The Most Valuable Building in Maplewood

Twenty years ago, the city of Maplewood successfully ended a multi-year dispute with a local property owner—a dispute that started when a large derelict building went on the market in 1999 and the city subsequently denied the new owner’s request for a demolition permit. The owner took the city to court over their right to demolish the building—and the city won. No demolition was granted. The derelict building remained.

The Rannells House—or Woodside, as it’s known—still stands today. Built around 1850, it’s the oldest known building in Maplewood, and as part of the court agreement in 2004, the city purchased the property. For twelve years as preservation efforts continued, the city awaited a buyer who would agree to (and could afford) the long and expensive restoration process. The buyer finally came in 2016, and in 2022, with the costly restoration complete, the seven-bedroom, single-family home went back on the market. This time, there was no dispute to speak of. The restored house is a gem and sold in the very high six-figure range, making it not only the oldest home in Maplewood but also one of the largest and most expensive.

This historic preservation effort has been well-documented, and as with most such efforts, was the result of a dedicated, collective effort spearheaded by local activists and city officials. It’s also a good example of the fact that cities do not simply make themselves. Our urban environments are the ever-evolving results of both our shared desires and the power structures that translate those desires into reality. Urban studies scholar Dan Immergluck writes that cities are “a politically and socially constructed space” resulting not merely from abstract market forces, but rather from deliberate decisions and planning. Through property regulations, policy choices, and strategic action, cities are made to reflect the vision and values of those in the community with enough power and privilege to shape them.

The preservation of Rannells House is a small but revealing example. To see why, let’s look at another local building that recently faced demolition—and met a very different fate. The building has no name, fitting since it no longer exists and was never very well known in the first place. It was built in 1940, making it quite unremarkable historically, as many buildings in Maplewood were constructed in the early decades of the 20th century. Still, over 80 years later, we are now about as distant from the construction of this building as it was from the construction of Rannells House some 90 years prior—making the two buildings almost like distant cousins, raised in very different circumstances and going on to live very different lives.

Regardless of their rarity, the many aging buildings over a hundred years old in Maplewood (Rannells House included) all carry their own weight in lived history—or, at least those that are still standing. The building in question is not. It’s now only a ghost. Where it once stood is a grassy strip of cement leftover from its foundation and the quaint public green space that now occupies the property. I don’t know what the building might have been known as to those who lived there, but since it had no formal title, let’s simply call it by its HUD project name: 2270 Yale Ave.

In 2012, the city made a decision about this building’s fate and, just as it did with Rannells House, marshaled its resources to transform that decision into reality. This time, however, the city absolutely did want the building torn down.

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