Sunday, December 5, 2010

Bye Bye Farmhouses Part 1

Looking west on Colorado Avenue (Route 611) towards Miller Road intersection; soon this scene will change
I commute to work in Cleveland each day on I-90, and have been doing it for more than 25 years. During that time I've watched the State Route 611 interchange at Avon evolve from a peaceful country setting (with no traffic lights) to that of a congested interchange with restaurants, gas stations, a Fairfield Inn and even the Lake Erie Crushers' All-Pro Freight Stadium.

This old house will eventually be gone
Twenty years ago, I could pretty much get on and off I-90 with no problem. Nowadays, in the morning it takes a good five minutes (and a few light changes) just to get from Miller Road to the entrance ramp less than a mile away. But that's progress.

And one of the sadder signs of progress is watching these farmhouses (and the farm behind them) finally go up for sale. When Route 611 was widened in the 1990's, I knew it was only a matter of time.

Anyway, yesterday was a sunny Saturday morning so I grabbed my camera and drove up and down Route 611 to capture the whole scene as it is now. Sooner or later, the land will sell, the homes will be demolished, and I'll try to remember what it looked like before.

But this time (unlike so many other similar situations) I'll have the photos on this blog posting to remind me.

The barn behind this home has had those decorative silhouettes for some time now.


If you're interested in the real estate listing for these parcels of land, click here to see a PDF file of the sales flyer. Below is a screen grab showing the two homes and farmland for sale (outlined in red).


It will be interesting to see what eventually happens with these properties, as well as the property to the west. We'll see.

3 comments:

Drew Penfield said...

I like what you've done here. People almost never photograph things like this unless there is something particularly special about it. Then one day it's all gone and nobody can remember what had been there before.

Anonymous said...

It's sad that Avon is becoming just another cookie-cutter sprawlburg, sure to meet the same fate of Maple Heights, Parma, etc. in about 50 years. I liked botht eh city and the rural areas better when they each maintained their respective characters. This new crap is ruining both and replacing it with disposable junk.

Bill said...

Hi Dan, I just did a google search of this area. the street view was updated in Sept of 2013. The area looks the same except for some overgrown bushes. The "For Sale" signs are different but those silhouettes, are still there. How about a 2014 follow up. Thanks Bill