Author: Michael R. Allen

Categories
Preservation Board

Preservation Board Gets New Member: Alderman Craig Schmid

by Michael R. Allen

Today’s Preservation Board meeting will be the first for its newest member, Alderman Craig Schmid (D-20th). Schmid recently was elected to serve as Chairman of the Public Safety committee of the Board of Aldermen, following the untimely death of previous chair Alderman Greg Carter (D-27th). Under the specifications of Preservation Board composition in the city’s preservation ordinance, the Chairman of the Aldermanic Public Safety Committee is a voting member of the Preservation Board.

Schmid’s vote largely replaces that of Alderman Antonio French (D-21st), who attended Preservation Board meetings in the last two years as the designee of Alderman Carter. French voted against nearly every demolition request that appeared before the board, including those for Sts. Mary and Joseph School (now completely demolished) and the AAA Building (now off the chopping block under a new CVS plan). French surprised some when he voted on the minority side of the 3-2 vote in November 2011 that blocked St. Louis University’s request to demolish of the Pevely Dairy Plant’s corner office building at Chouteau and Grand. French, however, stated that because the university planned a new ambulatory care facility on the site he could support the plan. Alderman French opposed demolition without plans for replacement development.

Schmid has appeared before the board multiple times, most often opposed to demolitions in his ward. In 2009, Schmid led a march against the St. Louis Public Schools’ planned closure of several south side schools, including Shepard School in Marine Villa. Additionally, Schmid has been one of a few aldermen actually willing to repair brick alleys rather than pave over them. Schmid most recently appeared at the board in June in the matter of a city-owned frame flounder house at 3719 Texas Avenue, and agreed to a six-month window of time to find a reuse plan before considering demolition again.

Had Wells Fargo not removed its appeal of a denied demolition permit for the building at 3006-8 Cherokee Street, Schmid’s first demolition vote might have considered a matter in his own ward. In the future he may well get more chances to shape the outcome of demolition matters in neighborhoods like Gravois Park which reside within his ward and have high rates of vacancy.

Categories
Collapse JeffVanderLou National Register

Preserving Tillie’s Corner in JeffVanderLou

by Emily Kozlowski

Tillie's Corner in 2008.

The three brick townhouses of 1349-1353 N. Garrison Ave. were once a staple of the neighborhood, as the community grocery store named Tillie’s Corner. Lillie Pearson, known as “Miss Tillie”, bought the first building in 1948 and operated a successful business there for 40 years. Her long-lived business is a testament to Lillie herself, as a single mother and an African American woman in a severely segregated city. The townhouses are historic links to the migration of African Americans from the south to northern urban centers, to a business owned and operated by an African American woman, and to the community center for which the store is essentially remembered (hours 5:00 a.m. – 11:00 p.m.).

The Late Victorian style townhouses of Tillie’s Corner were built in 1870 in the residential neighborhood of Jeff-VanderLou. Three stories tall and with three separate store fronts added in the 1920’s, they were built with home and business in mind. Lillie opened shop after the sudden death of her husband left her with the children to support on her own. Her shop was her way of supporting her family and being a part of the community. The confectionery thrived from the neighboring Dunbar Elementary School and local homeowners. Lillie devotedly kept daily hours that were much longer than any large grocer, allowing for those without transportation to stop by after work. Her hours extended to years, and the shop was running for a remarkable four decades. Lillie can be considered an activist in community building, as she stayed at the exact same address through years of increasing crime and urban decline. She offered a stable business to meet the needs of her neighborhood instead of abandoning it. After 40 years, only when she was physically unable to operate the business, did she close Tillie’s Corner.

Tillie's Corner after partial collapse on August 26, 2012.

Carla Pearson and Miguel Alexander, heirs of Tillie’s Corner, have high hopes for the future. Not only do they look to preserve the buildings, but plan on using them as a center for care-giving to the elderly and disabled. Tillie’s Corner is currently in the process of being listed in the National register of Historic Places (thanks to students in Dr. Sonia Lee’s Washington university history courses, with pro bono assistance from Karen Bode Baxter). The problem, now, is restoring the buildings to their history glory. They have deteriorated and weathered over time; recently, a side of the building collapsed due to heavy rain. The buildings can be saved but time is the crucial factor. Help preserve a part of St. Louis and African American history by donating or spreading the story. Carla and Miguel can be contacted at (314) 495-3686 or tilliescorner@yahoo.com.

Emily Kozlowski, an art history major at Webster University, is currently a Research Intern at Preservation Research Office.

Categories
Cherokee Street Gravois Park South St. Louis

Foreclosures and Demolition in Gravois Park

by Michael R. Allen

Vacant lots silently are starting to multiply on the city’s “state streets,” especially in parts of Gravois Park and Dutchtown between promising business districts on Cherokee Street and Meramec Avenue. Even worse are the innumerable signs of future trauma: bleached-red plywood, windows gasping through shards of broken glass, front doors hung ajar, downspouts and gutter pans already smelted in blast furnaces outside Beijing and weeds that cannot be cut enough to stay low. While much attention has been shed on vacancy’s impact on the north side, the south side is showing the signs of a future crisis.

Foreclosure has been a huge factor making neglect more difficult to sustain. As waves of investors abandoned underwater multi-family buildings, the vacancy rates soared in Benton Park West, Gravois Park, Dutchtown and other neighborhoods. In 2008, the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the city a $5.6 million grant to purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed homes. Under the direction of then-Deputy Mayor for Development Barbara Geisman, the city’s Community Development Administration targeted those funds in Gravois Park, Benton Park West and Dutchtown. At the time, the city projected the purchase of 87 homes and an application to receive $10 million toward purchasing 231 more.

3006-8 Cherokee Street in 2003. Image from Geo St. Louis.
Continue reading “Foreclosures and Demolition in Gravois Park”
Categories
Mid-Century Modern St. Louis County

Lewis and Clark Branch Library Threatened

by Michael R. Allen

In my capacity as President of Modern STL, I just sent out the following call to action.

As we near the November 6 election, the demolition threat to the Lewis and Clark Branch remains. (Read up on the issue here.) Landmarks Association of St. Louis placed the Lewis and Clark Branch on their 2012 Most Endangered Places list this fall, and the press has run a slew of articles highlighting the building’s significance and possible fate.

Still, the St. Louis County Library will not pledge to take way demolition as an option for the Lewis and Clark Branch under its proposed $108 million facilities plan. Director Charles Pace has recommended a study for reuse be done, but at the moment anyone who supports the St. Louis County Library bond issue may be supporting destroying one of the region’s finest Modern buildings.

Continue reading “Lewis and Clark Branch Library Threatened”
Categories
Infrastructure Mass Transit

Loop Trolley Final Route

Here is the Loop Trolley Company’s report on the final route. Since the proposed line could be a stimulus to investment in the buildings and parcels facing the route, our readers might be interested. Will the trolley be a catalyst for rehabilitation of remaining vacant buildings like Wabash Station, or (in wilder dreams) restoration of Isadore Shank’s DeBalievere Building (1926)? Will it spur dense infill on vacant lots (an outcome that owners of sites of demolished barbeque restaurants might wish)? Time will tell. For now, we know that there are changes in the trolley route and its terminals.

Loop Trolley final route – incl. station placement, maintenance facility and termini

Categories
Central West End Mid-Century Modern Uncategorized

An Early HOK Building on Lindell

by Michael R. Allen

Last summer, things were somewhat chaotic for two early buildings by giant firm Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum (now HOK) located on Lindell Boulevard. While the old IBM Building (1959; 3800 Lindell), now Adorjan Hall at St. Louis University, lost its brise soleil, the former Sperry-Rand Building (1956; 4100 Lindell), most recently the St. Louis Housing Authority headquarters, was facing uncertainty. Things have changed — just a bit.

The former Sperry-Rand Building.

Now the Sperry-Rand Building is on the market listed at a little over $1.1 million. That price might be low enough to be in “tear down” range in some cities, but in St. Louis that seems to be a price that might encourage buyers who would retain the building. Whether those buyers would retain the building’s character is another question.

George Hellmuth, Gyo Obata and George Kassabaum had only been in business as partners for one year when the Sperry-Rand Building opened its doors. Admittedly the firm would reach greater heights than this modest three-story business block, but its form and minimal treatment remain elegant. Furthermore, the Sperry-Rand Building offers a great combination of urbanistic traits: the building maintains the ample Lindell Boulevard setback, which gives that street its monumentality, while opening its first floor with large full-height windows and its floor level near sidewalk level. In short, the first floor could be adapted to retail use quite easily, adding activity on a corner close to emergent redevelopment on Laclede and West Pine avenues.

Looking east across the street wall toward the Sperry-Rand Building.

As an early work of a major firm, and part of the reconstruction of Lindell Boulevard through Modern Movement architecture between 1939 and 1977, the Sperry-Rand Building is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The building’s historic context will become even clearer as the Cultural Resources Office and its consultant completes the development of contexts for non-residential Modern architecture in the city. That project, including a survey, is underway and will be completed in 2013. Already known is that the building is one of at least 37 Modern buildings built between Grand and Kingshighway on Lindell at a time when the city was struggling to enliven its core. Corporate office buildings like the Sperry-Rand were signs of needed investment, and their confident Modern architecture reflected optimism.

The rear of the building. Lots of parking.

The Sperry-Rand Building also offers ample parking in back on a lot shared with the former Easter Seal Society Building to the west (1960), also for sale. That space could be used immediately for its function, or built out with additional construction and structured parking. Someday, we can hope, the Lindell Marketplace will be dramatically reconfigured to appropriate scale and density. The wreck of 3949 Lindell Boulevard will soon be rebuilt. Sarah Avenue has gained several establishments. This corner building is a key connector, built in an adaptable urban form. Perhaps higher density will rise around it, but there is nothing amiss with the building’s scale. This is a small gem that needs to shine again.

Categories
Downtown

Paul Brown Building Brochure

Paul Brown Building
818 Olive Street
Architect: Preston Bradshaw
Built: 1926

On the west side of Ninth Street between Olive and Pine streets stands one of downtown’s latest early office buildings, the Paul Brown. Named for a banker and vice president of the Mercantile Trust Company, the Paul Brown Building was completed in 1926 from plans by architect Preston J. Bradshaw. The building was a speculative project, and it replaced older buildings on the site including the Odd Fellows Building at the corner of Ninth and Olive (1888). One of the tenants in the Odd Fellows Building, the Christian Science Reading Room, ended up being partly responsible for the Paul Brown’s design when the tenant won a court injunction against relocation. Bradshaw had to redesign the building to utilize the base columns and first floor of the older Odd Fellows Building. Given the inferior older structure of that building, Bradshaw reduced the height of the Paul Brown at the north from sixteen to twelve stories to avoid overloading the older building’s base.

Continue reading “Paul Brown Building Brochure”
Categories
Downtown

Midwest Terminal Building Brochure

Midwest Terminal Building
Location: 710 N. Tucker Boulevard
Architects: Mauran, Russell & Crowell
Built: 1932

Now simply known as the Globe-Democrat Building, the Midwest Terminal Building was originally intended to house a freight terminal for the Illinois Terminal System underneath a 19-story building. The Illinois Terminal company developed the building. As designed by Mauraun, Russell & Crowell, the Midwest Terminal Building would have had two levels of parking, underground freight loading from the Illinois Terminal’s subterranean lines, a lobby and retail base, 16 floors of warehouse or general commercial space and three floors of offices above. The building would be accompanied by a 32-story tower one block south at the corner of Twelfth Street (now Tucker Boulevard) and Washington. This tower would house the passenger terminal of the Illinois Terminal Railroad, which provided electric interurban rail service to cities across Illinois including Peoria, Decatur and Urbana. Both buildings would be powerfully cubic, streamline Art Deco masses making dramatic use of setbacks. The Midwest Terminal Building was designed with a limestone-clad base and an elaborate carved entrance motif.

Continue reading “Midwest Terminal Building Brochure”
Categories
Downtown

Marquette Building Brochure

Marquette Building
300 N. Broadway
Architects: Eames & Young
Built: 1914

The Monward Realty Company, headed by developer and realtor Lawrence B. Pierce, acquired lots at the northeast corner of Olive and Broadway streets in 1911 and 1912. Located in the heart of the financial district, the site was well-suited for a modern office building. Monward Realty company hired Eames & Young to design the new building, which would later be named the Marquette Building. The firm came up with a plan consisting of a U-shaped 19-story base and a 10-story tower with pyramidal cap influenced by New York skyscrapers of the era. The building blended rugged steel frame construction with Classical Revival exterior detailing in brick, stone and terra cotta. The tower was never built, and the base was completed in 1913. In 1914, fire destroyed the Boatmen’s Bank Building at Fourth and Washington, and the bank elected to lease the first floor bank space already built out.

Continue reading “Marquette Building Brochure”
Categories
Downtown

Hotel Jefferson Brochure

Hotel Jefferson
415 N. Tucker
Architects: Barnett, Hayes and Barnett
Built: 1904; 1928

Renowned local designers Barnett, Haynes & Barnett designed the original section of the fourteen-story Hotel Jefferson, completed in 1904. The Classical Revival building was completed with stacked bay windows offering wide views of downtown, and an ornate upper section and entablature that included round windows (later reconstructed as rectangular openings). In 1928, a major addition to the west was completed when owners rebranded the hotel as the New Hotel Jefferson. The addition notably did not attempt to replicate the appearance of the original section, but instead offered a more subdued but still classically-oriented facade on Locust Street.

Continue reading “Hotel Jefferson Brochure”