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A stunning reversal
By JACQUELINE F. DUPUIS ST. PETERSBURG -- Just 14 months ago, Len Johnsen and Tom Barrett purchased a deteriorating 87-year-old Historic Roser Park mansion for $150,000. They had no choice but to spray themselves with bug repellent before they walked on to the property and through the flea-and roach-infested house at 609 11th Ave. S. "They just jumped all over you," Johnsen said. "It was a nightmare, the whole house." About $500,000 and nine months later, the 4,056-square-foot mansion is the main attraction on 11th Avenue S, the centerpiece of the men's plans to rehabilitate the entire avenue between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Fourth streets. During the past year, they have purchased a total of 28 properties on the avenue, including several houses built in the early 1900s. The men finance the work with their own assets, construction loans and bank financing. They then resell properties they restore. Their plans include refurbishing run-down houses, building new ones, landscaping and installing historic street lights. They are particularly interested in Midtown, bounded by Fourth and 34th streets between Second Avenue N and 30th Avenue S. The men hope eventually to extend their work from Roser Park to Bartlett and perhaps other Midtown neighborhoods. Johnsen, 54, and Barrett, 44, are two of many among the city's gay population who buy and restore old houses, often improving the physical character of an entire neighborhood. It is a seldom-articulated but significant trend in St. Petersburg that began perhaps 20 years ago, said Bob Jeffrey, the city's Urban Design and Historic Preservation manager. In St. Petersburg, members of the gay community have renovated hundreds of buildings, Jeffrey said. As a city planner and resident of Historic Kenwood, where much renovation has taken place, he is in a position to know. Realtors also have noticed. During the past three to four years, Realtor Brian Longstreth said he has sold at least 15 houses in the Midtown area to gays and lesbians. He said part of the reason they are attracted to Midtown is that they are looking for historic houses built in the 1920s through the 1940s. Other areas such as Kenwood have become too expensive so they move to blighted but affordable areas like Palmetto Park, Campbell Park, Bartlett Park or Roser Park. "One of the reasons why they move to challenged areas is because they are not concerned about crime, they have no children and a large portion of the gay community enjoys fixing up homes and decorating them," said Longstreth, who is gay. "And it usually turns out to be a wise investment." Said Johnsen: "Without the gay population, you wouldn't have the rejuvenation of these areas." Bob Elkins, co-owner of Florida Lifestyle Realty in St. Petersburg, has been in the real estate business for 18 years, much of the time with his life partner. He said most of the homes he sells to gays and lesbians are older homes built in the 1920s and 1930s. He said his clients like features such as wood floors, fireplaces, crown moulding and French doors. Said Jeffrey: "Old neighborhoods are where you see the transition." Then, he said, young couples with children start to move in, stabilizing the neighborhoods. From a Realtor's perspective, Longstreth thinks of the gay and lesbian movement into blighted areas as a pattern. As examples, he named Hyde Park in Tampa and Historic Old Northeast in St. Petersburg. Longstreth said about 15 years ago those areas had high tenancy and low owner occupancy properties, which he said correlates with high drug and crime rates. After some gays and lesbians moved in, restored the houses and cleaned up the neighborhoods, people started to feel comfortable and more and more families moved in. Gays also moved to blighted areas in Tampa, such as Seminole Heights and Tampa Heights, and started restoring neighborhoods there. It is a trend that has taken place in larger cities across the nation. Longstreth says the same thing is happening in parts of St. Petersburg. Said Jeffrey, a resident of Historic Kenwood: "I guess if there's a downside to it, and I don't know there really is, in Kenwood we had a couple of people wanting to push that it be an all-gay neighborhood. "But that goes against the openness and cohesiveness. You still have to keep a balance to everything. That's what makes a neighborhood great -- the openness," Jeffrey said. Johnsen and Barrett say they don't intend to turn neighborhoods gay. They say they are simply interested in the historic houses. "I want to see this as an eclectic neighborhood," Johnsen said, referring to Roser Park. They plan to restore each house to its original state and expect the 11th Avenue section to be rejuvenated within the next two years. They will tear down unsalvable houses, such as those infested with termites, and rebuild them with an historic look. When Johnsen and Barrett bought the Bradshaw house, the inside was a disaster. Besides the rotting doors, unusable sinks and bathroom, the crumbling walls and patio, damaged tiles and broken sub-floors, the house was dirty and filled with trash. Old wallpaper was ripped off the walls. More trash, old tires and dog feces covered the yard. "You couldn't walk up the stairs. The whole place was full of dog poop," Johnsen said. They collected two tons of trash from inside the house and the yard. It was a sad state for the massive, cast-stone mansion built in 1916 for Mayor James G. Bradshaw. In July 1987, the house was named a contributing property to Roser Park's designation as a local historic district. After months of restoration, the two-story mansion, which sits on a 130-by-120 foot lot, was transformed into a luxurious home in which Johnsen and Barrett now live. The men had all of the original oak and heart pine floors, the stairway, pocket doors and door fixtures restored. They had three fireplaces repaired and added cast-stone mantelpieces with hand-carved historical designs. They replaced exterior rotting doors with 500-year-old heart pine to match the rest of the house. They also had the roof and front veranda replaced and the bases of the house's eight columns repaired with original pieces that were found. They had plumbing and electrical wiring fixed, initially mounted to the outside wall and now built into the walls. All of the original windows were repaired and replaced. The 23,000 original Augusta blocks, old, dirty and trash-covered in the back yard, were lifted one by one, cleaned and put back down to form a driveway and a walkway. "We saw the opportunity to have an historic house that would have cost $2-million in Old Northeast," Johnsen said. "We could not have afforded the house in a different section of St. Pete." Neighbors, some of whom are homeowners, welcome the couple's accomplishments, saying they got rid of some prostitution and drugs. One of the couple's goals is to make the neighborhood safer. Before Johnsen and Barrett bought the triplex house across 11th Avenue from Greenwood cemetery, it had a reputation for illegal activity. Chris Kelly, a Roser Park resident and president of St. Petersburg Preservation, is especially happy about the neighborhood clean-up. Previously, volunteers from the Pinellas Genealogy Society had come to do work in the cemetery and were harassed by people in what Kelly called a crack house. He calls Johnsen and Barrett urban pioneers. Juanita Kennedy, 75, has been living in her house on 11th Avenue S for 32 years. She remembers the days when the neighbors knew each other and the area was safe. She can't tell if crime rates have decreased because she still hears people walking outside her house at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. What she has noticed is a vast improvement in the neighborhood from a year ago. She often sees two young men, Ernst Tucker, 18, and his brother, Thomas, 17, walking up and down the streets picking up trash and mowing lawns. Barrett and Johnson hired them to help the clean-up and landscaping effort. Kennedy's house is across the street from one of the old houses Johnson and Barrett renovated. A white picket fence encloses the restored, pale green house with rust-color trimming. Kennedy watched the renovation from her house. "They did a lot of work, they really did. They put a whole new roof on that house and everything. They put some nice people in there," she said. Neighbors seem impartial to the fact that their new neighbors, Johnsen and Barrett, are gay. "I am not prejudiced of how people live. I don't go one way or the other," Kennedy said. Helen Harrington, who has lived next door to the mansion for at least 25 years, was concerned about her under-maintained yard. She didn't have the money to landscape her yard and didn't know how to keep up with her new neighbors. When Barrett and Johnsen started renovating the mansion, they tapped into Harrington's electricity for the first few days. Their way of showing appreciation was to landscape Harrington's front yard with new grass and trees. "I'm very happy," she said. "They seem like the perfect neighbors for me." -- Staff writer Jon Wilson contributed to this report.
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