"The Blue Tarp House" Goes Down

Photo By John Hoff

A few days ago, a demolition crew showed up with destruction on their minds. After standing for about 100 years, 2957 Lyndale Ave. N. went down in an afternoon...

The house was almost certainly full of mold...the tarp had been meant to keep out the rain, but it was in tatters for years. "The Blue Tarp House" had become a kind of negative gateway to Hawthorne, the first thing the eye focused upon after crossing Lowry into Hawthorne.

As I got out of my vehicle to take a picture, somebody I took to be the demolition site supervisor said to me, "Are you the owner?" I laughed and said I was just active with the neighborhood association, and we were NOT sorry to see "2957" go down, and I wanted to take some pictures "for our newsletter."

I also told him I'd met one of his workers a while back, and it was certainly "refreshing" to see a Latino worker "actually issued proper safety gear," because so often "they get treated badly."

The supervisor assured me he took good care of his workers, and seemed glad I'd noticed a thing like that. I made an effort to find a picture which included part of the infamous "blue tarp." This was what I got.