Category: Demolition

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Demolition Granite City, Illinois Historic Preservation Metro East

Granite City Demolished Restored Residential Building

by Michael R. Allen

Photograph taken on April 2, 2006 (Michael R. Allen).

In March 2006, the City Council in Granite City approved spending $90,000 to demolish 15 buildings as part of an effort to revive the ailing downtown area. Seven of these buildings had architectural merit and were structurally sound. While the other eight were marginally interesting and in various states of decay, these seven were all from the period of 1890-1920 and worth preserving in a city where historic architecture is one of the biggest cultural assets.

One of the losses of this demolition campaign was the tenement flats building at 2137 Edison Avenue. This four-flat building is reminiscent of the vernacular architecture of north St. Louis and was built around 1896 during the early wave of Granite City building. At this phase, many buildings here were designed by St. Louis architects who had previously done business with the Niedringhauses, founders of the new city. Most of the single-family homes and commercial buildings built around the start of the city were privately built on lots purchased from the Niedringhaus family real estate company, but the family developed some rental property to provide housing that could be available quickly. There is some possibility that the plans for this building came from the office of Frederick C. Bonsack, who worked for the family.

The flats were remarkably intact, down to the entry doors and casement still bearing the original varnish and hardware. All of the original wooden windows were present. If this building were in a historic district in St. Louis, it would be a sought-after candidate for tax-credit rehabilitation. The fact that it got demolished speaks to many of the inequities of preservation around St. Louis: the undeserved stigma of the east side’s industrial towns, lack of an Illinois state historic tax credit, and general lack of awareness of east side vernacular architecture on the part of St. Louis-based historians.

The flats and the once-identical next-door neighbor. (Michael R. Allen)

The flats were demolished in May 2006. A twin stands to the north at 2141 Edison Avenue; however, that building is painted and has lost many of its original features including its central parapet.

Additional Photographs from April 2 and May 29, 2006 (Claire Nowak-Boyd & Michael R. Allen)



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Demolition Granite City, Illinois Historic Preservation Metro East

Granite City to Demolish Holstein Dry Goods Building

by Michael R. Allen

In March 2006, the City Council in Granite City approved spending $90,000 to demolish 15 buildings as part of an effort to revive the ailing downtown area. Seven of these buildings had architectural merit and were structurally sound. While the other eight were marginally interesting and in various states of decay, these seven were all from the period of 1890-1920 and worth preserving in a city where historic architecture is one of the biggest cultural assets.

One of these buildings is the two-story commercial building at 1308 19th Street in the heart of downtown that once housed the R.S. Holstein Dry Goods Company. This building draws upon the Georgian Revival style and possesses intricate detailing in white enameled terra cotta. While the interior needs gutting, the building retains historic and structural integrity and is a fine candidate for reuse. Perhaps Granite City government agrees, because as of September 2006 the building remains standing while the other 14 slated for demolition are gone. Economic Development Director Jon Ferry has commissioned a preservation study for downtown. Preservation of buildings like this one are essential components of such a plan, given the high level of demolition that has eroded the architectural context there. The city shouldn’t overreact — this building is neither a crack house nor is it falling onto the street. Ferry seems to understand the cultural and economic value of such buildings, so reuse may be forthcoming.

Of special note are the painted signs on the building’s west wall.

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Demolition North St. Louis

Carpenters Building Demolished

Never been to the Carpenters Building before? Well, you missed your chance, because a developer demolished the Preston Bradshaw-designed building last month.

You can take some consolation is being able to read about the building here.

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Demolition JeffVanderLou North St. Louis

Lost: Carpenters’ Building

The author took all of the photographs used here on June 19, 2006.

by Michael R. Allen

This summer, St. Louis lost a building designed by noted architect Preston J. Bradshaw, and no one turned out to mourn its passing. In June, wreckers began dismantling his Carpenters Building (1930) at the southwest corner of North Grand Boulevard and Cozens Avenue. By this point in time, few observers could recall the glory days of this building as the home of the Carpenters’ District Council, now located in well-known quarters on Hampton Avenue. Few historians who may have noted the building’s pedigree passed by the building in recent years, and it largely went unnoticed. (No biographical sketches of Bradshaw note the Carpenters Building.) The building’s new owners didn’t care to study its history; they wrecked the building to build another section of the ungainly strip mall that is MLK Plaza.

Yet, once upon a time when Grand Avenue was a bustling thoroughfare, trade unionism was strong and architects of Bradshaw’s ability took commissions of all sizes, the Carpenters’ Building came to stand here. The union council built the building in 1930 for the cost of $50,000, which was substantial then. The design by Bradshaw is typical of the idiosyncratic Renaissance Revival style he employed frequently in the 1920s and early 1930s for hotel, apartment and office buildings. There is an abundance of buff terra cotta ornament at the base and crown of the building, while the shaft is an unadorned plane of brick. Here, the building is two stories, so the effect of this ornament program is quite different than on taller buildings that Bradshaw designed. Rather than accentuating height, here the design accentuated the width of the primary elevations, giving the building a stately presence worthy of one of the city’s most prominent thoroughfares. The abundance of terra cotta, manufactured by the Winkle Company of St. Louis, makes the short building project a message of abundance and tradition that suited the unions of the day. As with many of Bradshaw’s designs of that period, here he masterfully balances the Renaissance Revival idiom with a modern emphasis on form.

Bradshaw (1880-1949) designed many famous local buildings, including the Chase Hotel, Paul Brown Building, Coronado Hotel and, late in his career, the modernist Ford Apartments. He came to St. Louis in 1907 after having studied architecture at Columbia University and having briefly worked for McKim, Mead and White. He became known for his prowess at designing hotel and apartment buildings, and was among the best-known St. Louis architects of the first half of the twentieth century. His works are expressions of the optimism of the growing city as well as explorations of the possibility of modern architectural forms. Many of Bradshaw’s are now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and have been restored in recent years.

The Carpenters Building is not among those that will be so cherished.

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Demolition Fire Midtown

Stairs to Nowhere

by Michael R. Allen

The limestone steps on August 28, 2005. Photograph by Michael R. Allen.
Grandel Square, known in the 19th century and early twentieth century as Delmar Avenue, once was one of Midtown’s populated residential streets. The Midtown area was settled as early as the 1850s, but was not subdivided with official streets until after the 1861 death of Peter Lindell, who owned much of the area. His Lindell’s Grove was subdivided by heirs and became a fashionable and somewhat bucolic retreat for wealthy and middle-class families eager to escape the polluted and overcrowded inner city.

By 1875, when Compton and Dry published Pictorial St. Louis, Midtown streets were lined with dense clusters of mansions on streets like Lindell and West Pine and stone-faced townhouses in Second Empire, Romanesque and Italianate styles on streets like Delmar, Olive and Westminster. Delmar’s residents were upper-middle-class to wealthy, building townhouses more lavish than those on neighboring streets but more restrained and smaller than the largest houses in the neighborhood. The wealthier residents used limestone to face their homes, while others used sandstone. The house at 3722 Delmar, built in 1884, was among the neighborhood’s most impressive townhouses, with an ornate Italianate style, pale limestone face and a three-story height.

The fashionable blocks of Midtown changed by 1900. Just as residential growth spread outward from downtown, so did commercial growth, Streetcar lines made it easy to live in Midtown — and to work there. Some of the older houses were purchased and demolished for new office buildings on Grand and Lindell, and the neighborhood’s character changed. Some observers saw Midtown becoming a second downtown, and the wealthiest residents began to flee further west.
A photograph from the Heritage/St. Louis architectural survey, taken around 1972, shows the house at the top of stairs. Apparently, it had recently caught fire and was in use as the “Grandel Square Hotel” in its last years.

By the 1930s, the neighborhood was scene to office buildings, hotels and the “Great White Way” of movie theaters. People crowded the streets day and night, even as the Great Depression’s arrival spelled the end of dramatic growth for the city. Houses remained, but many were converted into multi-family apartment buildings or rooming houses. The house at 3722 Grandel Square was one of the old townhouses that were carved up into a hotel. The other likely fates of the day — demolition, alteration by storefront addition — were actually worse. Even by the time of this house’s demolition, many other houses of this type in Midtown were long gone.

The house burned around 1970, and was demolished by 1975. The staircase from the sidewalk to the front door was not removed, though and remains to this day. The limestone steps have cracked and settled, making the once-elegant proposal of ascending an earthier endeavor. Those who climb the steps stand on a rugged lawn, no doubt still containing parts of the house pushed into the foundation during demolition.

Next door to the east, the Meriwether House — built by Elizabeth Avery Meriwether, a descendant of Meriwether Lewis — survives as one of the dozen or so single-family dwellings remaining in Midtown. (Around 1900, there may have been as many as 250 such buildings.) The Meriwether House, almost demolished in 1999, closely resembles the house that stood at 3722 Grandel Square, giving those who see the stairs to nowhere a good idea of where they once lead. The owners of the Merriwether House are completing a restoration and condo conversion that will brings its appearance and use full circle.



Now is again a good time for the Meriwether House. Photograph by Claire Nowak-Boyd (August 28, 2005).

The stairs next door, also owned by the Meriwether House’s owners, aren’t as likely to return to their former life. They may remain tentatively in place, but no more shall they lead to a Gilded Age manor. However, perhaps the stairs will bring awareness to newcomers that the Merriwether House is no singularity, and that Midtown once was something far from the sun-baked plain of asphalt and grass that it has become.
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Carondelet Demolition Industrial Buildings

Carondelet Coke Plant Will Fall

by Michael R. Allen

According to a press release on the Mayor’s campaign site, the old Carondelet Coke plant will be redeveloped. This is a shock to those of us who assumed that its overgrown, ruinous landscape would always be around for autumn walks and clandestine film making. Then there was Dylan Haasinger’s quixotic and hopeful plan to retain the passive life of the site by turning it into an urban nature preserve. Alas, it’s back to the economic life for the land at the confluence of the Mississippi River and the River Des Peres — and a far less interesting but cleaner life it shall be.

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Baden Demolition North St. Louis Preservation Board

Preservation Board to "Reconsider" Lutheran Altenheim Home Decision

by Michael R. Allen

The Preservation Board of the City of St. Louis meets May 26 to consider several items. One item that jumps out to me on the agenda is a “request for reconsideration” of a demolition permit for the old Lutheran Altenheim Home in the Baden area of north city. The owners, multi-state residential-care operators Hillside Manor LLC, have already contracted with Spirtas for demolition and started removing interior items. In April, they appealed the permit denial of the staff of the Cultural Resources Office to the Preservation Board, which upheld the denial.

While Hillside Manor has no use for the old building, and it stands in an awkward spot between Hillside Manor and another residential care facility, they have yet to prove that they need to demolish the building, or that they have considered other uses of the building.

Thankfully their “request for reconsideration” goes to the Preservation Board and not to the Board of Alderman as legislation. However, the Preservation Board should refuse reconsideration. No doubt that Hillside Manor will be pushing some high number on rehab costs that would be a “financial hardship” under the Preservation Review Ordinance. If so, it’s hogwash — Hillside Manor has expanded into a large network of locations and does not seem to be short on money for expansion.

There still are uses for the old building, but they would require creative thinking. It might make a great apartment building if more parking could be created. (Has Hillside Manor considered allowing a developer to build a second level of parking over their existing lot?)

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Demolition National Historic Landmark St. Charles County

The Demolition of Prince Hall at Washington University

by Michael R. Allen

Built St. Louis has already published demolition photographs from Prince Hall, which is a long way gone.

That the demolition started so quickly raises many questions. How did preservationists fail in this case? There seemed to be considerable delay from the time people started talking about the proposed demolition to the time people acted. And the action came mostly in the form of letter-writing and a few newspaper article quotes. Admittedly, the preservation dynamo Esley Hamilton worked hard to preserve the building. The rest of us were there mostly in spirit and not enough in deed to make a difference.

The potential to have lobbied alumni and donors could have been utilized. Washington University may have changed its mind if its decision was costing money. With large universities, there seems to be no other way outside of legal restriction to keep historic campus buildings standing.

I also think that the building’s secluded location on a private campus located amid wealthy neighborhoods kept it from being a championed cause among the rank-and-file of urbanists and preservationists. Most of us, to be frank, didn’t go to Washington University and live far from the manicured lawns of Clayton. I have to admit that Prince Hall was low on my list given the urgency of the situation of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home and other north side buildings.

Still, the Washington University Tudor Gothic campus core — designed by Cope & Stewardson and built between 1901 and 1905 — is one of the most attractive collegiate groups in the country. The great significance of this group as architecture, that art so public that ownership legal barely restricts its appreciation, outweighs any reservations myself and others had. We should have tried much harder.

One final question the demolition raises is whether or not the Washington University campus district’s listing as a National Historic Landmark District should be de-certified. Is there sufficient context left for it to remain listed? What would de-certification mean for the other buildings? The National Historic Landmark listing again proves to give no special protection to an historic building, even if it gives special recognition. Preservation is the result of human action.

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Demolition Forest Park Southeast Historic Preservation Preservation Board

Forest Park Southeast Clearance On Monday’s Preservation Board Agenda

by Michael R. Allen

On the agenda for tomorrow’s Preservation Board meeting once again is the matter of the demolition of buildings owned by Forest West Properties in Forest Park Southeast. (Read all about last month’s attempt to get Preservation Board approval to demolish 30 buildings.) This time, the number of buildings is 32. This time, the Cultural Resources Office is recommending denying permits for ten buildings. However, the reasoning behind the ten buildings recommended is difficult to discern. It seems to have more to do with basic architectural features that with a comprehensive plan for the neighborhood. From a preservation standpoint, such reasoning may be logical but from a more holistic view it could end up producing dispersed vacant lots that diminish historic contexts appropriate for renovation and historic district designation without demolition.

In my testimony at last month’s meeting, I suggested a plan for ranking the buildings architecturally as a worst-case preservation strategy. In the absence of compelling plans for the buildings’ sites, the best case for planning still exists, despite what Forest West Properties says.

Since last month, a credible developer has made an offer to acquire over half of these buildings south of Manchester, in a pattern that would retain the remaining context there and may allow for a historic district to be created that would enable the use of tax credits.

As far as I know, Forest West has not responded to the offer except to immediately re-apply for preliminary review of the demolition. (The Board did not vote at last month’s meeting because, due to absences and recused members, only two members were able to vote so no quorum existed.)

Forest West needs to explore sensible redevelopment of these buildings and not continue in a mad rush to tear them down. There is still time to build a true redevelopment plan. Forest West knows a lot about waiting, because they have owned these buildings for over a year without coming up with any plans for redevelopment. All they can do now is take the easy way out with clearance.

Their best bet may be a sale to a developer with expertise at complicated urban development that is architecturally sensitive and at working in rebounding marginal areas. Demolition only will make things worse for the southern part of “the Grove.”

See the agenda for the meeting here.

Meeting details:
Monday, May 22 at 4:00 p.m.
1015 Locust Street, 12th Floor

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Churches Demolition South St. Louis St. Aloysius Gonzaga

St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church Under Demolition

Photograph taken on Tuesday, May 2.