Category: LRA

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City Government LRA

State Auditor: Changes Needed With Healthy Home Repair Program, LRA

by Michael R. Allen

In April 2009, Missouri State Auditor Susan Montee completed an audit of the development agencies of the City of St. Louis. The full report is available online here. There are some routine discrepancies noted as well as some very serious ones.

The two that are most relevant to distressed neighborhoods in the city concern the Healthy Home Repair program’s dependence on ward-based allocation rather than on actual need, and Land Reutilization Authority (LRA) sales policy.

According to the report, “[t]he city usually allocates the same amount of Healthy Home Repair Program monies to each aldermanic ward, and it appears the city does not allocate the monies based on the area of greatest need. As of August 28, 2008, there were 3,325 clients on waiting lists mainly in wards with little or no unspent monies, while there were 4 wards with unspent balances that exceeded $120,000 each with small or no waiting lists.”

While all homeowners in the city have a right to access that money, the surplus situation essentially means that many people are not getting money or experiencing delays because some money cannot be spent. That’s absurd. Why not restructure the program so that the pool of money is allocation through citywide open application? that way, every dollar of this precious and important fund would be spent. In many distressed neighborhoods, this money is crucial to stabilization.

The audit’s statements on the LRA are not as specific, but do note the absence of good record-keeping (“LRA does not have contracts related to costs incurred for property maintenance and upkeep”), maintenance policy (“[e]xpenses incurred for maintenance and upkeep are not allocated to individual properties as required by state law”) and sales (“policies for land sale pricing are outdated or not adequately documented”).

Categories
Brick Theft JeffVanderLou LRA North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

A Block of Montgomery Street Two Years Later

by Michael R. Allen

Yes, the congregation eventually sold the church voluntarily. I still remember the day back in 2006 when the pastor of the North Galilee Missionary Baptist Church called us at Landmarks Association of St. Louis asking for help with a real estate agent who had approached the church for an offer. Our advice was that the buyer was likely Paul McKee, Jr. and McEagle Properties, and the church should not worry about standing firm because this was a big, long-term project and there was no need to move out right away. However, by summer 2007, North Galilee was long gone.

Now, in 2009, the cornerstone is removed. North Galilee Missionary Baptist Church has moved to Moline Acres in St. Louis County. The building that housed African-American Christian worship since 1906 — over 100 years — sits empty, with its front door constantly pried apart by vandals seeking copper. The block that the church anchored was once proud — a solid part of the JeffVanderLou neighborhood. Now, the block barely recognizes the state it was in in January 2007 when I first photographed it.

At that point, the church was surrounded by fairly well-kept brick housing that was privately owned. This block stood out in a neighborhood where much of the remaining historic housing stock east of Grand is owned by a few large owners, including the valiant St. Louis Equity Fund. Here was a block that spoke not only to the past but to the future — institutional stability, private ownership and safety. Needless to say, McEagle got a foothold in 2006 and proceeded to buy out every private owner in the next two years.

It’s day and night. When I now set foot on the block, I feel a heavy sense of loss.

Here is the view of the church and three neighboring shotgun-style houses in January 2007:

One of the houses was occupied then, while one was owned by McEagle and another by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority. The three houses remain:


Across the street stood three two-story houses. The center house still had its elaborate historic wooden porch in January 2007:

East of the group of three houses stood an already-boarded one-story shotgun house. Apparently, life at this house was happy, as now-covered graffiti left by its occupants indicated two years ago:


This side of the block has changed radically in the past two years as McEagle finished acquisition and brick thieves destroyed the group of three houses. Here’s a recent view:

When McEagle discusses saving all buildings that can be saved, what does that statement mean? For the 2900 block of Montgomery Avenue, a block that would have been an ideal block for preservation and infill, that promise is retroactive and meaningless. The buildings fell. The church moved to the county. Day is night, up is down, and the neighborhood is out one of its most hopeful blocks and a historic African-American house of worship.

Categories
Housing Hyde Park LRA North St. Louis

Lost Neighbor to House on Farrar

by Michael R. Allen

Following up on Monday’s post on the house at 2521 Farrar Street in Hyde Park, I combed my photographic archive. I found this photograph that I took on March 18, 2005 showing the house with its next door neighbor. That house would last another 18 months before the Land Reutilization Authority demolished it.

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Historic Preservation Hyde Park LRA North St. Louis

House on Farrar Could Be Saved

by Michael R. Allen

At first glance, the vacant house at 2521 Farrar Avenue in Hyde Park offers familiar signs of distress in the built environment: Boarded first floor windows. Missing glass and mangled sashes in the second floor windows. A layer of siding over the original slate roof. Missing guttering stolen for scrap value. Red paint suffocates historic masonry.

However, the house has an unmistakable charm. Details cry out from beneath decay to remind us that the beauty never left — it just got covered and distorted. Owned the city’s Land Reutilization Authority, the house has been vacant for a long time but has the potential to be transformed using state and federal historic tax credits. Houses like these — vacant, but sound by public safety law and ripe for redevelopment — have prompted Alderman Freeman Bosley (D-3rd) to repeatedly state on the record that he will no longer support demolition in Hyde Park.

Bosley, alderman for the area since 1979 save for one four-year period, has watched a lot of architectural beauty depart from the neighborhood. In many cases, he has supported demolition. However, renewed interest in the area’s historic architecture and the sheer volume of building loss have led Bosley to become a proponent of saving historic buildings and creating new historic districts within his ward.

The trouble with the house at 2521 Farrar is that there is a developer who has used historic rehab tax credits interested in the property. The Irving School Partners, led by Michelle Duffe and Ken Nuernberger, has transformed many historic houses and Irving School into showpieces. Their efforts have been as remarkable to watch as the Crown Square project in Old North. They are taking on more historic buildings this year, including Eliot School in the north end of the neighborhood.

However, the developers want to demolish the house on Farrar for new housing. They have applied for preliminary review from the Preservation Board, and the matter is on the board’s April 27 agenda. A preliminary review gives a developer a sense of what the Board will allow.

Although I will support the work of the Irving School Partners, and have even once supported a demolition for new construction that they sought, I think that the house on Farrar deserves to be spared. Perhaps if full rehabilitation is too costly, the developers might consider mothballing the building for future development. The developers wish to strengthen the Irving School project by redeveloping the rest of the block — a laudable goal. However, preservation will be the best long-term investment here.

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LRA North St. Louis O'Fallon Storefront Addition

Storefront Additions: 21st Ward Edition

by Michael R. Allen

In honor of Tuesday’s election of Antonio French as 21st ward alderman, here are two storefront additions found in the 21st ward. While I can’t claim that French shares my enthusiasm for these strange and often-awkward works of architecture, I have to say that his preservation-minded platform hints at great things to come in the 21st ward over the next four years.

The storefront addition at 4218 Lee Avenue just west of Harris Avenue might be the ugliest one featured in this blog to date. The brick addition, built around 1920, blocks the view of a frame house dating to 1896. Later parging and permastone application don’t help matters. Still, the small commercial space created by the addition could be an office, small shop, studio or other use. The house/storefront combination could be made more attractive and the building repurposed as live/work space.

The storefront addition at the corner of Penrose and Fair is very discreet, almost blending seamlessly into the four-family dwelling to which it is attached. The storefront dates to 1920, and the parent building to just a few years before then. Thus, the architectural vernacular of the residential building — since obscured by replacement of the original parapet materials — was still in vogue when the addition went up, making a harmonious match easy.

Again, the modest scale cries out for reuse as the home of a human-scaled enterprise. Located at a fairly busy corner, this could be a sandwich shop, ice cream stand or any number of things.

Both of these buildings are owned by the Land Reutilization Authority. There is no coincidence in the fact that both Lee and Fair avenues had streetcar lines in the 20th century; these additions lie near intersections where the cars would have stopped frequently throughout the day. Perhaps these hybrid buildings will be ripe for 21st century commercial revitalization. The streetcars are gone, but the population density of the ward remains high, and the future is looking good.

Categories
Historic Preservation Hyde Park LRA North St. Louis

A Race With Gravity

by Michael R. Allen

No building better captures the sense of nonchalant destruction that permeates Hyde Park than the house at 3802 Blair Avenue. Sitting alone after the deaths of its neighbors over the last thirty years, the building has put on a long, slow architectural striptease. First, its cornice started spalling. Bricks fell. Then, its front wall unzipped to reveal the stuffer brick behind the face brick. Then, off with most of the face brick. Last year, the Forestry Division came and cut down all of the ghetto palms in front to give us a nice clear view of the front wall. Now, the stuffer brick is starting to fall back into the house to reveal even more.

Not exactly sexy stuff.

The house is owned by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority and has been vacant for a generation. The brick loss started about a decade ago, and is reaching a finale. Why no one thought to stabilize or even demolish the house is a mystery. A wistful for-sale sign put up by the Neighborhood Council even hangs on the building. Then again, in Hyde Park, decline is nothing out of the ordinary.

Interesting that the side walls are intact and the building is relatively sound. Someone could even rebuild the front wall, although I doubt that simply relaying the face brick is possible at this point. The Neighborhood Council deserves credit for recognizing that the face brick loss was more cosmetic damage and that rehabilitation was not impossible. Some key details are still intact, like the mansard roof and dormers. There’s no push to demolish the house — just time to watch more pieces come off of the house. The house is well-paced in its race with gravity. There seems to always be more time for a vacant brick building to collapse — and always time to come to the rescue.

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Dutchtown Historic Preservation Housing LRA South St. Louis

The Corner Anchor at Osceola and Grand

by Michael R. Allen

This amazing four-family building in Dutchtown is located at 4400 South Grand Boulevard just south of the large Cleveland High School athletic field. Whether or not this fits in the Tudor Revival or the Craftsman styles does not matter — this is one cool building. The building dates to 1923, when row housing had long faded from the residential vernacular of local architecture. Yet, as a double two-flat, this building acts like the old row housing found in older neighborhoods. The double front porches reinforce the distinction between the two sections, while the roof overhang with its might brackets and the central half-timbered gable pull the sections together.

This is an outstanding example of the 1920’s south city multi-family architectural vernacular, and an impressive anchor for the corner that frames the view of Cleveland High School from Grand. I’ll note the bad news last: this building has been vacant for years, and it’s owned by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority. The Citizens’ Service Bureau records for the property number 107. Despite the woes, the building has solid architectural integrity.

What a great rehabilitation project this could be! Matthew Sisul, Housing Development Analyst with the Community Development Administration, reports that:

LRA purchased this property in April 2008 using CDA’s federal development funds from the 25th Ward. CDA is actively seeking proposals for the rehabilitation of this building (see RFP). The selected developer will be required to adhere towards Section 106 Design Review Guidelines. Assistance towards acquisition and construction costs may be available through CDA. Interested parties should contact me for additional information or to schedule a viewing of the property.

Matthew Sisul can be reached at (314) 622-3400 ext. 322 or sisulm@stlouiscity.com.

Categories
Abandonment Demolition Fire LRA North St. Louis The Ville

Lost: The Store at Maffitt & Lambdin

by Michael R. Allen

I was looking through old photographs and found this one, taken in June 2004. The subject matter is the peculiar corner storefront once located at the southeast corner of Maffitt and Lambdin avenues in the Ville. (The address properly is 4282 Maffitt Avenue.) The Land Reutilization Authority still owns the lot on which the store buidling and a smaller concrete block building on the alley stood, and has owned the lot since at least 1989.

As the photograph indicates, a fire had struck the building and eaten much of its structural timbers, flooring and roof sheathing. What testament to our city’s masonry that the walls held despite the loss of many joists. The building truly was an exquisite wreck. I remember looking down into the basement from where the corner stoop would have been, and seeing charred wood from the upper levels atop years of accumulated debris. A man walking by said that demolition was on the way. He was proven right when the Building Division issued its demolition permits in January 2005.

The building had been vacant nearly twenty years at that point, although its architectural character was still evident. The chamfered, recessed entrance tucked under the projecting corner bay was a wonderful way to both call attention to the commercial tenant and shelter those entering and leaving the store. The tiled, sloped third floor with its timbered dormer was another fine trait. There aren’t many corner storefront buildings like this in the city, and we will never know for sure how many there ever were.

Categories
Gravois Park Hyde Park LRA North St. Louis South St. Louis Storefront Addition

Storefront Additions: Two Inserted Fronts

by Michael R. Allen

All across the city are examples of residential buildings adapted to later commercial use. As neighborhoods changed, so did uses. In early 19th century walking neighborhoods, commercial uses needed to be abundant to serve residents who could not travel far to get food, shoes or a hair cut. Later, after the streetcars gave middle- and working-class residents greater mobility, residential buildings located along street car lines were ripe for commercial use, especially in areas where property values declined because of the new street car lines.

Many examples of the common storefront addition involve the construction of connected one- or two-story buildings in the lawn space of houses and flats. However, in neighborhoods east of Grand, many early converted buildings stood at the sidewalk line. Here, the best way to create commercial space was through the insertion of storefront openings in existing front elevations. Typically, cast iron columns and combined beams would “jack” the new opening in the brick wall. Often, floor levels inside of the building would be altered to draw the shop floor down to sidewalk level from is common position at the head of foundation walls.

Two examples of similar buildings from different neighborhoods illustrate how this practice happened across the city.

3104 Cherokee Street
The flats at 3104 Cherokee Street in Gravois Park date to the middle 1880s, some time after G.M. Hopkins published his atlas of the city in 1883. The side-gabled house is two bays wide, with some decoration evident in the brick cornice. The roof bears a single dormer. Each floor originally was configured as three rooms laid out shotgun style, front to back with no hall. The first floor has obviously been changed, with a storefront opening inserted. The side entrance, angled wall, beam box above the opening and generous window sizes are typical of the period of alteration, the 1890s.

In some ways, the house at 1419 Mallinckrodt Street in Hyde Park is the sister to the house at 3104 Cherokee. Size, fenestration, cornice treatment, roof line and original floor plan match. The building does appear on the 1883 Hopkins atlas. However, the storefront inserted is much different and later than the other. A simple beam heads the store opening, supported by two cast iron columns with Doric capitals forming a central entrance. To each side is brick infill with double-hung wooden windows in segmental arch openings. Now the building is vacant. Broclyn Real Estate Investment of Jefferson City purchased the building from the Land Reutilization Authority in 2006, but has completed no work to date and is close to a Sheriff’s sale for back taxes owed.

Categories
Historic Preservation LRA North St. Louis Northside Regeneration St. Louis Place

Christian Niedringhaus’ Endangered Warren Street Residences

by Michael R. Allen

The Christian Niedringhaus residence at 1826 Warren Street in November 2008.

On the 1800 block of Warren Street stand two houses tied to the history of one of St. Louis’ foremost industrialist families, the Niedringhauses. Brothers William F. and Frederick G. Niedringhaus are the best known members. The brothers founded the St. Louis Stamping Company in 1866, and oversaw the growth of the tinware maker into an industrial giant that took out the first patent for enameled “Graniteware” and grew so large that the company created its own city across the river, Granite City. (Read more here.)

The two famous German-born brothers worked closely with their other brothers and relatives, with many family members working for the Stamping Company. Like the Anheuser-Busch and Lemp breweries or other German-owned industrial companies, the St. Louis Stamping Company was a family affair. One of the key first-generation brothers was Christian Niedringhaus, who served as Superintendent of the Stamping Company for its meteoric rise before eventually turning the job to his nephew William H. Niedringhaus, son of Frederick W. (not G.) Niedringhaus. (The repetition of names in various combinations makes the family tree complicated.)

In the 19th century, most of the family lived on the near north side. Few addresses where family members resided remain standing. Two homes occupied by William H. Niedringhaus remain on Sullivan Avenue in Old North (both are occupied, including one by this author), and two homes occupied by Christian Niedringhaus remain on Warren Street in St. Louis Place. A small home briefly occupied by Frederick W. Nideringhaus remains on Knapp Street in Old North. Later addresses in the Central West End — where the family members migrated as wealth grew — are still extant.

The two homes on Warren Street are vacant and endangered. In fact, the owners of Christian Niedringhaus’ home at 1826 Warren are seeking demolition, with the matter on tomorrow’s Preservation Board agenda.

The house at 1826 Warren Street in August 2007.
Niedringhaus built the house at 1826 Warren in 1892. In style and pedigree, the home is distinctive for this pocket of St. Louis Place. The house is built in the American Foursquare form with deep roof overhang, a form not widely used in St. Louis Place aside from the showy residences on st. Louis Avenue. The other distinction is that Niedringhaus hired the well-known architectural firm of Beinke & Wees to design the house; few homes off of St. Louis Avenue in St. Louis Place can be attributed to architects. The home is fairly modest for a person of Niedringhaus’ station, showing the family’s trademark practicality.

 

 
Details like an egg and dart sandstone course above the foundation, granite front steps (get the reference?) and a finely-detailed front porch add elegance to a very simple home. The interior is similarly elegant — spacious rooms detailed precisely but not extravagantly. Alas, the house has been vacant for a decade and in disrepair. For some reason, the roof has experienced damage in the passage of the last year. After unsuccessfully seeking rehabilitation financing, the owners are now pursuing demolition. The Department of Public Safety is submitting the demolition to the Preservation Board for preliminary review. The Cultural Resources Office is recommending denial, and Alderwoman April Ford-Griffin (D-5th) is opposed to demolition.

This house and Niedringhaus’ previous residence next door at 1820-22 Warren are two of the dwindling number of remaining contributing resources to the Clemens House-Columbia Brewery Historic District. That district cannot afford to lose any more buildings. Both 1826 and 1820-22 Warren are irreplaceable parts of a fragile, but beautiful historic district.

1820-22 Warren Street in November 2008.

1820-22 Warren in August 2007.

The house at 1820-22 Warren Street is more modest than 1826 and more typical of the vernacular houses of St. Louis Place. Built in 1883 for Niedringhaus by a contractor, the simple brick facade terminates in its one ornamental part — a wooden cornice that retains most of its details after years of neglect. This double house has split ownership that raises concerns: 1820 Warren Street is owned by a holding company controlled by Paul J. McKee, Jr., while 1822 Warren is the property of the city’s Land Reutilization authority. For some reason, the boards securing first-floor entrances have been removed in the past year.

The 1800 and 1900 blocks of Warren are pretty well-kept. There is a lot of vacant land but most of the remaining buildings are occupied, including two multi-family buildings built by Frederick W. and William H. Niedringhaus on the 1900 block. Preservation of the Christian Niedringhaus residences is crucial to saving the sense of place of these two blocks.

Beyond stopping the demolition of 1826 Warren, what can be done? That’s a question that Alderwoman Ford-Griffin and McKee need to help answer. Obviously, large redevelopment will be a long process, even if McKee could make an announcement tomorrow. Meantime, how can we safeguard the historic buildings that should be integral to future plans? Divided ownership puts the burden for mothballing on several owners, including owners who can barely afford demolition. Public funding is needed as well as private responsibility. With the market down, a big rehab wave in not likely. However, that does not mean demolition is the only course — that means we need a smart preservation plan for the Clemens House-Columbia Brewery Historic District.

The Preservation Board meets at 4:00 p.m. Monday, November 24, in the 12th floor conference room at 1015 Locust Street downtown. The meeting agenda is online. Correspondence to the board may be sent to BufordA@stlouiscity.com.