CITYSCAPES
Neighborhood was ready for La Ressurrection
By KEVIN LEININGER
from the archives of The News-Sentinel
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When the picture on the left snapped on a sunny day in 1900, the neighborhood now called LaRez was one of the city's showplaces. This view
looking east along Tabor Street from the top of the Reservoir Park hill shows
a neighborhood of trim new homes, buggy-tracked dirt streets and freshly
planted trees. In the background, then as now, loomed the graceful spire of
Zion Lutheran Church, built in 1890.
But as the picture right suggests, time has not been kind to the
neighborhood. The homes standing on either side of Tabor Street in the earlier
photograph have long since given way to vacant lots. Trees which were not much
more than seedlings at the turn of the century now obscure the view.
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A city planning department report prepared during the term of former Mayor
Robert Armstrong spelled out LaRez's decline: ``Parts of LaRez were once
residential showplaces, but in the past few decades the neighborhood has
experienced significant decline. In 1976, nearly half the homes were found to
be in need of some degree of rehabilitation ... Housing values dropped
drastically from 1960 to 1970, when the rest of the city was enjoying growth
and rising values.''
Despite the gloomy report, there is reason to believe LaRez may be making a
comeback. Money is being spent to rehabilitate previously deteriorating homes,
and the planning report admitted a turnaround was possible when it said LaRez
``has potential in its wealth of architecturally significant structures, the
diversity of its people, its plentiful housing stock and its convenient
central location.''
The neighborhood also has a very active community association which, along
with the city, is working hard to bring about a much needed
``LaResurrection.''
(Editor's note, 1997: And the resurrection happened, and the neighborhood as a result developed one of the city's strongest neighborhood associations.
--April 17, 1982
