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Dayvid LemMon started calling his house the Downtown Phoenix Museum of Gentrification a few months ago (he even registered it on Google Maps and Foursquare), and has been receiving curious visitors and phone calls ever since.
“I get random ASU students coming to check the place out for their latest project on gentrification or people from out of town looking for museum’s downtown,” says LemMon. “And then I have to tell them that I actually live here.”
According to the Phoenix Historic Property Record, it’s the Louis Emerson house, which was built in 1902. LemMon’s registration and name started as an inside joke, but if you pass by on any given First Friday, or during a drive Downtown, you might see that the house is an island, of sorts, surrounded by city high-rises and condominiums.
Inside, LemMon describes his style as Gothic, Victorian Row House, with a heavy IKEA influence. And staying true to his industry and lifestyle, LemMon’s decked the place out with local art.
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LemMon’s a third-generation Arizonan. He remembers coming downtown when he was 19-years-old (10 years ago) and driving through neighborhoods that have since been razed and turned into condos. Since moving in, he’s seen the lots around him being bulldozed or cleared overnight.
“Now, I have 400 neighbors living across the street,” he says. “I guess the cool part is that I get to live in an old, funky house in the urban core of Phoenix … and I have friends and the gate code [to the complex across the street] so I essentially have a pool as well.”
The house’s interior has been renovated since it was moved in the 1980s.
Crown molding and dark-stained flooring accent the photographer’s own artwork as well as the work of his friends including Mike Maas, Andrew Urban, Jerry Portelli and Fausto Fernandez.
Check out more shots of the interior and exterior in our slideshow of LemMon’s Downtown Phoenix Museum of Gentrification …
