508 Park Ave – Set to be Destroyed?

It’s true – the permits are filed.  Can the building be saved?

 

 

508 Park Ave

 

 

This is an update to a previous post on this site, entitled “Robert Johnson’s Dallas Session – A Letter and a Building.“

The legendary building where Robert Johnson recorded in Dallas Texas is a historical building to those into the blues.  To this site, it is another historical location in not only the blues, but in american history that is set to be lost forever.  

The building, long for sale (but with little interest) is not going to be saved.  Nothing short of a miracle can do it – the permits have been filed to tear this beautiful building – along with its history – down to the dirty ground.  

Read more to find out more details and see if there is anything that can be done to save this precious monument.  

 

The beautiful building, originally built in 1929 as the Warner Brothers Film Exchange, later became the recording location for Robert Johnson in 1937.  The thing is, it wasn’t until 2006 that historians had definitive proof that Johnson recorded such immortal, oft-covered songs as “Hellhound on My Trail,” “Love in Vain” and “Traveling Riverside Blues” at 508 Park Ave.  However, now that they know, it seems little can be done to save the building.

Eric Clapton Recording inside 508 Park Ave

 

So how did historians and researchers find out this was the building?  By a letter written between Frank Driggs and Don Law.  That letter can be seen here: “Don Law Robert Johnson letter“.  Since the letter confirms the location (referring to the make shift branch office of the recording company), it is now known as fact.  Many other artists recorded here as well - including Eric Clapton, who recorded in the building for a DVD release, and played several of Johnson’s songs.

The owners of 508 Park Ave.—Glazer’s Distributors, which purchased the building in 1958—filed with the city a certificate of demolition. Glazer’s has tired of messing with the building, which the city claims “is in violation of numerous city ordinances, many of which may create health and safety problems to the neighbors and the general public.” In a letter sent to owner Bennett Glazer on October 13 assistant city attorney Jennifer DeCurtis cited 15 violations of the Dallas City Code and 11 violations of the Dallas Fire Code, including everything from a lack of a working toilet to high weeds filled with trash to a cracked sidewalk to the lack of a working fire alarm.

508 Park Ave

Glazer was warned: Get the building up to code within 30 days or “a suit may be filed in District Court requesting injunctive relief.” And “We may seek civil penalties of up to $1,000 a day for each violation.”

However, don’t blame Glazer just yet.  Pat O’Shea of Glazer’s suggested in October that the city was hounding the owners, who’ve been trying to sell for years but could find no takers because of the homeless who surround the property day and night. Sources say that Glazer’s has spent “close to a million dollars” to bring the building up to code in recent months, but that code enforcement officials kept insisting on “more and more changes,” which Glazer’s could no longer afford. Finally, the owners of 508 Park Avenue said, Enough.

Preservationists, of course, are panicked over the filing of the permit and trying at this very moment to find some way to save the building, which is part of the Harwood Street Historic District but is not itself a city-designated landmark structure.  However, this is something Dallas is good at – tearing down history.   They are more interested in their potential – over developing, and destroying history in its path.

“I think it’s disgusting they want to tear it down, because I think Dallas needs to hang on to some aspect of its historic past as it relates to music of this period,” says Dallas historian and author Alan Govenar, whose bookTexas Blues was just published. “This was so critically important to the growth of Dallas culturally and so important to the growth of African-American music and the way it influenced American popular music.  If we lose 508 Park Avenue, we’re put in the position, once again, of having one more piece of the puzzle missing,” says Govenar. “Cities that have thriving downtowns are able to strike the right balance between the public good and private interest. And that’s where Dallas is having a problem.”

Needless to say, the building should be saved.  It is truly a shame that history needs to be torn down in order to make a point.  It’s more than a location RJ recorded in – it is a historic building that served a recognizable impact on american music.  

If anyone has any ideas on how to save the building, or ay buyers who would be interested in purchasing the property, please let us know.  We will do all we can to save this building.

~ by thedeltablues on July 8, 2009.