct. All thanks to Ronnie Raygun and the repukes' "trickle down" economy and tax cutting. There are more mansions worthy of Versailles being built now that rival the "cottages" in the Hamptons.

THIS IS NOT A GOOD THING!

Centropolis · #54 Posted **Sep 12, 2014, 4:28 PM**

Philadelphia is nuts!!

St. Louis has a few mansion districts

St. Louis wasnt sure if it wanted to show off guilded age wealth or hide it. It made a compromise...although a casual visitor to St. Louis likely couldnt find these streets.

DeBaliviere Place further west of the Central West End (old midwest money, hence a lot of average cars, disheveled blues and grays)

copyright Mark Groth

http://img.groundspeak.com

http://media.connectingstlouis.com

hudkina · #55 Posted **Sep 12, 2014, 11:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nomayoplease

The first one is amazing...wonder how much it costs

To be honest, I doubt it would sell for more than $200,000.

djbowen · #56 Posted **Sep 13, 2014, 1:35 AM**

Rhode Island is crawling with these sorts of neighborhoods:

CENTRAL FALLS https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8833...B3ze3aq0nQ!2e0

WOONSOCKET

WEST WARWICK

PROVIDENCE

BURRILLVILLE
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ha...5bd59249ce0fa3

Some of these are more upper-middle-class than full-on mansions, but they still have a lot of the elegance and ambiance of some of the areas already shown.

rockyi · #57 Posted **Sep 14, 2014, 11:40 PM**

Quad Cities

Davenport...McClellan Heights.

Rock Island...Broadway.

philatonian · #58 Posted **Sep 15, 2014, 2:06 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by McBane

No - this thread is for mansion districts WITHIN CITY LIMITS. Philadelphia's is Chestnut Hill and West Mt. Airy and I'd love to see someone post pics of those neighborhoods.

As the OP, I don't want this thread to devolve into people just posting pics of big homes in the suburbs. Sorry to be a cranky pants!

LOL cranky pants. Some of the Main Line towns can have their own mansion districts

But I get what your saying. I'd actually consider West Philadelphia to be the city's "mansion district," but so many have been torn down or converted into apartments. The city-proper is just too dense to have anything astounding, which is why I included the mainline.

There are still some...

The Bergdoll Mansion

Parkside, West Philadelphia

10023 · #59 Posted **Sep 15, 2014, 10:04 AM**

Another good London example that I failed to mention is Holland Park, a neighborhood next to the park of the same name, which actually has a fair number of freestanding mansions. Many of them had been subdivided into flats at one point, but are now being recombined again. Simon Cowell and Richard Branson both live in the neighborhood.

On Holland Park (the road):

Holland Park Mews (mews are basically alleys with houses that have been converted from former stables):

Holland Villas Road:

The back of a house in Holland Park:

The back of a house on Addison Road:

The prices are a little higher than Philly or Detroit:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...-24743769.html

Or they rent... for £10,000/week (about $70,000/month):
http://www.domusnova.com/properties/...rk-avenue-w11/

Owlhorn · #60 Posted **Sep 16, 2014, 9:40 PM**

Dallas proper: Swiss Avenue, Preston Hollow, Kessler Park, Bent Tree, Prestonwood, Greenway Parks, Forest Hills

Dallas inner-suburban, Highland Park/University Park