112 TERRACE BUILDING APARTMENTS
611 Gedney Street
This four-story building, erected in 1902, offers rooms for $40 per month. While not as well-fitted out as the Guardian Apartments( 109 GUARDIAN APARTMENTS ), it is nevertheless a decent place to live in a good area. Apartments are smallish, three-room affairs (bedroom, lounge/kitchen, and toilet), with external bathrooms shared between two apartments. The building’s superintendent, Santiago Silva, lives off-site, but visits each weekday to maintain the building’s services and deal with any repair work; for after-hours emergencies, Silva can be contacted by telephone.
Notable Folk
Santiago Silva, 34, is the building’s superintendent, and lives off-site in the Lower Southside neighborhood.
Minerva “Minnie” Coleman, 33, has an apartment on the third floor from which she provides a professional mediumship service.
Strangeness
The apartments now stand on what was once the old Palmer Building, which housed a number of business offices and apartments during the 1800s. The last tenants of the Palmer Building left in 1893, with the place boarded up and abandoned until the owners sold the land for construction. “The Palmer” was always considered a depressing and sorrowful place, with the office workers renowned for getting sick with headaches and all manner of afflictions. Indeed, over its lifespan, the building gained an unsavory reputation due to the number of accidents and deaths within its walls. Rumor has it that David, the son of Benjamin Palmer, the building’s owner, died in mysterious circumstances just one month after its official opening, seemingly throwing himself from its roof, although no satisfactory motive ever surfaced regarding what was, by all accounts, a lively and gregarious young man with a promising future. Strangely, at least six other people died due to falls from the building’s roof or windows over the following years. In time, more and more people refused to work there, and businesses moved out to less problematic premises. In 1893, a survey found significant structural damage and the building was deemed unsound. It remained boarded up until 1901 when the owners demolished it and sold the land. Only time will tell if the Palmer’s sorrowful influence will creep up from the ground into the bricks of the Terrace Building Apartments.
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