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Central West End DeVille Motor Hotel Historic Preservation Media Mid-Century Modern

San Luis: This Was the Future

by Michael R. Allen

In early March, I received a call from Jeff Vines. He was part of a team that entered a documentary film competition, and they had been fortunate enough to draw “history” for their topic. You know what that meant — a chance to celebrate the DeVille Motor Hotel! Jeff’s team included familiar faces — his brother Randy, filmmaker Carson Minow, editor Jon Swegle and musician Brian Wiegert. Toby Weiss and I were interview subjects for what turned out to be a smart, cool little film. Check it out!

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Central West End Parking

Central West End View from 1953

by Michael R. Allen

This view of the Central West End dates to 1953 and was taken by the City Plan Commission to show the parking facilities available in the vicinity of Barnes Hospital. The photographer took the photograph from the twelfth floor of McMillan Hospital and aimed north up Euclid Avenue (left). In the foreground is the depressed railroad tracks now used by MetroLink.

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Central West End Historic Preservation Mid-Century Modern

Scenes from the San Louis Love-In

by Michael R. Allen

Jeremy Clagett captured the following videos at Saturday’s San Luis Love-In that honored the Central West End mid-century motel now known as the San Luis Apartments, threated with demolition for a parking lot by the St. Louis Archdiocese.

In the first video, Jeff Vines offers a rousing poem and I read two “proclamations” in support of the Love-In.

In the second video, Randy Vines talks to reporter Joe Crawford from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Categories
Central West End Historic Preservation Mid-Century Modern

Love-In Raises Awareness of San Luis’ Plight

by Michael R. Allen

Yesterday’s San Luis Love-In was a huge success, with over 75 people in attendance to show their love for the mid-century gem. There was no protesting anything, just a strong stand in favor of restoring the retro-fabulous motel, preserving the integrity of the elegant Lindell Boulevard street-scape and in favor of keeping the major corners of the Central West End anchored by great buildings. True to the spirit of Valentine’s Day, those who attended kept the focus on love — for great architecture, great urban neighborhoods like the CWE and the great power of groups of people to effect change in St. Louis.

Perhaps the best part about the love-in was the media bounce for the San Luis issue. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch provided coverage on Saturday and Sunday, with substantial articles on both days.

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Central West End DeVille Motor Hotel Historic Preservation Mid-Century Modern

Stories from the DeVille Motor Hotel

by Michael R. Allen

Photograph of the DeVille Motor Hotel in context by Jeff Vines.

There’s nothing quite like a posh urban hotel. A fine hotel has long been the ultimate urban meeting place. From big convergences of finely-dressed party-goers to small groups of martini-lunch businessmen to encounters even more discreet — the hotel is the place. The hotel is a fashionable but not ostentatious place for all manner of meetings, dining and drinks.

Hotels like the Chase, Park Plaza, the Mayfair and the Coronado are the legendary settings. How do we know this? The stories people tell. People talk about the restaurants, the dances, the political meetings, the bars, the music, the celebrities and all the things that made these more than just pretty buildings. we know that these buildings connected a lot of lives, and became part of thousands of memories.

The mid-century DeVille Motor Hotel at 4483 Lindell Boulevard, later the Holiday Inn Midtown, is not as old as the stalwarts of St. Louis’ golden age of hotels, but it was the cream of the crop for the modern era. The DeVille definitely was a social hub in the 1960s and early 1970s. Perhaps we don’t think of stories from that recent past as part of our history, but we should. The DeVille was the meeting spot for a different generation — one that shaped contemporary St. Louis and breathed life into a city struggling with depopulation and sprawl. At the DeVille, the Central West End extended its glory days long enough to survive, and thousands of St. Louisans passed through its doors in the process.

What are their stories?

At B.E.L.T, Toby Weiss is collecting those tales from our recent past. Submit one of of your own here. This is a great project! Too often, we don’t know how much a role a place has played in our lives until its lost. That’s a shame, because we have the power to keep history alive in our own time simply by saving our own stories for future generations.

Categories
Central West End Historic Preservation Mid-Century Modern

Lovin’ the San Luis

Preservationists will make love, not war at this event. No protest, just appreciation!

WHAT: Valentine’s Day San Luis Love-In

WHEN: Saturday, February 14, 2009 @ 12:00 noon

WHERE: Northeast corner of Lindell & Taylor in the Central West End

WHO: Lovers everywhere – and anyone who is outraged by the notion of replacing unique, interesting buildings with parking lots.

WHY: Because we believe that St. Louis’s distinctive architecture is an asset, not a liability, and we love the San Luis!

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For more information, go to http://www.noparkinglotonlindell.com/, e-mail colbert@noparkinglotonlindell.com, or call (314) 761-4469.

Categories
Central West End Demolition Historic Preservation Midtown North St. Louis

Commercial Rows Fall On Vandeventer

by Michael R. Allen

Once upon a time, on April 21, 1886, the city government issued a building permit for a continuous row of seven adjacent stores with flats above at 1121-33 N. Vandeventer. P.G. Gerhart was the developer of the $12,000 project. The result was a graceful building in the Italianate style. Striking cast iron columns supported the spans of each wide storefront opening. A wooden cornice capped the stone-clad front wall, and decorative brick corbelling continued the cornice line to a side entrance on Enright, above which the parapet wall formed a pediment to mirror the surround of the entrance. The handsome commercial row was located at a prime corner in the sought-after Midtown neighborhood, home of the city’s wealthy and middle class movers and shakers.


This was not the only such endeavor on Vandeventer, a major north-south artery here. Nor was it the Gerhart family’s only commercial row on the street. The presence of a street car line on Vandeventer along with the residential population of the area drew developers to an intensive building boom that lasted between 1875 and 1900. During that time, at least sixteen rows of adjacent stores like the Gerhart row went up. Most of these were two stories. Vandeventer must have had an urban character like no other street in the city, what with the effect of so many well-designed rows of shops.

Flash forward over 120 years, and the row is facing its demise in December 2008. After sitting vacant for a half-decade, the old row had ended up owned by someone who wanted it gone. The condition at the time of demolition was good, with no structural failures and all of the character-defining pieces still in place. The rise and fall and rising-again of Midtown had taken its toll on Vandeventer, depleting the stock of such rows to a handful by the dawn of the 21st century. Now the oldest survivor met its demise, and the street is poorer for it. Vandeventer north of Lindell Boulevard is marked by vacant lots and low-density new construction, with a handful of surviving historic buildings. This row was keeping its block on the good side of architectural wasteland status. Today, the site is yet another muddy lot adorned by spindly grass blades and blowing debris.


During demolition, wreckers from Bellon Wrecking staged work in accordance with the building’s party walls, leaving isolated sections standing untouched between areas that were demolished.

Photograph by Paul Hohmann.

Architect Paul Hohmann photographed the demolition while it was underway, and has posted an extensive number of photographs here.

The loss of the row at Vandeventer and Enright delivered a sharp blow, but it was not the only one in 2008. In July, demolition commenced at the third of the surviving rows on Vandeventer, located at 1121 N. Vandeventer. The Guardian Angels purchased the site for construction of a new facility earlier in the year.


This row contained six storefronts arranged symmetrically along Vandeventer. The storefronts also had fine cast iron columns with Ionic capitals, and the second floor had arrangements of Roman-arched windows as book ends. This row dates to a permit issued on October 18, 1895 to Mrs. L.A. Crosswhite for six adjacent stores and flats. A.M. Baker served as architect, and Thomas Kelly was contractor. The row was totally vacant when I photographed it in 2006, but its loss was still jarring. Again, this stretch has lost its landmarks, and the site of this row is now another vacant lot with a sign promising new construction in the future.

Now the only remaining commercial row on Vandeventer is the Gerhart Block, developed by another Gerhart, at the southwest intersection of Vandeventer and Laclede. The Gerhart Block dates to 1896 and was designed by August Beinke. Its French Renaissance style has strongly eclectic traits and its historic integrity is stunning. The Gerhart Block and an adjacent building on Laclede Avenue were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2003; read the nomination by Lynn Josse here.


The sad fact is that this all that remains of the commercial rows of Vandeventer. There is some solace in that what survives is one of the most exquisite and well-preserved rows on the street, with landmark designation, demolition protection and tenants.

Categories
Architecture Central West End DeVille Motor Hotel Historic Preservation Mid-Century Modern

The DeVille as the Holiday Inn

by Michael R. Allen

In 1966, the DeVille Motor Hotel became a Holiday Inn after the Vatterott family purchased the building. The modernist motel had opened in 1963 as part of the New Orleans-based DeVille chain, and was designed by renowned architect Charles Colbert. Although the motor hotel enjoyed a swanky reputation as the DeVille, its years as the Holiday Inn are its most famous among St. Louisans who recall dances and social events held in the public spaces. The postcard shown above dates to the time of the change in ownership.

The rear of the postcard shows the new name: The Holiday Inn Midtown. Midtown was St. Louis’ Uptown, where the high-rollers mixed with the young professionals at the new lounges and restaurants of reborn Central West End. The spirit of optimism was high, and distinctly urban place names like “Midtown” were embraced as strongly as the idea that the city would rebound. The new Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium were signs of downtown’s new life, and the DeVille was a sign that the Central West End was as posh as ever for social life.

The end of the era was abrupt; the Holiday Inn Midtown closed in 1977, and was purchased by the Archdiocese for conversion to the San Luis Apartments (senior housing). Still, by 1977, Lindell Boulevard had attracted many new modernist buildings from Grand west to Kingshighway and the Central West End’s renewal was in full force. The DeVille was as sleek as ever, even with its less glamorous new use. Now that the San Luis Apartments are closed and the neighborhood’s stability is a sure bet, what better time is there to return the DeVille to its earlier glory? The old Bel Air Motel to the west, the city’s first motel dating to 1958, is posed to become a Hotel Indigo. The optimism about the city and the Central West End embodied by these buildings has paid off, and these mid-century landmarks have much to offer the present age as reminders of the power of architecture to convey the hope of an era.

(Postcard courtesy of Sheila Findall’s family collection.)

Categories
Architecture Central West End Demolition Historic Preservation Midtown

SLU Purchases Mansion on Washington Boulevard, Plans Demolition

by Michael R. Allen

The house at 4056 Washington in 2007.

In October, St. Louis University paid $150,000 for the mansion at 4056 Washington Boulevard. The house was in foreclosure. Underneath layers of paint are the lines of idiosyncratic gilded age St. Louis architecture. Built in 1891, the house was clearly influenced by the popular Romanesque Revival style, evinced here through rusticated stone lintels and window surrounds. However, the wooden cornice has qualities of the Italianate style and the mansard roof and turreted bow evokes the French Renaissance Revival style seen in the design of St. Louis City Hall, the Frederick Judson House to the east and other buildings from the period. What a delight!

The mansion stands just west of the University’s Manresa Center, an interesting complex that originally was the site of the stately McPherson Mansion and later the Marydale convent before becoming the St. Bonaventure Franciscan friary. Since 2000, the University has owned the complex and maintained it as a retreat space. Since acquisition, the university marked the entrance with an inappropriate version of its signature gate. SLU has also purchased all lots between the Manresa Center and the mansion at 4056 Washington.

Demolition of the Saaman-owned houses underway in April 2007.

This block was once an elite street in the emerging Central West End, but the glory days have long since passed. Most of the block’s parcels are now devoid of buildings. In 2007, Saaman Corporation infamously wrecked three houses on the north face of the block to deal a huge blow to the historic character of the street. Hopefully SLU will not make a similar move with its newly-acquired building. Perhaps the university could incorporate the house into the Manresa Center, adding extra space and helping to retain some of the center’s dwindling historic context.

UPDATE: As Vanishing STL discovered, the university applied for a demolition permit on December 4. Alas.

Categories
Central West End DeVille Motor Hotel Historic Preservation Mid-Century Modern

Time for the DeVille

by Michael R. Allen

With the St. Louis Archdiocese awaiting a new archbishop, and archdiocese revenue down to $160 million in 2008 (compare to $252 million in 2007), hope for the DeVille Motor Hotel at 4483 Lindell Boulevard is growing. After all, with a major leadership transition in the works and revenue down, there is a great chance to convince the archdiocese to reconsider demolition of the mid-century modern motel. The Archdiocese may find it more financially prudent to place the building up for sale to raise revenue. The land alone remains very valuable.

Sale of the land would probably not occur until after a new archbishop is installed and after prices rise again. For as imprudent and wasteful demolition and parking lot construction is, getting a low sale price is just as bad. The Archdiocese can wait out market conditions and a change in leadership.

Thus, preservationists have some time to thoroughly explore options that would retain architect Charles Colbert’s curvaceous modern landmark. Serious thought should be given to use, conditions, cost and landmark eligibility. With creative thinking, a solid preservation plan could be on the table in time for the next archbishop to consider. Even then, the Archdiocese might not be ready to make a move — but advocates for saving the fine building would be ready for the time when it is.