by Michael R. Allen
On Wednesday, I led a bus tour of Old North, St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou for listeners of Charlie Brennan’s show on KMOX. Yesterday, Charlie took calls from those who took the tour. Listen to their responses here.
Category: Northside Regeneration
by Michael R. Allen
A KMOX radio story that aired yesterday, “Developer Paul McKee — Target of City Hall Protest”, dropped a pretty big bomb: developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. met with some residents of his north city project area last year and refused to assure them that their homes could remain.
by Michael R. Allen
According to an article in Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch, McEagle Properties indicates that the chapel at the James Clemens House is safe from imminent destruction:
Dan Brungard, a spokesman for McEagle, a development company from O’Fallon, Mo., said a St. Louis inspector said the damage was weather-related. Brungard said that the property is under contract and that the damage would likely not affect that contract.
“We will do whatever repairs are necessary,” he vowed.
Again, McEagle mentions a sales contract. Who is the mystery party?
Speaking of McEagle getting serious about maintenance, Kathleen McLaughlin’s article from last week’s Riverfront Times, “Mow Your Lawn, Mister?”, reveals that a federally-funded job program will be used for grass cutting at the “Blairmont” properties this summer.
In a move unsurprising to long-time observers, a section of the roof and the eastern wall of the chapel wing at the James Clemens House collapsed in heavy rains yesterday. The collapse took down a section of roof that was sagging severely in recent months and three bays of the east wall above the first floor. The section that collapsed ran between two interior partitions that prevented further roof damage by supporting additional weight and tying the side walls together.
The roof had demonstrated severe local failure, and the western wall had substantially bowed outward in just the least year under pressure from the failing roof trusses. Recent observation showed imminent failure.
However, the chapel shows few signs of further immediate danger. The Building Division may swoop in soon to demolish the chapel, but that would be hasty. Here’s why:
Built in 1896, the chapel was designed by Carondelet resident Aloysius Gillick, architect of several other Archdiocese buildings including the 1889 St. Mary’s Infirmary. The Sisters of St. Joseph built the chapel after taking ownership of the Clemens House earlier, in 1888. The front-gabled brick building features red sandstone ornament and sills, an ornate front porch and a high body visible from long distances to the east and north. The chapel itself is located on the second floor, and featured a suspended vaulted ceiling (mostly collapsed). The ornate marble altar and stained glass windows are both nearly completely missing.
Still, preservation of the chapel is important in retaining the historic integrity of the complex. The current configuration reflects the House’s years of religious service rather than its original mansion life, and any restoration should retain the evolved form to show the layers of historic presence.
Now is the time for the owner of the Clemens House, Paul McKee, to come forward and announce his intention. Inaction will mean certain loss of the chapel and further deterioration of the Clemens House buildings. Immediate stabilization should commence. If McKee is unwilling to do that, he should say so and offer others a chance.
Television stations KSDK and KTVI (oddly speculating that the chapel was a cathedral) covered the collapse.
by Michael R. Allen
Blairmont Associates celebrated Historic Preservation Week with the belated action of securing the James Clemens, Jr. House at 1849 Cass Avenue in St. Louis Place. According yo a KMOX radio news report, Blairmont parent company McEagle Properties claims that the Clemens House is under contract to another owner and the work is being done as part of the sale.
The house has sat unsecured for the better part of the last year, with even the front door wide open and unboarded in recent months. Many parts of the building have disappeared in recent years, and during the recent unsecured period millwork began to leave the house.
On Wednesday, May 14, Blairmont had a crew at the site, cutting and affixing fresh plywood for the numerous unboarded windows and doors as well as bricking in a hole in the rear wall of the dormitory wing. (The masonry repair used an incorrect mortar mix for the historic masonry.)
Other work included building a chain link fence across the open front entrance in the brick wall along Cass Avenue, where an iron gate once hung.
The workers did not remove the numerous trees growing out of the original house’s upper floors, not did they take any action to remove collapsed brickwork from the roof and attic of the house. Bricks falling from the taller dormitory have caused significant damage to the house’s northwest corner, collapsing roof joists and causing the third floor to sag. The chapel wing’s condition is severe, with the west wall bowing outward due to ongoing roof collapse.
Meanwhile, the cast iron portico on the house continues to lean away from the house, causing the limestone porch walls to shift with it. The painted sandstone entrance surround and porch on the chapel is eroding badly.
During the work, the city’s Building Division came and issued a stop work order. Oddly, Blairmont did not have a building permit for any of the work. While the law is the law, it’s hard to want to stop any step Blairmont is actually taking to secure one of the city’s most important and most endangered landmarks.
by Michael R. Allen
This corner storefront and at 2742 Cass Avenue in JeffVanderLou was one of the properties recently purchased by Larmer LC from the Cass Corporation for $739,000. Actually, these are two separate buildings. While Geo St. Louis dates the buildings to 1885, that’s probably wrong. Most of the Geo St. Louis building information comes from unreliable city records, not building permits. Likely, these buildings are earlier and the storefronts added later.
Across the city in the post-Civil War era, many builders built tenement housing over commercial space like this on streets in “suburban” areas away from the central city. Some streets were main thoroughfares and shifted to commercial uses. When those changes came, building owners would often reconfigure tenement buildings with ground-floor commercial uses by putting a cast iron storefront in place of the brick wall on the first floor. That’s what seems to be the case here. In other cases, storefronts were inserted in place of residential space.
The cast iron front allowed for greater glazed area than a heavy masonry wall; stores needed exposure of goods to the passers-by. This was long before automobile-clad consumers learned about goods through television and computers before heading to the local windowless big box.
Cast iron fronts are structural as well as decorative. The columns, poured into attractive classical forms, bear the weight distributed across the front by paired steel I-beams. Adding wide storefronts must have been interesting surgery!
by Michael R. Allen
My latest “Inside the Metropolis” column for the Vital Voice is more timely than I imagined when I submitted it:
by Michael R. Allen
Although known Paul McKee companies stopped purchasing property in December, two new holding companies have been making purchases in the same part of north St. Louis where McKee is active.
Larmer LC has filed at least 22 sales deeds since January 10, and Union Martin LLC has filed five. Many of these sales represent bundles of properties for substantial amounts. In all, Larmer has reported over $2.5 million in sales this year while Union Martin has reported sales totalling around $924,000.
Larmer and Union Martin were both registered by third-party registrar CT Corporation System, but deeds reveal that Daniel D. Baier is manager of both companies. As we previously reported, Larmer’s tax bills go to a 2845 Keokuk Avenue, a building owned by F & B Properties LLC. F & B Properties’ organizers are Baier and former Crestwood Mayor Thomas E. Fagan. Union Martin’s tax bills go to the same address, although deeds list its address as 10658 Carroll Wood Way in St. Louis County.
Both companies were incorporated soon before the spending sprees began: Larmer on December 3, 2007 and Union Martin on December 15. Each company has its own accompanying shell lender. Larmer’s loans come from Hamill Company LC, incorporated on November 27, 2007, while Union Martin’s loans are from Stapleton Management LLC, incorporated on November 28, 2007.
by Michael R. Allen
Here’s a round up of photographs of some of the buildings in JeffVanderLou and St. Louis Place that were part of the eleven-building arson spree this weekend. All of these buildings were vacant at the time of the fires.
Barbara Manzara has published a map of the fires here.)
2633R Palm Avenue, owned by Cleo and Zerline Terntine
3015 Elliott Avenue, owned by Sheridan Place LC*
3114R Glasgow Avenue (actually faces Elliott), owned by MLK 3000 LLC*
2519 Sullivan Avenue (left), owned by Jesse and Davis Thomas, adjacent to brick-rsutled 2517 Sullivan Avenue, owned by Dodier Investors LC* (See earlier photo at Built St. Louis.)
2206-10 Hebert Street, owned by Blairmont Associates LC* (Minimal fire damage; see earlier photo at Built St. Louis.)
2507 Hebert Street, owned by Blairmont Associates LC* (See earlier photo at Built St. Louis.)
2523 Dodier Street, owned by Larmer LC (Minimal fire damage.)
2547 Dodier Street, owned by Larmer LC
2566 Dodier Street, owned by Blairmont Associates LC*
A KMOX news story about the fires is online here.
*Denotes holding company tied to Paul J. McKee, Jr. (More here.)
by Michael R. Allen
I had been waiting for the north side holding companies controlled by Paul McKee to make a move in 2008. Surely the lull of autumn would lead to spring purchases in this buyer’s market. None of the companies have made a single purchase since December.
However, a new company has been quite busy buying property in north city. Larmer LC, incorporated on December 3, 2007 by third-party registrars at the CT Corporation System, has purchased at least 45 properties in JeffVanderLou and St. Louis Place since its incorporation (see them all here). Readers may recall that CT Corporation System registered McKee’s holding companies before registration was transferred to McEagle Properties.
Larmer LC’s tax bills go to the address of 2854 Keokuk Avenue in south city, a building owned by F & B Properties LLC. That connection seems a coincidence. What may not be coincidental is that Larmer has started buying property after the other companies stopped.