I have lived on First Avenue North for nearly 40 years. The whole time I have loved the narrow strip of roadway that runs from Galer to the Grand Dame stair at Comstock Street. Borrowing a quaint English term, I have called that street my mews. Below is a real mews I photographed in London.

My Queen Anne mews is not as wide as the regular strip of First North. I attribute that to the ridge on the west side where the hill falls off steeply to Queen Anne Avenue. A climb up or down the Grand Dame Stair makes the topography easy to understand.

The homes along my mews are a curious mix of multifamily apartment and condos along with some very elegant places especially at the southern end opposite the tennis courts, water tower and fire station that occupy the east side of the street. Lee Street which ends at First North adds a colorful cobbled spur leading east where the street dead-ends at the stair.

My mews often figured on my daily walk during the pandemic. Now, I frequently walk by this intriguing early 20th c. alternative to the American Four Square squished between two apartment buildings on the west side of the street. Gutted by fire, it stood empty and derelict. Just last month retracing my Covid era footsteps, I noticed workers stripping everything out and taking the home down, as they say, to the studs. I was delighted that someone had the vision to see that even this wreck of a home could be restored. It may not turn out to be this preservationist’s dream, but it is off to a promising start.

The last time I walked by I was delighted to see that the siding had been totally ripped off all four sides of the house. Naturally, a preservation planner like me would be angry to see a place stripped naked like that, but so much of the historic fabric of the house had been altered that it is exciting to watch the construction and hope for the best.

I will be watching closely over the next couple of months. I am especially interested to see how the windows are replaced. The pair on either side of the front door will be the test, for, as egregious changes to the ca. 1910 house, they offer a great opportunity to respect the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation and its restoration guidelines. Those standards call for recreating the historic look of the property and additions should be distinguished so that they are not read as part of the historic building. I invite you to check out my mews and monitor with me this exciting project.

Addendum - Progress Underway