I walked by these buildings today, and know the block well. I also slipped behind the alley to check how deep the lot is and check the buildings’ condition.

In short, it’s a disaster. These units are all extremely narrow, and the lot is very shallow — so shallow that one can’t really extend the structure to the rear, in part because there’s little option to include needed fire egress and windows, both due to the inherent shallowness of the lot and another structure directly abutting the lot behind it (keep in mind, code requires all bedrooms to have a window).

Literally the only thought I had when looking at the back was “holy shit”. There’s no amount of money you could pay me to convince me to walk into those buildings. Substantial parts of the rear exterior brick walls have actually collapsed up through multiple floors, with open views to the deteriorating interior — a majority of the floor joists have likely been rotted out for many, many years, and general damage looks to be multiple decades old — perhaps even predating the donation to the church. Was there a fire here many years ago?

I would also be shocked if the roof were salvageable at all, from what I can see. Large sections obviously collapsed long long ago.

Anyone renovating this structure is facing a complete demolition and rebuild of everything except the facade, and in the end, I don’t think you can squeeze more than 5 extremely narrow and relatively shallow row homes out of this, or perhaps 6-10 smaller apartments. I also suspect you would need to dedicate the current middle house to a central lobby and stairwell, further reducing your options. You could conceivably build more by extending upwards, but then you require an elevator ($$$) and have to engage in some post modern architectural features up top. The lot is situated such that retaining the facade AND trying to get large machinery and equipment in there would be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

This project would cost SEVERAL hundred thousand dollars, not unlikely pushing over the $1M mark, for a small handful of relatively awkward 1BR or studio units. At the same time, the Church’s already functioning center on that block is identical in style and represents at least half of the current total linear street footage of total structures in question (especially once taking into account the Preston Street side).

I’m all for expansion of residence options in this neighborhood and preservation of historical structures, but this lemon really just doesn’t seem to be worth the squeeze to me, and demolition still retains a substantial portion of the historical architectural heritage.

I also don’t subscribe to the notion that “gaps” on a block are inherently problematic — that’s an unnecessary and unfounded broad strokes aesthetic assertion, or at least one that’s highly dependent on individual context at best.