Residents, Landlord Fight for a Mansion
The historic house at 11-41 123rd St., known as the Schleicher Court Mansion, in College Point is empty these days.
Why that is exactly is a matter of dispute.
Residents, such as Rita Douglas, 51, a longtime resident of College Point, say it’s because the electrical system was so out of date, the Department of Buildings declared it a fire hazard.
Watch Douglas describe the ordeal of her former home:
Ordeal 2 from Caroline Linton on Vimeo.
But landlord Eva Rohan, 79, insists the residents have not paid their Con Edison bills, and that is why the house has been shut down.
“I don’t know what it is with these people,” Rohan said. “They are just complaining, complaining.”
Sara Banda, a spokeswoman for Con Edison, said the residents were evacuated because of a safety hazard, not because of unpaid bills.
Both sides acknowledge there were too many volts on the electrical system, but the reason for the voltage problem has not been resolved. Rohan said the residents put too many volts willingly, while the residents claim they are only using the amount of volts they need to survive.
Douglas describes the eviction below:
Vacate from Caroline Linton on Vimeo.
Rohan’s manager, Georgina Sagr, and the residents have taken the dispute all the way to court. City Councilman Tony Avella called a press conference two weeks ago to try to get the residents back into the house.
Avella makes his case to get the residents home by the holidays below:
B Roll from Caroline Linton on Vimeo.
Since the vacate order, the former tenants have been alternating between shelters and relatives’ homes. Douglas has been staying with her father, who also lives in College Point. Her fiancé, son, and brother all lived with her in her old first-floor apartment at the Schleicher Court Mansion, and they are all staying with her father as well.
Her father’s apartment has become so crowded her son is sleeping on the bathroom floor.
All the residents are beginning the feel the squeeze after five months of delays.
“It’s affecting our health—it’s affecting everything—somebody has to give an inch on this,” said resident and former superintendent of the building Kalvis Macs. “This slumlord should not be able to get away with this. She is the Grinch of the holidays for us.”
Divided into seven apartments, the house’s origins date back to the 1850s, when it was one many brick mansions in the area. Now it sits by itself in the middle of a roundabout, dark and empty before the holiday season.
Early estimates claim the Schleicher Court Mansion dates back to 1853, and the original owner ran guns to the Confederacy through it. In the days since then, the house has fallen into disrepair.
Avella hopes the house will one day be made a landmark by the city.
For some background on the house, watch this clip:
Background from Caroline Linton on Vimeo.
For more information about the Schleicher Court Mansion dispute click on this link.