Demolition!

Our neighborhood (called City View or St. Clair Gardens) is about a kilometer and a half (or approximately a mile) square. A residential area bounded on two sides by busy commercial areas, it is a convenient place to live. When the neighborhood was first established, it was a subdivision outside the city limits known for its large lots and lovely gardens.

When we first moved here, there were two business in our neighborhood - family businesses that were offshoots of farms that had been here before the houses were built. One was a corner store (then called Monuk's) and the other, Brown's Better Flowers. When we first moved here in the early 1980s, the Monuk family still ran the store, but it later changed hands several times before a fire (started in a refrigeration unit) destroyed the building. It sat burnt-out and empty for several years. Eventually a house was built on the foundation. The store we knew had been a house with a store front attached.

The second business in our neighborhood, the flower shop with a greenhouse attached, was also run by the original Brown family when we first moved here. After a number of years, it became too much for the elderly siblings to manage, so they sold the business. It continued as a flower shop for many years.

The original flower shop has been in disrepair for several years. There were plans to turn it into a small Romanian Orthodox church - but they have now decided to simply tear it down and start building from scratch. (Probably a wise move.)










Last week, a few neighbors watched as the walls came tumbling down.












It will be missed - by those who remember it for what it was... and by the animals that now call it home. (There is a hole in the roof made by a squirrel or raccoon.) I'm sure there will be a lot of scurrying when the walls come down! I wonder where they'll move to next?!! (I'm glad I don't live next door!)