LPC votes to designate Schleicher Mansion

From the NY Times:

Over the objections of the property’s owner, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously Tuesday morning to protect a 19th-century Queens mansion in College Point that now serves as a seven-unit apartment building.

The owner, Robert Cunniffe, had asked the commission to postpone the vote so that he could hire a lawyer to represent him. He said he did not even know the vote was scheduled for Tuesday until 9:30 p.m. the night before. “I got there halfway through the hearing,” said Mr. Cunniffe, who bought the building on Sept. 23, after a public hearing on whether to declare the property a landmark had already been held.

The commission decided, however, to proceed with its vote.

Mr. Cunniffe said he was disappointed, though he said he knew the building was under landmark consideration when he bought it.

Quinn suddenly discovers College Point

From NY1:

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn's office has launched its own investigation into the delayed restoration of gas service for residents living in the Schleicher Court Mansion in College Point.

Judge grants Schleicher slumlord an extension

From the Times Ledger:

A Queens civil court judge indicated last week she would probably grant the owner of Schleicher’s Court more time to fix gas lines despite the fact the residents of the College Point mansion have been without the basic service for more than a year.

Rita Douglas, a resident of the building at 11-41 123rd St., said the owner, Eva Rohan, and a contractor looking to purchase the home, Robert Cuniffe, are expected to be granted 53 days to complete extensive renovations and repairs to the gas system at the 150-year old mansion when they reconvene in court Aug. 19.

A court order had demanded that Rohan complete repairs to restore gas service to the building, which has been without it since July 2008, in the spring but asked for an extension last month.

“It just never ends,” Douglas said. “What good is a court order then?”

Schleicher tenants still denied services; house being sold

From the Times Ledger:

City Councilman Tony Avella (D-Bayside) put himself into the center of a bitter College Point housing dispute last week, demanding the landlord and manager at Schleicher’s Court restore gas service to their tenants after more than a year.

Avella’s call is just the latest chapter in a seemingly endless squabble between the tenants and the landlord at the College Point home. The more than a dozen tenants of the 19th century mansion, at 11-41 123rd St., have been embroiled in an at times fiery fight with Eva Rohan, the owner, since July 2008. The contentious situation left tenants of the building homeless for nearly eight months and without basic services, such as gas for more than a year.

On Friday, Avella called on Rohan to adhere to a court order to give inspectors from the city Department of Housing access to the home so gas service can be restored to the building. Tenants said Housing inspectors arrived at the house July 15 after a June court-order mandated the repairs be made, but Robert Cuniffe, a licensed contractor who said he expects to purchase the house in the coming days, would not let them into the building.

“This guy should go to jail,” Avella said. “Who the hell is he to deny access?”

Landlord still neglecting potential landmark

From the Times Ledger:

For Rita Douglas, it is another day and another battle.

After the residents of Schleicher’s Court in College Point seemingly achieved victory in February when the city lifted a vacate order on their home — allowing them to return for the first time in eight months — Douglas said they will be back in court once again Wednesday.

Douglas said although they have reoccupied the 19th-century mansion at 11-41 123rd St., they have been living without gas ever since. She said the tenants are now headed back to Civil Court in Jamaica to demand a court order be enforced, requiring their landlord, Eva Rohan, to make fixes so Con Edison can restore service to the building.

Slumlord still withholding services from Schleicher tenants

From NY1:

Seven College Point families who live in one of the oldest buildings in Queens are heading back to court as a bitter dispute with their landlord continues.

124 outstanding violations? How many does it take before the Bloomberg administration puts an end to situations that threaten the lives of Queens folk? In Manhattan, only 103 violations will get your billboard torn down...

Slumlord keeps Schleicher tenants on ice

From the Times Ledger:

After more than eight months living in temporary housing, the remaining tenants at Schleicher’s Court were allowed to return to their apartments last week only to find a litany of issues remain unresolved.

Tenants Rita Douglas and Kalvis Macs said Tuesday they returned home to discover they have no gas, minimal heat and a faulty water system and have started to wonder if fighting to stay in the 19th century mansion is still worth it.

“I’m back, but being back and being freezing isn’t really being back,” Macs said. “Now the electric’s on, but everything else is worse. I might just give up on this whole thing because I can’t spend my whole life battling this. It takes so much out of your heart, soul and health to keep on doing this.”

Schleicher tenants home at last

From NY1:

Seven College Point families who have been fighting to be allowed back into their historic building for nearly eight months are finally home.

Schleicher tenants heading home!

From the Times Ledger:

The 14 tenants of a College Point mansion may finally be nearing the end of a long, arduous journey that has left them without a permanent home for more than eight months due to an unsafe wiring system.

The city Department of Buildings is expected to make its final inspection at 11−41 123rd St. this week, which will determine whether or not the renters of seven apartments in the 19th century mansion will be able to return home for the first time since July.

And an update: Schleicher’s Court tenants get OK to move back home

Schleicher tenants testify at LPC

From NY1:

Seven College Point families have been fighting to be allowed back into their homes for nearly eight months, while their building is considered for landmark status.

Schleicher Mansion scheduled for hearing

On Tuesday, February 10, 2009, the Landmarks Preservation Commission is holding a public hearing on the proposed designation of the following item:

HERMAN A. SCHLEICHER MANSION, 11-41 123rd Street (Q)

The hearings will take place at the Commission's offices at 1 Centre St., 9th Floor North (time tbd). Any information you can provide about the building's significance and condition is relevant to our consideration. Attached please find a statement of significance for this building.

Emily Rich
Public Information Officer
Landmarks Preservation Commission
One Centre Street, 9th Floor North
New York, NY 10007

HERMAN A. SCHLEICHER MANSION
BOROUGH OF QUEENS

The mansion at 11-41 123rd Street in College Point was designed by Morris Gescheidt and constructed c. 1857 for Herman A. Schleicher, a German immigrant. Little is known about Mr. Schleicher. He appears to have become a naturalized citizen in 1850 and died in College Point in 1866. John Jockers, who for many years had been superintendent of the Schleicher residence and grounds, purchased the property around 1892 and converted the house into the Grand View Hotel, an establishment which continued in operation until the early twentieth century.

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, Schleicher’s once sizeable estate was divided into lots leaving the two and one-half story, Italianate-style brick mansion with rusticated brick basement and mansard roof isolated on a circular lot at the intersection of 123rd Road (formerly N. 14th Street) and 13th Avenue (formerly Schleicher Court). The asymmetrical front (western) elevation features a three-bay-wide porch (now enclosed) with stoop leading to a segmental-arched entrance and segmental-arched fenestration with brick surrounds. The corners are delineated by brick quoins, which are repeated on the recessed wing. The rear (eastern) elevation features an arrangement of alternating flat and angular bays, the later with rusticated brick work. The segmental-arched rear entrance with high stoop and pedimented portico (a later alteration) is set into one of the angular bays. The rear and side elevations like the front elevation feature segmental-arched fenestration with brick surrounds, a deep cornice and dormers.

The area of College Point north of 14th Avenue was once home to several estates with large mansions; the Schleicher Mansion is the only one to survive relatively intact. Although altered in the twentieth century to accommodate its conversion into a multiple-family dwelling, the Schleicher Mansion remains a fine example of the Italianate style that was dominant in the mid-nineteenth century.

On the road back to Schleicher

More than a dozen College Point residents who have been homeless for nearly seven months took a big step toward returning home on Christmas Eve, but tensions were running high at Queens Civil Court in Jamaica.

After several hours of bickering and confusion between the tenants and owners of Schleicher’s Court, Civil Court Judge Maria Ressos signed a court order that set up a six−week schedule for emergency wiring repairs to be completed at the Victorian home.

Schleicher residents take step toward home

Schleicher battle goes to court

More than half a dozen College Point families are still fighting to be allowed back into their homes. On Monday, they took their battle before a judge, but the real battle of words took place on the courthouse steps.

Residents Voice Concerns Outside Courthouse

NY1 visits Schleicher Mansion

More than half a dozen families in College Point want to to return to the historic apartment building they call home, six months after being evicted for safety reasons.

Evicted College Point Residents Want To Return To Building

Schleicher Mansion calendared by LPC

City Councilman Tony Avella (D−Bayside) said the Landmarks Preservation Commission has agreed to bring College Point’s Schleicher’s Mansion up for a vote in the coming months, but the residents of the house still remain out in the cold.

Avella said the city agency’s decision to vote on whether or not to landmark the exterior of the building, built in 1851, is a victory for the community and the tenants since it precludes the house’s owner from demolishing the structure or selling it to a developer who would do the same.

Avella said while the LPC calendaring a hearing on the topic does not get the tenants back into their homes, it precludes their landlord from razing the building entirely.

City eyes landmark for Schleicher’s Mansion

Tenants' hell at Schleicher Mansion

Outwardly, 11−41 123rd Street — known as Schleicher’s Court — seems like an ideal place to live. Built sometime in the 1850s, the three−story Victorian home stands out on the block — a red brick behemoth with high ceilings separated into seven spacious apartments and a large yard outside.

But a quick check of DOB records shows the 19th century relic is plagued by problems.

The house currently has 17 open DOB and Environmental Control Board violations dating back to 1997, involving everything from boiler issues to illegal construction. The building’s woes culminated on July 9, when a DOB inspector came to investigate a complaint of an illegal conversion in the basement and discovered the house’s electrical wiring was in shambles.

The DOB placed a full vacate order on the property the next day until the building’s owner, Eva Rohan, fixed the problems. More than five months later, Rodriguez and her fellow tenants still have not been able to return to their homes.

Four of the seven tenants said they have been staying with relatives in various parts of Queens, two remain in shelters and one tenant cut ties with Rohan entirely, opting instead to search for permanent housing elsewhere.

The tenants contend that Rohan and her sister, Georgina, who acts as the building’s manager, have neglected to fix the archaic electrical system in the building for more than a decade despite numerous violations — and thousands of dollars in unpaid fines — from the DOB.

Tenants just want to be home for holidays

A tour of some of the residents’ apartments revealed newly installed fuse boxes, with no fuses or wiring attached.

Update on College Point's Schleicher Mansion

To whom this may concern,

I just thought I would give you an up date on the situation concerning "The Grand View Hotel".

Mr. Tony Avella will meet with us [today] at his District office. HPD has finally been involved, and gave the slumlord landlord a deadline... I cannot believe we are still homeless, but I know I will see the light at the end of the tunnel soon!! We are fighters we love our Mansion!! We filed to have it N.Y.C. landmarked & although this has made us suffer, far from what we ever believed... it has also made us stronger!!! Our story will be out this Thursday, in the Queens papers. If all goes well, we should be home by Christmas.

Pray for Us,

Tenants at Schleicher Mansion
Happy Holidays To You!!

College Point's past converted to crap

By most estimates, the house was built in the 1850s, and it belonged to a man named Hermann Schleicher.

In the late 19th century, the house became a resort that advertised “light and airy sleeping rooms” and “a good assortment of choice wines and liquors for medicinal purposes.”

It’s not easy to imagine that past today. The three-story house is now a seven-unit apartment building that tenants had to vacate this summer after the city’s Department of Buildings deemed its antiquated electrical system a fire hazard. Several other housing code violations have been filed against the owner, and according to some residents, the interior is in disrepair.

A Manse With a Past

In the 19th century, mansions that were home to wealthy German industrialists lined College Point’s northern tip. But only a handful of these structures remain today, replaced mostly by housing developments.

On one recent afternoon, a College Point preservationist and resident named Susan Brustmann talked about what the neighborhood has lost as she walked through the pale green hallways of the Poppenhusen Institute, a community center that occupies one of the area’s surviving Victorian buildings.

Ms. Brustmann is the institute’s executive director, and as she strolled the hallways, she pointed to photographs of long-gone mansions on the walls.

“That’s gone, that’s gone, that’s gone,” she said. “All replaced by brick boxes.”

Bloomberg desperately wants a legacy. He certainly has one in Queens.

Plenty of vacancies at the old Grand View Hotel

"I live in an historical property - the Herman Schleicher Mansion/Grand View Hotel - built in 1853 and landmarked in 1997 - located at 11-41 123rd Street, College Point.

I need your assistance in bringing the media's attention to what is going on with this property.

We have vacated the property since an electrical fire on July 9th, 2008.

The owner has over 80 violations which include the electrical violations that were never repaired and caused all the families (seven) to be vacated from the mansion. Two of the units were illegal units and we also found out that one complaint mentioned that a tenant died in 1997 as a result of an electrical fire." - anonymous

Sorry to inform you that you were Queensmarked, not landmarked. Your absentee landlord in Florida, who has racked up tens of thousands of dollars in fines, probably would not have gone for landmarking considering how the building has been kept up over the years. The house has no protection at all. Bulldozers may be on their way.

* I'll keep your contact numbers in case any reporters want to do a story on this.