East of the dreaded Department of Motor Vehicles, most of East Deering’s Presumpscot Street is a long industrial strip of warehouses, power substations, energy companies and plumbing and heating businesses. Pedestrians have the luxury of an asphalt sidewalk, but only on one side and not for the full length of the street. This is not exactly a residential area, though there are several homes, some of which are in good shape.
The houses at 310 and 322 Presumpscot, just beyond where the sidewalk ends, are not among them.
When I visited in mid-July, the red one, at 322, seemed to be the nicer of the two dumps, though that isn’t saying much. Its sagging porch appeared to be on the verge of collapse, the foundation looked shaky, and the chimney had definitely seen better days. The garage door had been patched up with weather-beaten plywood, and a vine was well on its way to consuming the house.
That said, the lawn was freshly mown and the paint job on the house looked relatively fresh. There was a 1982 Airstream Excella motor home parked on the front lawn, for sale. When I called the number, the Airstream’s owner directed me to Tim O’Donovan, who owns the dump and was allowing the guy to park the motor home there until it sold. (It’s no longer there.)
O’Donovan runs O’Donovan’s Complete Property Management, in Falmouth. He said he’s owned the house for about 15 years and previously rented it to Nice Fuel, a heating oil company that used it for an office. Nice is no longer there, and O’Donovan said renovating the property is not worth the cost. He said he got a demolition permit from the city in early July, but the lot won’t remain vacant very long.
“At some point there will be another building there, but it won’t be residential,” O’Donovan said. He said zoning no longer allows new residential units in the area.
The dingy white house just down the street at 310 Presumpscot was a real mess. The lawn was on the verge of becoming a jungle. An uprooted stump rested there amid piles of random junk. There were four satellite dishes on the roof of this decayed wreck. The only hint of beauty was a cluster of flowers near the cellar door.
A neighbor told me the place had been empty for about a year. “It’s gutted,” the neighbor said. “I don’t think there’s a heating system there or anything.” The resident added that thieves had recently broken in and ganked all the copper.
City tax records indicate the previous owner was Phoung H. Ly, but county records reveal that the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation acquired the property through foreclosure last May. On a return visit shortly before this issue went to press, my editor discovered that the place had been bought — apparently by the owners of Nice Fuel, who occupy a new office nearby — and clean-up work was in progress in anticipation of a residential renter moving in.
Welcome to the neighborhood! Sorry ’bout the sidewalk.
— Patrick Banks
