Category: North St. Louis

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Architecture Housing JeffVanderLou North St. Louis

Eclectic Italianate House in JeffVanderLou

by Michael R. Allen

Sometimes there is a house so exuberant and eccentric that even the most seasoned architectural historian can’t help but smile. This house at 3049 Sheridan Avenue in JeffVanderLou is one of those houses. The composition is strange in the best possible way. Here we could have a basic brick two-story Italianate town house with stone front. Yet we don’t have that, because the true mansard roof is somewhat low-pitched with a deep overhang. The trapezoidal front dormer with rounded roof belongs on another house. That dormer doesn’t quite match the dormers on the east side, which have roofs that mimic the roof form of the house itself.

The east side’s trapezoidal bow adds character, and the ornate wooden cornice is continuous on this side. On the west side, where the wall is blind, the wooden cornice makes a transition to some of the most unique brick corbels I’ve seen in St. Louis. This detail is remarkable considering that historically this side was obscured by another house and these details would scarcely have been seen.

The house is occupied and in fair condition. The bright blue paint of the front elevation seems appropriate to the eclectic Gilded Age style of the house. Make no mistake about it — architectural historians love to find such houses.

Categories
Brick Theft Demolition North St. Louis Northside Regeneration St. Louis Place

Cut Off, Cut Down

by Michael R. Allen


Three weeks ago I wrote about the loss of a house at 2569 Montgomery Street in St. Louis Place (see “Cut Off”, July 25, 2008). The house and the house next door were owned by companies tied to developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. and had suffered severe damage at the hands of criminals who steal brick. Now the house next door, at 2571 Montgomery Street, is gone. This photo dates to the demolition last week. Now this block is down to two remaining houses across the street from each other to the west. One of those houses is owned by a McKee holding company.

Preservation planning, anyone? It’s much cleaner and safer than demolition through the urban warfare of brick theft.

Categories
Abandonment Historic Preservation Housing North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North

Left Behind

by Michael R. Allen

Here we see part of the fallout of the current housing market collapse, and a sign that large-scale projects pose only one obvious type of threat to the historic architecture of north St. Louis. This is a tenement house at 1102-4 Montgomery Street in Old North St. Louis, and is best known for the gaping hole in the side wall and giant grafitti tag prominent on Interstate 70.

This poor building’s condition is the result of a rehabilitation scheme gone awry. In 2005, Impact Real Estate Investment purchased this building, a house across the street and a house at the northwest corner of St. Louis Avenue and Hadley streets — all in Old North. Impact also bought buildings in other neighborhoods. Led by Marteese Robinson, former Director of Professional Scouting for the St. Louis Cardinals, the company had big plans.

In an article that appeared in the January 31, 2005 issue of the St. Louis Buisness Journal, Robinson’s redevelopment philosophy is reported:

When he buys a property, Robinson first replaces the roof and then guts the interior. When renovating the homes, he tries to maintain as many historic details as he can, recycling ornate woodwork and replacing worn-out hardware with modern replicas.

To appeal to today’s buyer, Robinson concentrates on making kitchens, bathrooms and closets larger than those found in the turn-of-the-century homes. He uses a mix of carpet, hardwood and tile on the floors. For some items, like 12-foot-high front doors that are hard to replace, Robinson has custom reproductions manufactured.

What’s not to like? Try the execution of the projects. Robinson’s crews did work best described as slap-dash on his Old North properties — and never even finished the ones on Montgomery. The house at Hadley and St. Louis was completed (all historic millwork was carted off in a dumpster) and supposedly sold for $225,000, but currently sits in foreclosure.

For 1102-4 Montgomery Street, Impact had a tall order. The rear section of the building needed masonry reconstruction of all three walls, while the front wall needed a corner relayed. Impact ignored the bid of a seasoned mason and hired the work to a crew so inexperienced with historic masonry, the work is agonizing to describe. The corner was relayed without boxes for either window, so the edges aren’t straight. Somehow the coursing didn’t work out, with bricks shaved under the window lintel on the first floor to compensate. The worst work was on the side where, after months in which Impact had demolished the entire wall and left the second floor joists sagging, a more experienced crew laid up a straight block wall to the second floor. Then an inexperienced crew laid brick over that, changing the sizes of window openings and making slopping connections to the existing wall.

Then, everything stopped abruptly in 2006. The wall stopped at the second floor, leaving the roof trusses unsupported. Part of the other side wall collapsed. The buidling was left completely unsecured. The pits dug on each side for foundation tuckpointing were never filled. The building was left structurally compromised and in violation of city codes.

Impact stopped paying taxes on the Montgomery buildings in 2006, too. The building across the street, at 1119 Montgomery, supposedly sold at a Sheriff’s tax auction in May to a Paul McKee holding company represented by Eagle Realty’s Harvey Noble.

The building at 1102-4 Montgomery awaits its tax sale next year. Marteese Robinson now works for the Washington Nationals. Residents of Old North have a nasty scar with an uncertain future. And the building manages to stay standing.

Categories
Historic Preservation National Register North St. Louis People The Ville

Chuck Berry House Headed for National Register

by Michael R. Allen

Photograph by Lindsey Derrington.

This modest flat-roofed, one-story brick house at 3137 Whittier Street in The Ville is where rock ‘n’ roll was invented. Well, if not outright invented, definitely made into something it had never been before. Chuck Berry bought this house in 1950 and lived there during his most productive early songwriting period. When he sold the house in 1958, Berry had recorded “Maybelline,” “Johnny B. Goode” and “Roll Over Beethoven.”

My colleague Lindsey Derrington, Researcher for Landmarks Association, identified this house last year as a landmark worthy of listing in the National Register of Historic Places. Rather than wait for someone else to take action, Lindsey wrote a nomination that received approval from the city’s Preservation Board last week and will be considered by the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation this Friday. After that point, the nomination is likely to face a tough time undergoing review by the National Park Service, which generally does not list in the Register properties associated with persons still living. This rule comes from fear of making hasty historical judgment. Lindsey’s nomination makes the case that Chuck Berry’s importance already has a permanent spot in the history books, even if he is alive and very well.

Today, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch covered the nomination of the house with a front page article; read that here.

Categories
Brick Theft Demolition North St. Louis Northside Regeneration St. Louis Place

Cut Off

by Michael R. Allen

Shown here is the house at 2569 Montgomery Street in St. Louis Place before its demise at the hands of brick thieves earlier this year. When I took this photograph in February, thieves had already taken down much of the western wall of the house, causing interior collapses. Not long after I took this photograph, a brick wall collapsed on some thieves working on this house and, in the ensuing attempt to dig out one of the wreckers, police arrived on the scene to ticket the “crew” with trespassing. At least, that’s the word on the street — court records don’t turn up anything.

The false-mansard-faced two-story house was built in 1888, long before Parnell Avenue to its east was widened out of proportion with demands. This house stood on a block orphaned between the needless expanse of Parnell — a formidable pedestrian boundary — and the expansion of industries to the west that involved major street closures. The life-flow of cities and blood alike is circulation. Any part cut off from circulation eventually dies. This house ended up in the possession of Blairmont Associates in 2005. No surprise that the owners of the house next door sold to Blairmont sister company Sheridan Place in 2006.

Categories
Abandonment LRA North St. Louis Old North

Progression

by Michael R. Allen

The row of houses at 2917-25 N. 13th Street (at center) in Old North St. Louis being painted back in 1984. (Photo from the collection of Landmarks Association of St. Louis.)

The now-vacant, city-owned row of houses at 2917-25 N. 13th Street in Old North St. Louis on December 21, 2005.

The row of vacant city-owned houses at 2917-25 N. 13th Street in Old North St. Louis on February 8, 2008. A winter storm led to the collapse of the roof of the southern building.

The row of vacant city-owned houses at 2917-25 N. 13th Street in Old North St. Louis on July 20, 2008. A mysterious fire the night before led to the collapse of the northern section.

Previous coverage: A Middle Path? (February 12, 2008)

UPDATE: The What’s New In Old North blog has posted another Old North progression — this one from decay to new life: “The History and Transformation of Old North, as seen in one building”

Categories
Demolition North St. Louis Northside Regeneration St. Louis Place

Another Lost Chance

by Michael R. Allen

In “Daily Dose of Blairmont #12” back in March 2008 (the daily series is now up to #137), Built St. Louis author Rob Powers presented the graceful mansard-roofed four-flat at 2341 University Street in St. Louis Place. Powers’ chronicle of historic buildings in north St. Louis owned by developer Paul J. McKee Jr.’s holding companies shows us both solitary survivors and houses that contribute to groups of historic houses. This building was one of the latter — while the block face across the street is gone, the north side of the 2300 block on University is fairly intact toward its west side.

In his blog post, Powers asked the question: “Will this row, like so much around it, become nothing more than a memory, leaving no trace of what this neighborhood once was?”

Sadly, the answer has come: Yes.


On June 9, the city’s Building Division issued an emergency demolition permit for the building. Unlike many other McKee-owned buildings on the near north side, this house was protected by occupied neighboring houses. The brick thieves never arrived to carve up the fine house. Although vacant and deteriorating since at least 1989, the house was in pretty fair shape as vacant north side buildings go. The house was pretty rough when McKee’s Blairmont Associates LC purchased the house from Ruth Erbschloe in 2006, but not unsound under reasonable interpretation of city code. An emergency order seems rash, even from the perspective that the house needed wrecking.

Then again, we don’t have means for making very careful choices about houses like this one. The 5th and 19th wards, where McKee’s holdings mostly lie, lack preservation review for demolition. Even without the questionable emergency order — not the first in this neighborhood for a building that seemed sound under city ordinances — there would have been little to stop this demolition, save the owner. The owner, of course, has made no plans clear. With no comprehensive plan for land use and preservation coming from either the city or McKee, much of St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou stand in a torpor — except that which will no longer stands. Add the house at 2341 University to the list.


What a shame this loss truly is. As Powers notes, that block is pretty solid architecturally. The house immediately to the east is obviously well-tended, retaining many original architectural features including its iron fence. Obviously, that house should be an anchor for spreading redevelopment on a block still residential in character. There are plenty of blocks in St. Louis Place where one can find large expanses for new construction. Those retaining historic residential fabric and homeowners need a careful approach we’re not likely to get without a public planning process. The real “emergency” is the lack of coordination between city government, McKee and stakeholders in St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou.

Categories
Demolition Industrial Buildings North St. Louis

Vanishing Bakery

Currently under demolition, an old bakery complex stands at the northwest corner of Cook and Sarah avenues inthe Vandeventer neighborhood. While not as large or as architecturally refined as some of the larger bakeries of the city, the complex here typifies the smaller bakeries that were opnce sources of neighborhood employment across the city’s working-class neighborhoods.

While growing into a complex of at least four different sections, this complex had its start as a small neighborhood bakery operated out of the two-story brown brick corner building. The permit for the corner building dates to January 6, 1904, when baker F.J. Schneider (who resided nearby at 1115 S. Sarah) took out a permit for a $13,000 facility. The bakery may have been small, but that cost is not insignificant. H.F. Holke (office at 2583 Wrne Avenue) served as contractor and little-known Otto Bachner (office in the Wainwright Building) was architect. These names indicate the extent of German settlement in this part of north St. Louis.

Schneider continued to expand his operation, adding oven in 1905. The operation was called, oddly enough, the “French Bakery.” In 1909, Schneider built a two-story stable on the alley side, hiring A.H. Haesseler as architect. The 1909 Sanborn fire insurance map captures this point in the bakery’s history:


Here we see the bakery building at the corner, showing the first floor partitions and the three bake ovens then in place. This map shows that the block was essentially a residential block, with houses just a few hundred feet from the hot, pungent world of the bakers. However, just west of the bakery the map shows a “bottle works” operating along the alley behind a house. (That building was later incorporated into the bakery.) This mix of uses was not uncommon in the early 20th century even in well-kept neighborhoods west of Grand Avenue. Our ancestors were doing the “live-work” lifestyle long before it got any coverage in Dwell.

In 1910, Schneider again expanded, taking out a $19,000 permit for “alterations to a second-class bakery.” Hartmann Building and Construction Company served as contractor. Additional permits from 1918 show installation of four more ovens and significant alterations. By 1919, the bakery was owned by Nafziger Baking Company. That company continued to expand the facility, and on February 18, 1928 took out a $42,000 permit to build a two-story addition to the west of the 1904 building, most of which is missing in my photographs. This particular bakery ended its baking days as the Taystee Bakery, operated by the American Bakeries Company.


The robust concrete-framed inudtrial buildings showed few signs of deterioration when owner Transformation Christian Church took out a permit this year for demolition. Located in the 19th Ward, which is not covered by the city’s opt-out preservation review laws, the demolition was never reviewed by the Cultural Resources Office.

Categories
North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

New North Side Holding Companies Share Address With McEagle

On May 8, I reported on two new companies rapidly buying parcels in north St. Louis, Union Martin LLC and Larmer LC. While the companies are buying exclusively in the parts off St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou where Paul McKee’s companies are buying, they are registered to F & B Properties, unconnected to McKee’s companies.

However, Mayor Francis Slay’s July quarterly campaign finance filing reports received contributions of $1,350.00 from both of these companies. The return address reported is 1001 Boardwalk Springs Place in O’Fallon, Missouri, which is the address of McKee’s McEagle Properties.

Categories
Historic Preservation North St. Louis Old North Rehabbing

The Phoenix, 14th Street


One of the most important local preservation success stories ever is unfolding at the present moment: the rescue and rehabilitation of 26 historic buildings around the 14th Street commercial district in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood. The $35 million project centers on two blocks of the commercial district closed to vehicular traffic in 1977 and redubbed the “14th Street Mall,” infamous as an urban ghost town after a majority of buildings fell vacant by the 1990s, with all but two vacant by 2005.

When I first started exploring the neighborhood, contemplating the purchase of a building, the 14th Street Mall was an eerie void in the heart of a rebounding neighborhood. Rehab activity was eroding the decayed quality of many blocks in the neighborhood, but not the two blocks closed to traffic. These blocks were the exception: blocks getting worse, losing vitality and sucking it away from surrounding blocks. No part of the neighborhood seemed to be as formidable a reminder of the neighborhood’s plight — or as valuable an asset.

For years, neighbors had been trying to revive the commercial district. Without the capacity to reopen the closed streets (14th and Montgomery) and tackle a large number of the buildings at once, the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group had little success at attracting development. A bid by an Atlanta developer to acquire the entire four-block mall area spurred a capacity-building partnership between the Restoration Group and the Regional Housing Community Development Alliance. The impossible became the actual. Acquisition began in 2004, and intricately-arranged financing was ready in fall 2007.

After I moved into Old North in 2005, I always spoke of the 14th Street project in the future tense. Even last summer, as the reality of the project seemed imminent, I noticed a reluctance in the neighborhood to speak about the project in the present tense. As if naming the project were a curse that would doom the ghostly landscape’s chances at revival, people remained cautious. Who could blame people?

Then, all of a sudden, at the end of September 2007, an army of contractors descended. Dozens of buildings were gutted, walls were rebuilt, fences erected and roofs removed. The whole tone of Old North changed – the dead center, 14th Street, was now the hot bed of neighborhood action. Like a phoenix, the heart of Old North began to rise. By spring 2008, a handful of historic buildings on Warren and Montgomery streets had been fully rehabbed and leased to new residents.


By the spring, the streets should be reopened and the rehabbed buildings will house 78 housing units and 6,000 square feet of retail space. The life will continue to grow. For now, even incomplete, the difference is life-affirming for this old neighborhood.