What once was a conversation starter, is now a vacant lot full of hay. [what was it?]

You may recall walking up C Street Southeast to Eastern Market on weekends, past a dilapidated house, boarded up and yellowing, collecting old newspapers and rubbish. It is no longer there. It is now a vacant lot, covered with hay, behind a cheap fence. Once a Chinese-American-owned market and/or drycleaner (I’m not Robert Pohl–ask him) with historical chops, the building was never renovated, preserved, gutted or restored, as so many of our neighborhood’s homes are after decades of neglect and abandonment. It did not have the happy fate of passing into the hands of a young, eager buyer or young family, like the homes beside it. Nothing was salvaged, nothing was preserved; it was entirely razed by the city. The fact that a razing in the historic district is so rare, but could set a precedent, combined with the prime location of the house –a block from Eastern Market and formerly at 820 C Street SE– as well as the unusual position of the owner (she is neither destitute nor alone, but well-connected and, by all appearances, affluent), make the saga of ‘The Little House That Couldn’t” one worth telling as a long winter’s tale.

h/t The Hill is Home