A cute little red house at 332 Hancock — one that unfortunately turned out to have irreparable structural issues — is the latest Polish Hill demolition.  Safety is important, but it’s sad to see another bit of the fabric of the old neighborhood lost.

Current building codes make putting new buildings in narrow spaces like these problematic, and sometimes impossible.  The commonly used term is “missing teeth”, and Polish Hill has a lot of them.  In many places, they’ve become green spaces, either wild or cultivated, and provide relief from tightly packed buildings.

UPDATE:  We just got some more information about what’s going to happen on this site.  The owners of 332 Hancock have been working with Forecast D/B to design (and subsequently build) a new house on this property,  one with a high level of LEED certification.  When the new house is done, the owners will become Polish Hill residents.  As mentioned, infill projects such as this one can be difficult under current codes.  This will be an ambitious project that will add something special to Hancock Street.