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Fire JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Former Syphilis Center Burns

by Michael R. Allen

The former Better Donut Drive-In at the southeast corner of Grand and Cass burned last night. This two-story early twentieth century commercial building has been vacant for several years, but is infamous as a major contact point in the city’s syphillis epidemic during the early 1990s (see Malcolm Gay’s insightful article published in the Riverfront Times last June).

Incidentally, the owner of the building is VHS Partners LLC.