Florence Ballard and her home on Buena Vista

[marybrewster]

I have tried to rationalize this for a long time now and I always come away puzzled. When Flo left or kick out of the group she was given a mere sum of round $160,000.00 for her contribution to the group. The home purchased by Motown for her on Buena Vista could not have been more than around $50,000 at that time. So, was it the taxes on the home that cause her to lose it ? Surly she had enough to secure the home. I have revisited the stories and the articles and I always think she could have bought the house and the one next to her. It just always strike me odd to what happen here and what else was going on. Also, there is the story of Diana sending a check to Florence only that was attempted to be interceptive by Tommy.

Flo's old house looks beautiful today; glad to see it was returned to it's former glory. Much different from the magazine cover.

My question? Did Flo and her family tear that house up? It's one thing to lose the house, but based on the pic from Jet, it looks like all the windows are boarded up and the awning is in shreds.

[danman869]

Flo's old house looks beautiful today; glad to see it was returned to it's former glory. Much different from the magazine cover.

My question? Did Flo and her family tear that house up? It's one thing to lose the house, but based on the pic from Jet, it looks like all the windows are boarded up and the awning is in shreds.

While I don't know for certain how Florence and her family treated the house on Buena Vista so that by 1975 it looked like it did on the cover of Jet magazine, I can confidently say that awning material does eventually break down what with being exposed to nature all the time. [Presuming that the awning never was drawn back or taken down during wintertime.] Sun, wind, rain, heat, and cold... if you didn't have the funds to repair or replace it, it was going to start to fall apart. I would also figure that in the 1960s, there weren't chemical treatments to make awning materials more resistant to exposure as there would be today. I'd say that the awning looked as bad as it did on the cover of Jet because Flo hadn't had the funds to maintain/replace it before the time she lost the house.

As for the boarded up windows, I would figure the bank [or whoever held the mortgage] would've boarded up the windows to protect their investment and prevent squatters and other undesired folks from entering the house...and, sadly, that likely included trying to prevent Flo [the mortgagee] from trying to get back into the house, too.

For me, I think Florence clearly loved that house and what it represented [her success and independence] and I have to doubt that while she had the means to maintain it that she wouldn't have done so. I think the appearance of the exterior by 1975 was mainly about a lack of money and the bank "protecting" the foreclosed property.

Oh--and I just did a quick search of good ol' 3767 Buena Vista on Google Maps and found this photo taken in June 2019 [with what looks like the same Jeep Grand Cherokee pictured above farther back in the driveway from the front of the house--same homeowner[s]?]. Take a look at the awning. It appears there's a hole in the one above the living room windows and the one over the upstairs balcony is severely torn. An awning looks great...until it just doesn't. Part of the fun of homeownership is maintaining that kind of stuff and it takes money. Sadly, by '75, Flo didn't have much to spare.