The House On Hazeldell Avenue

Dan Barry: CRANDON, Wis.



The house on North Hazeldell Avenue has to go. Its two stories, its white vinyl siding, its front porch, its back porch, its windows and doors, ceilings and walls: the entire structure. It has to go. It cannot stand.



The original hope was to burn it, burn it to the ground; fire can cleanse. But city officials stepped in and said no way to setting a house ablaze in the middle of a neighborhood. So now the plan is to stage a communal, cathartic house-razing.



On the first Saturday of summer, residents will gather to watch local volunteers tear the house down. After that, a waste-management company will truck every nail and board out of sight, if not out of…