Category: North St. Louis

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Brick Theft Historic Preservation North St. Louis Old North

Brick Thieves Strike 914 Madison Street

by Michael R. Allen

Over at 914 Madison Street in the eastern reaches of Old North St. Louis (which the city officially considers the “North Riverfront” neighborhood), a crew of brick scavengers recently pulled down the exterior walls of the last remaining residence on the block, a building recent damaged by fire. The interior walls and floors are collapsing slowly, forming a shape reminiscent of a pine tree burdened by heavy snowfall. The building is owned by Carlos Johnson. Thankfully, I photographed the building over the summer.

Categories
Fire North St. Louis Old North St. Louis Place

Old Garage at 14th & Cass Burns

by Michael R. Allen

LOCATION: 1516 E. 14th Street; Old North St. Louis; Saint Louis, Missouri
EARLIER NAME: Anderson Motor Service Company
DATE OF CONSTRUCTION: c. 1930
DATE OF FIRE: September 15, 2005
OWNER: Khaled Salameh

The former Anderson Motor Service Company building at 14th and Cass — last named the St. Louis Bus Maintenance Center — is now ruined by fire. Here is a not very extraordinary building brought down through extraordinary circumstances: a spectacular and mysterious early morning blaze detected at 7:30 a.m. on September 15, just weeks after the covert demolition of its beautiful next-door neighbor, the former Crunden Branch Library. The St. Louis Fire Department calls the fire, which took two hours to douse and seemed concentrated in the south end of the building, “suspicious.” The long-vacant building, originally a service garage for trucks and finally a bus maintenance center, contained asbestos as well as residue from various vehicle fuels and fluids, all of which made for a long-lived and smoky fire.

We were shocked that the building would go up in flames after the surprise demolition of the Crunden Branch, news of which was very distressing. With various players in Ward 5 pushing redevelopment of the entire block through demolition, no one expected either building to survive much longer. Few would have predicted that each would come down so abruptly after rumors began, and in such proximity to each other. Once the fire-damaged remains are cleared, the entire block will be clear of buildings.

Alas, fortune is a clumsy and unscrupulous planner.

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Hyde Park McRee Town North St. Louis Preservation Board Shaw South St. Louis

At the Preservation Board Today

by Michael R. Allen

The agenda for today’s St. Louis Preservation Board meeting contains some interesting items. Under the item “4104-54 DeTonty” we find that McBride and Son wants to retain some of the existing buildings on the block. Still, McBride wants to level two great Craftsman-style four-flats that, while derelict, are structurally stable enough for rehab (and vastly superior in materials and detail to any new houses I’ve seen in the city). Under “4008 N. 25th Street” — one of two Hyde Park items on the agenda — the Cultural Resources staff is urging preservation of a sound, small fachwerk (part brick, part timber) building that Alderman Freeman Bosley wants demolished.

Categories
Demolition North St. Louis Old North

914 Madison Street

by Michael R. Allen

The dwelling at 914 Madison Street on August 1, 2005.

LOCATION: 914 Madison Street; Near Old North St. Louis; Saint Louis, Missouri
DATE OF CONSTRUCTION: c. 1895
DATE OF DEMOLITION: October 2005
CURRENT OWNER: Carlos A. Johnson

Will any old residential buildings east of Interstate 70 east of Old North St. Louis be standing at the end of my life?

The answer causes me to shudder, because I see them all falling. There could be a period of industrial sprawl on these cleared lots followed by a boom in construction of condominiums spurred by developments on North Broadway. This area could give rise to towers that would block the sun’s rays from Old North St. Louis and the eyes of the neighborhood from the river.

At any rate, there were few of these buildings left east of I-70 before 914 Madison fell and now there is one less. Several others are in the path of the proposed new interchange at St. Louis Avenue. How odd that the neighborhood named for the village of North St. Louis does not include most of the village, which originally started at the river and developed westward to what is now Hadley Street. In 1816, when North St. Louis was platted, the parcel at 914 Madison lay on the village’s western frontier. Now the parcel is on the eastern frontier, one not of expansion but dissipation.

Categories
Abandonment Historic Preservation Hyde Park North St. Louis

Neglecting the Nord St. Louis Turnverein

by Michael R. Allen

The scars of historical neglect are visible on every corner of the north side, but few of them make one’s jaw drop faster than the crumbling red brick hulk running from the corner of Salisbury and 20th streets all the way south to the corner of Mallinckrodt and 20th. This is the Nord (or North) St. Louis Turnverein, and it may very well be one of those buildings that even its admirers never mention in the future tense. Its ownership has passed to a negligent owner and it has suffered major roof collapse since going vacant nearly one decade ago. Yet it remains a powerful symbol of the lost ethnic heritage of the Hyde Park neighborhood — which hopefully has a future despite its many setbacks.

Hyde Park began as the German-founded town of Bremen in 1844, and for the first 100 years of this area’s development, Germans were involved in every aspect of civic life here. Despite annexation by the city of St. Louis in 1855 and an influx of immigrants of other nationalities, Hyde Park retained a distinctly German character. The Germans created businesses, wholesale companies, factories and saloons, built great homes and introduced some institutions of a progressive bent, from kindergarten to the St. Louis Philosophical Society (a Hegelian group that published the Journal of Speculative Philosophy from the neighborhood). Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of German social ideals was the founding of the Nord St. Louis Turnverein in 1870. (“Turnverein” is German for gymnastic society.) The members, popularly called Turners, formed the association not only to promote physical health but to promote socializing and civic participation among the working and upper class Germans of Hyde Park.

In 1879, the Turnverein built its first building at 1926 Salisbury fronting Hyde Park itself. This two-story red brick building was built in an Italianate style with a half-mansard parapet wall on its symmetrical five-bay front elevation. Storefronts for rental income faced Salisbury in the two bays to the east and west of the center doorway. Behind the front elevation sat the large gymnasium with its arched roof. This stately building, designed by architect H.W. Kirchner, still stands and has suffered the most damage of the portions of the Turnverein complex.

The new building opened one year after the Turnerbund, the national coordinating organization for Turner societies, moved its office to the temporary Hyde Park home of the Nord St. Louis Turnverein. St. Louis Turners played an important role in the national organization, and were notably progressive in their outlook. They urged passage of successful resolutions calling for the direct election of United States senators (years before that actually occurred in 1913), child labor restrictions, workplace and health inspections and the right to recall and referendum. The Nord St. Louis Turners pushed for adoption of physical education in the St. Louis Public Schools, which was established in 1883. They also advocated installation of public playgrounds around the city.

The Nord St. Louis Turnverein served as a popular civic center for German Americans living on the north side. Widespread use necessitated additions to the first building. A three-story Romanesque Revival addition built in 1893 behind the first building included a bar, meeting rooms and lounges. The addition featured a center arch proclaiming the name of the Turnverein. An 1898 gymnasium addition in the same style facing Mallinckrodt Street, connected over the alleyway with a bridge, expanded the Turnverein building to a full block in length. Turner Oscar Raeder designed the additions while Turner A.H. Haessler served as contractor.

The Turnverein prospered for decades into the Twentieth Century as the acknowledged center of German social life in the neighborhood. The Mallinckrodt Chemical Company, owned by the German Mallinckrodt family, held its board meetings at the Turnverein into the 1980s despite the availability of fancier locations with air conditioning. However, German culture in the city declined following World War I, through political suppression as well as inevitable assimilation. German Americans also joined the flight to the suburbs after World War II. By the 1960s, the Turnverein was renting its space to other organizations, including Veterans clubs. Regulars held on, and the bar remained a good, safe place in the neighborhood for a drink. The bar had no tolerance for fighting, but would serve minors who were employed at the factories on the north riverfront. As former underage patron told us, the Turners figured that anyone “doing a man’s work could have a man’s drink.”

In the early 1980s, the Turnverein enjoyed some renown as a venue for punk rock shows that drew young people to Hyde Park, some for the first time. A nascent rehab effort in the neighborhood and the shows seemed to indicate a better future for the Turnverein, but neither lasted. In 2000, the Nord St. Louis Turnverein closed its doors for good. The buildings already had many problems from deferred maintenance, and quickly deteriorated. The Turners sold the buildings to a non-profit that wanted to revive the buildings for a cultural center, but that group dissolved and somehow DHP Investments LLC ended up with ownership. They have done nothing to repair the buildings; in fact, they allowed the roof on the first gymnasium to collapse and have left the doorways wide open. Inside, the wooden floors have buckled, joists sag and even exterior brick walls have spalled to the point of failure. The condition is so poor that rehabilitation will surely cost several million dollars. Still, much of the interior retains original features and could be made to be very attractive again.

Alderman Freeman Bosley, Sr., whose ward includes the Turnverein, has expressed interest in using eminent domain to remove the buildings from the ownership of DHP. Bosley has no specific details on who would then own the buildings and how they would be restored, but he has told constituents that he would like to see a comedy club open in the Turnverein. Whatever happens needs to happen now. The Germans are not returning in large numbers to the now mostly African-American neighborhood, but their grand hall is part of our polyglot heritage that honors everyone through preservation.

Photographs from May 20, 2005 (Michael R. Allen)

Some Turnverein Documents
Categories
Abandonment Historic Preservation North St. Louis Old North

Good News in Old North

by Michael R. Allen

Some great news: The Old North St. Louis Restoration Group has now closed on both of its loans for its North Market Place development, which includes construction of 41 new homes and rehabilitation of several old buildings. Credit goes to the Restoration Group for rehabbing several buildings that had been approved for demolition and were in advanced states of deterioration.

Look for lots of activity on Benton, North Market and Monroe Streets between Hadley and North Florissant this fall and spring. Rebuilding neighborhood density is always interesting to watch, but rarely heartening. This project is encouraging. While the new homes use some materials that I do not find appropriate, their design, scale and — most notable — lot placement (close to the sidewalk, close to neighboring buildings) are compatible with the neighborhood.

Categories
Demolition North St. Louis St. Louis Place

Crunden Branch Library

by Michael R. Allen

In late August 2005, the elegant Crunden Branch Library (better known in recent days as the Pulaski Bank) at the corner of Cass Avenue and 14th Street disappeared. No magic was involved — just a wrecking crew working without public notice. Residents of the near north side had feared such an event for years but had not been given forewarning. Some didn’t even notice the demolition, instead finding an empty lot covered in grass seed and straw where their old landmark stood.

Photograph from 2001 by Rob Powers.

Yet the old library branch did not fall without a fight. There were valiant attempts by Landmarks Association and north siders to preserve the building. As recently as last year, a major effort to preserve the library branch building was in motion. Three students in a Washington University architecture course offered by Esley Hamilton and Carolyn Toft studied the building for their class project, concluding that the building should be restored to its original use. Student Katie McKenzie then worked on a draft nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

Photograph from 2001 by Rob Powers.

Unfortunately, the nomination met with significant opposition from Alderwoman April Ford Griffin (D-5th), who has long favored demolition of the building for plans that may include construction of a new strip mall anchored by Walgreens. With the building owned by the city’s Land Reutilization, Griffin was basically the owner of the building and her will was finally carried out. At its May 2005 meeting, the Preservation Board recommended against listing the building on the National Register, but the Missouri Advisory Council on Historic Preservation approved the nomination anyway and the building will be listed on the National Register post mortem.

What a sad end for such a triumphant building, the city’s first north side library branch built through Andrew Carnegie’s grant to the city. Eames & Young designed the richly-ornamented Beaux Arts style building, and construction began in 1908. Murch Brothers built the building, which cost $51,000 to build. On September 11, 1909, the library was opened with its official name: the Frederick Morgan Crunden Branch Library.

Photograph from 2001 by Rob Powers.

This name honored the life of Crunden, an educator who became head of the fledgling public library system in 1877. At that time, the library was a private members-only entity affiliated with the St. Louis Public Schools, and its members were mostly teachers and professors. Crunden vowed to change that by transforming the club-like library into a vast democratic system he sometimes called the “People’s Library.” As any resident of the city knows, he was successful in establishing a fine citywide library system before his retirement in 1909.

The building was a fitting tribute to the erstwhile librarian. Its simple, low rectangular form with hipped roof was purely classical in form, while its faces expressed a more fanciful classicism. The brick walls were laid with an odd bond pattern: two stretchers with no visible mortar joint and a single header. The glazed terra cotta entablature, later damaged by thieves, featured a shell and dolphin motif that evoked the stability and permanence of the ocean with some whimsy. The north and south elevations had different articulation. The windows on the east and west walls were designed to house busts of famous St. Louisans. Inside, the first floor was a completely undivided reading room — the only of the Carnegie-funded branches with such a plan.

Photograph from 2001 by Rob Powers.

After many years of use, the Public Library decided to move the library branch due to perceived “encroachment of industry” on this site. In 1953, the library sold the building to Pulaski Bank and built a new building at 2008 Cass Avenue — adjacent to the Pruitt-Igoe housing project — to house the Crunden Branch Library. This incarnation of the branch closed in 1981, with no replacement, but the building at 2008 Cass still stands. Pulaski Bank made significant alterations to the building, removing entry foyer and enlarging the window openings. The bank opened the building as branch on December 31, 1954, but this branch was not open for more than 25 years. As a civic gesture, Pulaski Bank kept the basement auditorium open to use by civic organizations.

In December 1995, the Land Reutilization acquired the building and its fate seemed sealed. City planners have called for wholesale clearance of this area since the late 1950s. The few remaining historic buildings here are those that are privately owned, but even some of those could fall to make way for a “connector” ramp from Tucker Boulevard to a new highway bridge spanning the Mississippi River. One wonders what will become of the Cass Avenue Bank one block west of the library branch. Readers can be assured that the Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise at Cass and Tucker will be preserved, though.

Image from September 15, 2005 by Michael R. Allen

Categories
Demolition Fire Lewis Place North St. Louis

4416-22 Martin Luther King Boulevard

by Michael R. Allen

At about 8:30 p.m. on August 8, I was driving toward downtown on I-64/40 and saw a huge gray smoke cloud against the also-gray night sky. I noticed bright orange flames reaching skyward. I took the Grand Avenue exit and headed north, then west until I pinpointed the location near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Taylor.

I arrived near the building at 8:38 p.m., passing two newly-burnt buildings on the way (the damage on both was anywhere from one day to one week old). When I got close, I watched firefighters battling an intense blaze behind a two-story commercial building west of the corner of Newstead Avenue and MLK. The address of the building is 4416-22 Martin Luther King Boulevard.

I left because I could not get close enough to see the building well, and the smoke on the ground was thick enough to preclude good viewing from the sidewalk.

I tuned in various AM radio stations, hoping to catch a breaking news report. Nothing. Later tonight, I watched the local television news reports on KMOV Channel 4 and KSDK Channel 5. There were stories of suburban fires, but none about this one. I had spotted a helicopter circling the fire and had assumed it contained a television news camera person.

I just searched the websites of those stations as well as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and located no stories about the fire. I did, however, find stories about fires at the following north city locations within the last 48 hours:

  • 2400 block of Sarah
  • 5200 block of Maple

    The building at 4416-24 Martin Luther King Boulevard on August 10, 2005. Photograph by Claire Nowak-Boyd.

    I returned to the fire on MLK the next day and also did some research.

    The building that burned was a two-story commercial building at the rear of 4416-22 Martin Luther King. I write “rear” because the building that burned down was not originally attached to the storefront building that faces Martin Luther King and was only joined with a crude connector — good news for the building, I suppose.

    Looking toward the fire damaged one-story building on August 9, 2005. We could not get any closer per the work crew’s presence. Photograph by Michael R. Allen.

    The rear building was reduced to a pile of rubble and only a few sections of the outer brick walls stand, none higher than eight feet.

    Saint Gabriel Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church owns the buildings. Who knows what will become of the two-story building, with its graceful Union Foundry cast iron storefront columns and elegant lines. (Note the already-removed cornice and the odd-sized window sills.)

    UPDATE: DEMOLISHED, DECEMBER 2006

    • Categories
    Demolition North St. Louis St. Louis Place

    Starlight Missionary Baptist Church

    by Michael R. Allen

    Awaiting demolition, March 18, 2005.

    Small and simple, this church was a fine expression of the faith its builder had for continuity and humility. Unfortunately, times have changed and such values have become almost marginal. There is absolutely no humility in wholesale clearance of several blocks of 19th-century buildings and there shall be no permanence of replacement given the cheapness of the new construction here. The Starlight Missionary Baptist Church at 25th and Sullivan streets in St. Louis Place fell in May for construction of a huge multi-block housing developed by the Pyramid Companies. The history of the building, which may date to the 1870s, and its small size made it a prime candidate for preservation in a site plan that included ample open space. Instead it fell at the hands of wreckers.

    Categories
    Abandonment Hyde Park North St. Louis Schools

    Irving School in Hyde Park

    by Michael R. Allen

    The Irving School at 3829 North 25th Street, named for popular 19th century writer Washington Irving, has stood at the western end of the Hyde Park neighborhood for 134 years. Opening in 1871, the school was the St. Louis Public School District’s second school (Clay School, also located in Hyde Park, being the first). Originally, this elementary school had a staff of six teachers including one who spoke German for teaching the many neighborhood children who did not yet speak English. The presence of the German-speaking teacher was a conscious effort to get the many German families in this neighborhood integrated into “mainstream” civic life. This was no easy feat — after all, Hyde Park was originally laid out only a few years earlier, in 1844, as the town of Bremen and remained heavily populated by Germans.

    Not surprising is the fact that the architect for the main building of Irving School was German-born Frederick W. Raeder, then serving as the District’s first official architect. Raeder was a recent transplant, too, having arrived in town in 1867 from Germany. His design, a plain yet stately red-brick original Italianate building, has a striking unique feature: each of the twelve classrooms was located at a corner. This move to ensure that ample light reached the classrooms led to the three-story height and the many large windows.

    As part of his work with the District, Raeder later designed Gratiot School as well as Des Peres School, site of the nation’s first kindergarten. The two-story Des Peres school building, completed in 1873, is still extant in Carondelet, and bears some resemblance to Irving. Gratiot School, located near the intersection of Hampton and Manchester avenues, housed the district’s archives for many years until it was closed and sold during the 2003 round of school cutbacks. It still stands.

    Irving School was expanded in 1891 and 1894. A three-story addition built on the west side of the original Irving building is almost indistinguishable in material and style from its parent structure. The kindergarten building, which added eight rooms to the building, adds a gentle stylistic difference to the complex. With a rusticated stone water table, catalog-ordered ornamental brick and arched windows, this addition is a modest Romanesque Revival endeavor that harmonizes with the older building.

    Irving School still in use, 1978. (Source: Landmarks Association of St. Louis Collection.)

    In 1994, the District closed Irving School. The District placed the complex up for sale in 2003, but has yet to accept any offer.