In recent years, the Vetter Mansion at Lefferts Boulevard and Hillside Avenue in Richmond Hill housed the Simonson Funeral Home. The Richmond Hill Historical Society stored their archives on the second floor. 
Top two photos from Old Kew Gardens, bottom photo from Richmond Hill Historical Society.P.S. Curbed picked up on the story Wednesday morning and the debate is becoming heated:
Another Morning in the Land of Crap
9 comments:
How on earth could they allow that great old house to be demolished? For shame that it wasn't landmarked. One can only imagine the junk that will replace it.
Disgusting, sad, criminal, appalling, and happening every day in Queens. Thank you Mayor Bloomberg.
Another example of neglect by our elected officials, including the impotent local Republicans, Maltese and Gallagher.
The blame also belongs to Democratic Assemblyman Seminerio, who has been in office since the dinosaurs roamed the land. They spend so much time in Albany, that they haven't noticed how their districts have changed for the worse.
This is so sad. My mom used to work there and I spent many weekends exploring the little nooks and crannies. Unlike the Republican Club building next door, There was nothing structurally wrong with this building. It was pristine.
An equivalent to this tragedy would be like taking a brand new Mercedes and putting it in the crusher for a bigger uglier car.
Russ
The point is the clubhouse has decided that this should be an immigrant neighborhood and the large houses are perfect for the dynamics of these folks with their extended families.
Of course, with the exception of the odd comment from the larger preservation community, the local group is on their own fighting this unequal battle..
The borough wide machine can proceed serenely forward when they know that they can crush each little group with impunity.
If in desperation, these groups cry out for help, they get a chuckle from their fellow colleagues in Manhattan who read off a list of ‘helpful’ yet pointless things that can be done (starting, inevitably with "you can write a letter ... "
If this were anywhere else in the city, it would have been saved.
I passed by this construction fencing over the weekend, and had no idea what had been there. This is just a shame.
As beautiful as that building was, it was in itself overdeveloped. That was one of those beautiful Victorian houses that had its great wraparound porch bricked up, just to get more space out of it.
I'm positive that whatever goes in that space will look hideous compared to what was there, but let's not ignore the fact that more and more homes with open porches are being illegally renovated so those front porches are no longer open and become extra living space.
This still makes me want to vomit for hours.
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