ROSELAND — A vacant and collapsing Roseland house dubbed a dangerous eyesore by neighbors was demolished Monday, about a week after a 62-year-old man was killed there.

Neighbors watched from the sidewalk and celebrated Monday while crews tore down the house at 160 E. 111th St. They appealed to the city for years to do something about the house.

A balloon on the porch of 160 E. 111th Street, on March 23, 2022, where a community member was shot and killed days before.
There have been multiple fires at the property, leaving it with holes, open windows, an open roof and other damage, neighbors said. Its sewer line was missing its lid. The city noted numerous violations during inspections and had an order to demolish the house. People would regularly hang around the house and in the backyard, with some apparently squatting at the property, neighbors said.

Despite those issues — and many attempts from neighbors to get the city to intervene — the city didn’t tear down the house until after a Block Club reporter asked about the property and a man was killed there.

Brothers David and Tony Flowers have lived in the two-flat next door for 38 years. The two shared wine with Pullman resident Arlene Echols and her partner, Roderick Lewis, as they watched the demolition Monday.

Echols is a member of St. George and St. Matthias Episcopal Church. She and other members of the church — whose yard neighbored the vacant house — said it had been months since they’d heard anything from the city and Ald. Anthony Beale’s (9th) office about the house.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Tony Flowers said. “I’m happy about it, and it’ll make the community look a lot cleaner and a lot stronger. We won’t have people lingering and just sitting out for no reason at all. And there’s a lot of negativity which took place, which is why it’s coming down now.”

While neighbors said they’re glad the house is finally coming down, they’re sad it didn’t happen until a man was killed.

The fatal shooting happened about 5:15 p.m. March 20, police said. The man had been sitting on the porch of the house, eating, when someone shot him, neighbors said. Neighbors also said the shooting started as an argument with someone walking past the house.

The man died at Advocate Christ Medical Center, police said. Detectives are investigating, and no one has been arrested.

“We’re kind of sorry that it took someone getting killed off to have to them come and take this down,” David Flowers said. “Only one week has passed since it happened over here.”

Years Of Neighbors’ Complaints

The church’s members have reported the building to the city in the past, but they began seriously working to have it removed last year.

Bill Taylor, the church’s junior warden, emailed the 9th Ward office in March 2021 with photos of the building to see if Beale could intervene. Beale said the photos would be sent to the Chicago Department of Buildings, which oversees permitting, inspections and code enforcement for buildings. Taylor never received a follow-up from Beale or the city.

Echols got more involved when she started gardening in the church’s side yard. She found piles of debris that had fallen from the property next door. Other material from the vacant house — including pieces of its roof, broken glass, wooden support beams and trash — also fell into the yard, which the church uses for outdoor services and events. 

Echols noticed in November the house’s backyard sewer line was missing its lid, and its garage collapsed after a heavy storm one winter, she said. 

“This is the only abandoned house” on the block, Echols said. “And when I say abandoned, I don’t want people to think that it’s just empty. It is dilapidated and seems to be collapsing.”

Echols wrote to Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office in April 2021 but only received an auto-reply. Echols and Taylor also tried to determine the owner of the house through online records.

Neighbors think the house belonged to a man who left the property to his family when he died, but they could not locate the owners.

Block Club attempted to reach the family, but they did not respond to requests for comment.

The Cook County Treasurer’s Office’s website shows property taxes for the house were last paid in 2016. More than $10,000 in property taxes were owed on the house by the time it was demolished.

Building inspection records show 77 violations reported at the house between 2005 and 2018 for electric, plumbing and other problems at the house.

Documents from the Cook County Recorder of Deeds’ Office show courts authorized the city to demolish the house in November 2018. The documents called the building “dangerous, unsafe and beyond responsible repair” for a litany of issues: Its electrical system was exposed, its floor was missing in sections, its plumbing had been stripped and was inoperable, its roof was damaged and its stairs were partially collapsed, among other problems.

A demolition order was also issued by the Department of Buildings for the property’s garage in 2017 for posing a “public safety threat” and “presenting an actual and imminent danger to the public.”