If you live in, work in, or drive through Point Breeze, you may have noticed a small development of about a dozen homes that don’t look like any other houses in the neighborhood. These houses, on the 2100 blocks of Federal and Annin Sts., sit on extra-wide lots, have large backyards, and private parking spaces in their side yards. From what we can tell, some of these homes were built on the site of a former gas station and garage.

21st and Federal Sts. in 1956

2105 & 2107 Federal St., today

From what we can gather, the homes were built in the mid-1980’s, probably as some sort of subsidized housing. By the early 2000’s, several of the properties had fallen into terrible disrepair and were taken over by HUD and auctioned off. In recent years, some of the homes have been resold, with a fully rehabbed home selling for $214K in 2007.

But who built these homes and why did they build them on supersized lots, and design them to look different from the rest of the neighborhood? A couple of months back, we looked at some southwestern style homes in Fairmount that also stuck out like a sore thumb in that neighborhood and it turned out they were originally built by PHA. Same case here? Someone different? Anyone have any insight?