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Architects Architecture Demolition Downtown Forest Park Southeast Historic Preservation LRA Missouri St. Louis Board of Aldermen

Odds and Ends

by Michael R. Allen

MCPHEETERS WAREHOUSES NEARLY GONE: The McPheeters Warehouses on Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard, subject of a Vital Voice column of mine published in June, are nearly gone. Demolition started two weeks ago, and now the one-story cold storage warehouse and most of the center building are gone.

SHANK SONS HONOR ISADORE: Peter and Stephen Shank have published Firbeams, a lovely website featuring the residential architecture of father Isadore Shank.

KIEL PROGRESS: In the St. Louis Beacon, Charlene Prost reports on progress in the plan by SCP Worldwide and McEagle Properties to re-open the Kiel Opera House.

VACANT BUILDING INITIATIVE: As featured in a story on KSDK TV this week, Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett (D-6th) has introduced Board Bill 174, which would require owners of vacant buildings to pay an annual registration fee, carry liability insurance and secure all openings, among other requirements. Church and nonprofit property is exempt, but Land Reutilization Authority property is not. More later.

STATEWIDE PRESERVATION CONFERENCE SEPTEMBER 10-13 IN ST. CHARLES: The 2008 Annual Statewide Preservation Conference begins on Wednesday, September 10 in St. Charles. I am co-presenting a workshop with Jan Cameron of the St. Louis Cultural Resources Office entitled “Vernacular Architecture from the Stone Age to the Space Age.” Details here.

DRURY WANTS TO DO WHAT?: At Vanishing STL, Paul Hohmann reports on a bizarre plan by Drury Hotels to demolish the northwest corner of the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood for a new hotel. The plan threatens the Lambskin Temple and many historic homes. Drury will present the plans tonight at the Gibson Heights Neighborhood Association meeting, 7:00 p.m. at 1034 S. Kingshighway.

Categories
Demolition Historic Preservation Northside Regeneration St. Louis Building Division St. Louis Place

Emergency Demolition? No, That Might Make Sense.

by Michael R. Allen

The house at 1512 Montgomery Street in St. Louis Place is a perfect example of the city’s senseless approach to dealing with vacant buildings. This handsome old tenement happens to be owned by developer Paul J. McKee, Jr.’s Blairmont Associates LC, but that’s not what is notable here. What is notable is that the old building has had a severe lean to the east for many years. The building appears twisted, as if it were made of pliant red rubber. The building has also been vacant for at least a decade — not surprising, considering the slope of each floor. In December 2006, the Building Division condemned the building for demolition, putting it on a long list with a wait period for demolition funding.

During an early July storm, the gable end collapsed onto the parking lot of the adjacent Church’s Chicken. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

We all know what’s next, right? The Building Division swoops in with an emergency condemnation and demolition order, and the lot is quickly just another expanse of straw-covered dirt.

Guess again. The building still stands as of the date of writing! The Building Division has not issued any emergency order, and the owner has applied wooden and tube-steel bracing of questionable utility. (Honestly, the part of the building most likely to fall has already fallen.) Here is a house that could not be rehabilitated without complete demolition and reconstruction. Even moderate correction of the lean would cost more money than the house would ever be worth. Contrast this condition with other vacant houses in St. Louis Place and other neighborhoods that have been put under the “emergency” axe for happening to have a non-structural rear wall collapse or by literally being adjacent to a building that has collapsed after a bout of brick thievery. I’ve watched the Building Division take down structures easier to repair (and located in more desirable spots than next to a fast food restaurant) than the sad house at 1512 Montgomery Street.

There is no consistency in the use of emergency condemnation procedures. Often the decisions make no sense in regard to preservation planning or structural necessity. Discussions about how to shape a new vacant building policy in the city should examine ways in which the Building Division’s power to use emergency condemnation powers could fall under some sort of review. We have relatively weak cultural resources and urban planning laws, but what good comes from those laws often gets undermined by a quick decision over on the fourth floor of City Hall.

There needs to be coordination — not a new board, office or commissioner position, but simply a smart policy of cooperation between the Building Division, the Cultural Resources Office, the Planning and Urban Design Agency and the aldermen. As this house shows, even the most tenuous-looking building isn’t going to fall over tomorrow. There is time to make smart choices.

Update: The house was demolished in September 2008.

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

Brick Theft Suspect Charged With Felony

by Michael R. Allen

This morning was a momentous event in efforts to crack down on the plague of brick theft that has hit the north St. Louis neighborhoods of St. Louis Place, JeffVanderLou and the Ville. This morning Judge Cale Stovall-Reid held a preliminary hearing in the case of the City of St. Louis vs. Samuel K. Ivory.

Ivory, known as a demolition crew worker, faces the misdemeanor charge of Theft/Stealing (Value Of Property Or Services Is Less Than $500) and, most important, a felony charge of Property Damage 1st Degree. Judge Stovall-Reid has also ordered Ivory confined to the city of St. Louis pending trial. Earlier this year, police from the Fifth District arrested Ivory at the scene of 2569 Montgomery Street, where allegedly Ivory and others were taking down a house owned by one of Paul J. McKee Jr.’s holding companies. The house has since been demolished due to its destabilization by brick thieves (see “Cut Off, Cut Down”, July 25).

North side residents have been demanding justice against the brick thieves for the last two years. That justice may be coming, at least to one of the perpetrators.

Categories
Eminent Domain Events JeffVanderLou Northside Regeneration

Eminent Domain Coalition Meeting on Thursday in JVL

Citizens Coalition to Fight Eminent Domain Abuse

Come Join US
At
JVL Daycare Center
2953 M.L. King
August 21, 2008
At 6pm to 7:30pm

Special guests:
Ed Martin, Former Assistant to the Governor
Marvin Steele, Paul McKee Properties Consultant

For more information contact: Isaiah Hair, Jr. at 314-38707592 or Pam Talley at 314-535-6867.

Categories
Adaptive Reuse Historic Preservation Mullanphy Emigrant Home North St. Louis Old North Streets

Moonlight Ramble Included the Mullanphy Emigrant Home

by Michael R. Allen


Early Sunday morning, cyclists on this year’s Moonlight Ramble made a north turn to ride by the historic Mullanphy Emigrant Home in Old North St. Louis. The Ramble, organized each year since 1964 by the Gateway Council of Hostelling International USA, is a midnight bike ride held on the Saturday night nearest the full moon in August. Over 15,000 riders participated this year, and each one got to see first-hand what could be an exciting new home for Hostelling International’s local chapter.
While the route of the ride was a secret, word had already spread that this year’s ride proceeds would benefit the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, envisioned as a world-class hostel by the Gateway Council. Hostelling International hopes to continue rehabilitation of the Emigrant Home, hit by devastating storms in 2006 and 2007 and now largely stabilized through the efforts of the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group.

The hostel plan would both restore the historic architecture of a building built in 1867 from plans by renowned architects George Barnett and Alfred Piquenard and also rededicate the building to housing the itinerant. The Emigrant Home originally housed immigrants headed westward through St. Louis from New York and other eastern ports. Hosteling International would provide lodging for a different sort of migrant — travelers exploring the United States. If the hostel opens it would be a serendipitous revival of the building’s original purpose.

Meanwhile, residents of Old North are enthusiastic about the prospects for the building’s future, and the legions of travelers who might come through their neighborhood as they travel this country. That enthusiasm was on display in full force last night, and a throng of neighbors (including people from the block facing the Emigrant home) welcomed thousands of riders for well over an hour. To learn more about the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, visit SaveMullanphy.org.

All photographs by Lynn Josse.

Categories
Historic Preservation JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Storefront Addition

Remuddled Row in JeffVanderLou

by Michael R. Allen

Continuing to explore storefront additions to houses in St. Louis, I came across these three buildings at 1349-53 Garrison Avenue in JeffVanderLou. While the storefront additions add character, I’m not sure that’s good character. Then again, these old houses have been remuddled past the point of recognition, and far beyond being able to contribute to any historic district. We have original dormers and cornices removed, mansard roofs clad in weatherboard (although apparently over the slate tiles!), window openings altered and a whole front stone elevation relaid in concrete block.

What a mess! No doubt the buildings are still sturdy and salvageable, but historic restoration would be challenging. Not impossible, but challenging. Who is up to that challenge? And what other ways of rehabilitating the buildings beyond a historic-tax-credit rehab exist?

Categories
Historic Preservation

Landmarks Association Publishes 2008 Eleven Most Endangered Places List

Landmarks Association of St. Louis has published its 2008 Eleven Most Endangered Places list.

These are the sites held over from last year’s list:

  • Andrew Einstmann House, 2347 Virginia Avenue
  • Mullanphy Emigrant Home, 1609 N. 14th Street
  • Mullanphy Tenement, 2118 Mullanphy Street
  • James Clemens, Jr. House, 1849 Cass Avenue
  • Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 2153 Salisbury Street
  • Wellston Station, 6101 Martin Luther King Drive
  • Carr School, 1421 Carr Street

    And here are the sites new this year:

  • San Luis Apartments, 4483 Lindell Boulevard
  • House at 1930 St. Louis Avenue
  • Commercial Buidling at 5286 Page Boulevard
  • Shriners Hospital, 700 S. Euclid Avenue and Central Institute for the Deaf, 909 S. Taylor Avenue

    All of these sites will be familiar to Ecology of Absence readers. Read a full report on the Landmarks website here.

    • Categories
    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
    Architecture Historic Preservation Illinois Monroe County Southern Illinois

    The Metal Roofs of Waterloo

    by Michael R. Allen

    I spent twelve pivotal years of my childhood living in Monroe, County Illinois, just southeast of the city of St. Louis. There I spent time taking in the historic architecture. Due to a mix of circumstances ranging from Germanic thrift to rural poverty, much of the remaining historic stock of the county retains a high level of integrity. Wooden window sashes, doors and porches remain. Barns have original siding. Walkways are often paved in brick. The county seat, Waterloo, offers a spectacular array of well-preserved brick and frame vernacular buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

    One of the most noticeable aspects of Waterloo’s architecture is that many of the gabled and hipped roofs retain historic standing-seam metal roofs, maintained with silver paint. Some people even opt for new metal roofing when they replace a roof. There is no reason these roofs can’t last forever as long as the diligent owners keep them maintained.

    Here is a sampling of metal roofs, all from just one side of one street: the north street face of Mill Street.