1717 Bissonnet St.

[IronTiger]

Although part of it has been copied to other sources (like Wikimapia), I wanted to share some history of the 1717 Bissonnet area before the whole "Ashby high rise" fiasco, taken from Buckhead's official website (now missing these pages).

from here, lower paragraph taken from an earlier version.

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Some people believe the property at 1717 Bissonnet has “always been residential” and not already commercialized, which is not true. Since it was first developed in the 1920’s, the south side of Bissonnet between Ashby and Cherokee has been predominately commercial and, to be fair, more recently multifamily and high-density single-family. Starting at the Cherokee alley and moving west, there was Gibson’s Garage and the U-Totem convenience store. Maryland Manor’s present driveway was the location of a Gulf Oil service station. At various times, the current apartment building contained a dry cleaner, laundromat, Jack & Jill liquor store, the original Frenchy’s restaurant, Segrato’s Grocery and the K-G Drugstore. It can be argued that just one of these retail uses (such as the convenience store, the gas station or the drugstore), were it still there today, would generate an equal or greater traffic impact on the surrounding streets than our building. A myriad of commercial uses along the north side of this same stretch of Bissonnet continues to this day. The same block of Sunset also had a number of shops, the Sunset Food Market (which later became the original Ouisie’s restaurant), and two gas stations.

Maryland Manor has been in operation since 1961. Originally it included 48 units in several buildings developed behind the Bissonnet retail center. In 1976, the Bissonnet store fronts were converted to efficiency apartments. In 1979, the adjacent former Gulf Oil service station, then being used as an automotive repair shop, was acquired by the apartment owner, the building removed, and the land incorporated into the apartment property as a parking lot. Between 1993 and 1995, the entire property was rehabilitated into its current state, comprising 67 apartments with approximately 100 current residents. The average rent charged for an 862 square foot apartment is $935 or $1.08/square foot.

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Part of it is (quite obviously) an argument as to why commercial should be on the site, but I find it admirable of the developer to do some research into the property and provide it there. I can't back any of this up and plus, it is suspect that they say the original Frenchy's was here (wasn't it in the Third Ward?)

Anyway, I still enjoyed it. Are there any other inaccuracies, or is it spot-on?