I have been told that the blue paint peeled house is vacant. It doesn’t look vacant to me, so let’s ignore it, shall we. However the lavender and white house is vacant as it has the plywood that says, “Hi, I’m vacant!”
These are 1721 and 1719 4th St NW, which sit on square 519. Square 519 has a special place in my heart as it was the land owned by German immigrant George Glorius, florist. On this land once upon a time sat his green house and his house where he lived with his wife and children. Now, off the top of my head (note I will probably update later) sometime in 190-something, Mr. & Mrs. Glorius sold most or all of this land to some horrid developer, who changed the character of the block by building a bunch of similar looking houses on it. I believe the developer was Harry Wardman.
Anyway I digress. 1719 4th St NW is owned by a Henry C Gregory of Argyle Terr. NW, WDC 20011. The Atlas Map page for DC.gov lists a transaction date of 1/1/2001 and a sales figure of $0.00. The RE Property database has no date of sale. But long story short Mr. Gregory has owned the property for a while. As of 12/27/07 the property has a “Special Assessment” of $606.00. The 2007 taxes of $4519.24 have been paid and there is no homestead deduction.
[Portion about 1721 4th removed as I’m really not sure it is vacant].
While I’m fooling around with things vacant on square 519, there is a lot to the left of 1719 that is a vacant lot. A Ms. Deborah Lara is listed as the owner of 1717 4th St NW. Ms. Lara of Avalon PL in Hyattsville, MD got possession of the property October 20, 2003 for an unknown amount and currently owes $365.51 in taxes for 2007.
UPDATE: I walked by 1721 and there is definitely a padlock on the door, so I guess it is vacant.