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View Full Version : Akron: Firestone Mansion catches fire



DGUtley
01-14-2018, 09:25 AM
My buddy owns and lives in Harvey's house (the older brother). It'll be interesting to see what happened. It looks like the building was empty. The second link contains pictures of the home and the grandeur.

https://www.ohio.com/akron/news/breaking-news-news/firestone-mansion-catches-fire

http://mrmhadams.typepad.com/blog/2014/05/the-view-from-cornice-hill.html

Kacper
01-14-2018, 10:08 AM
Pretty house. I cannot tell about the staircase but some of those curving staircases can be deceptively dangerous because the rails slope down as you go up them to create a more visually pleasing view from the bottom. There is a mansion down the road from us where you can't tell starting up them just looking casually but the twin curving stair case's rail go from about 4 feet high at the bottom to about two feet high at the top. The place you most need a rail has an unuseable rail--where the two sharply turn toward each other to converge onto a common landing not visible from below at the top.

rcfieldz
01-14-2018, 06:18 PM
By the article it sounds like they let it get rundown.

gamewell45
01-14-2018, 06:24 PM
Too bad old grand buildings like that are allowed to deteriorate. It'll be interesting to see what the fire investigators ultimately find that caused the fire.

Kacper
01-14-2018, 09:31 PM
Too bad old grand buildings like that are allowed to deteriorate.

I agree but old houses like that are money pits. The old Victorian millionaire houses in our area (not all of them are actually Victorian, but that is what everybody refers to them as) can be bought for 200-300K but nobody wants them because you will be putting 50-100K a year in them forever just to heat and maintain them. My old boss had one and his utilities ran between $2500 and $3500 a month. The ones here are in such a tightly micro-managed historical district that the commission won't let you change a thing about them on the exterior, like replace drafty windows, etc. No matter how well-intended, special zoning overlays that restrict owners from being able to modernize old buildings just add the decline of old buildings.

gamewell45
01-14-2018, 10:41 PM
I agree but old houses like that are money pits. The old Victorian millionaire houses in our area (not all of them are actually Victorian, but that is what everybody refers to them as) can be bought for 200-300K but nobody wants them because you will be putting 50-100K a year in them forever just to heat and maintain them. My old boss had one and his utilities ran between $2500 and $3500 a month. The ones here are in such a tightly micro-managed historical district that the commission won't let you change a thing about them on the exterior, like replace drafty windows, etc. No matter how well-intended, special zoning overlays that restrict owners from being able to modernize old buildings just add the decline of old buildings.

That's true; they can be money pits. Unless you have deep pockets and can make certain modifications to the existing structure, buying a house like that can drain you financially to the point where you end up selling or even walking away. I think they can do certain things such as re-insulating the walls, updating plumbing, electrical which I don't think you'd get any resistance from zoning laws. I think they are more concerned with the outside look of the house for the most part. But yes, they def are money pits to say the least.

Kacper
01-15-2018, 07:11 AM
That's true; they can be money pits. Unless you have deep pockets and can make certain modifications to the existing structure, buying a house like that can drain you financially to the point where you end up selling or even walking away. I think they can do certain things such as re-insulating the walls, updating plumbing, electrical which I don't think you'd get any resistance from zoning laws. I think they are more concerned with the outside look of the house for the most part. But yes, they def are money pits to say the least.

You can do some things on the inside but they wouldn't let my boss convert from an old radiator heat system to an HVAC system because egads, there would be something not historic on the outside.