Categories
Demolition National Register Old North

Haven of Grace Expansion Moving Forward

by Michael R. Allen

By March 22, Haven of Grace had demolished the house at 2605 Hadley Street in Old North St. Louis — a building counted as a contributing resource to the Murphy-Blair Historic District. Last month, the Preservation Board approved the demolition permit for the house at its February meeting. (Read more here.)

Haven of Grace originally had applied to demolish that house and another one at 2619-21 Hadley Street that is also a contributing resource to the district. At the Preservation Board meeting, Haven of Grace announced its withdrawal of that application and its intention to rehabilitate the building for use as offices.

The demolition of 2605 Hadley makes way for a three-story addition designed by architect Tom Cohen, who is also preparing plans for the rehabilitation of the remaining historic house. The addition will create apartments that will allow Haven of Grace to expand its social services to homeless pregnant women and their children by offering more substantial transitional housing. Haven of Grace is a part of the Grace Hill Settlement House.

The expansion plan increases building density on the block, even though it entailed demolition of a historic house that was not beyond repair. On the whole, this is a good project for an important institution that does difficult work. Many neighborhoods would likely turn Haven of Grace away.

However, Old North St. Louis cannot afford to lose another historic building. This is an exception brought about through compromise — not a precedent.

Categories
JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North St. Louis Place

McKee’s Acquisitions Slowed in March

by Michael R. Allen

In March, companies controlled by developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. slowed their acquisitions of north St. Louis real estate, spending $716,850 to acquire 13 parcels in the Old North St. Louis, St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou neighborhoods.

Among the properties are owner-occupied houses in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood on 20th Street as well as three buildings counted as contributing resources in the Murphy-Blair national historic district. While a public statement by McKee issued in February claimed that his assembly activity had stopped due to backlash from critics, and several of the properties closed in March had earlier contract dates, several had contract dates as recently as March 20.

The companies buying property are Dodier Investors LLC, MLK 3000 LLC and Sheridan Place LC. Sale prices ranged from $5,000 for a sheriff’s sale to $149,500 for the houses on 20th Street.

Categories
Mullanphy Emigrant Home Old North Severe Weather

Mullanphy Emigrant Home Hit Again

by Michael R. Allen

The Mullanphy Emigrant Home in Old North St. Louis sustained more damage during today’s severe storm and accompanying gust. The biggest damage fell on the south section of the primary (east) elevation, adjacent to the south elevation that collapsed last year; that section collapsed from roof to foundation. (See photograph above.) The north elevation also partly collapsed. (See photograph below.)

The collapse of the east elevation is most damaging because the building’s joists run perpendicular and are tied into the wall. Without temporary bracing between floors recently, the joists would have had no support and would have failed completely.

Categories
Documentation Gaslight Square People

Where is Gaslight Square?

by Michael R. Allen

After work, I headed over to the Metropolis-sponsored reading from Gaslight Square: An Oral History by my friend Thomas Crone. The experience was unique, to say the least: Thomas narrated his own reading with stories about the making of the book along with bits of history and gossip that did not make it through. His presentation summoned forth ideas about a history with a palpable intangibility. After all, the reading took place in one of the new houses on Olive Street that sits on the site of long-gone building where the famous events went down. Through the windows of the new house, all one can see are other new houses occupying the sites of building vital to one of the most culturally formative stages in St. Louis’ recent past. (The exception is the brick building that once housed Ben Selkirk & Sons auction house, newly rehabbed at the southeast corner of Whittier and Olive.)

Listening to Thomas invoke the history of this place in its stunningly reference-stripped incarnation gave me great appreciation for his work. While his account is not a thorough narrative of the events that went down, it is an essential record of impressions, memories, ideas and connections between his interview subjects and one place that doesn’t even seem like itself anymore. Without buildings or other landmarks, an urban place could very well die in collective memory over time. Those who directly experience a place during a particular incarnation won’t live forever, after all.

However, with Gaslight Square there is an enduring key to a place otherwise lost. Even away from the place itself and the author’s voice, the book offers a chance to help us know where Gaslight Square is — in many senses. Thank goodness the book exists!

Categories
Infrastructure

Years Later, Sidewalks Still Dark

by Michael R. Allen

In the early 1960s, St. Louis began switching from shorter single- or double-globe street lights to taller “cobra-head” mercury vapor lights. Apparently, the new lights were not well-received by pedestrians. According to “Plaza Square Street Lights Leave Sidewalks in the Dark”, an article in the October 23, 1960 issue of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, new lights around the Memorial Plaza area and other parts of the city increased light in the streetways while short-changing sidewalks. The new lights were also at 400 watts, replacing those of 500 watts.

“All agree that under the city’s new street-lighting system, streets in residential areas may be somewhat lighter but sidewalks definitely are darker,” states the article. Concerns raised by the darker sidewalks included increased danger of holdups and low visibility to motorists of pedestrians stepping into the street.

The article quotes acting St. Louis chief electrical engineer Frank M. Kratoville, who boasted that the new lights directed light straight down onto the street instead casting light into all directions. One of those directions, of course, was the sidewalk. However, Kratoville and others at the time were concerned with making lighting responsive to motorized forms of transportation. Unfortunately, the city’s effort ignored the needs of pedestrians at a time where there still was a strong pedestrian culture in the city. Once cannot know how much damage the street light system did to that culture, but years later pedestrian life in the city is greatly diminished.

Almost forty-seven years later, much of this “new” system remains in use in the city. Sidewalks all over remain fairly dark. In some areas, such as on Washington Avenue downtown and Delmar Boulevard near the city limits, recent street lighting has included ample sidewalk illumination. As the city reverses the mistakes of its past, street lighting should be high on the list for improvement.

Categories
Local Historic District National Register South St. Louis

What Landed on the Hardt Building?

by Michael R. Allen

Blame it on a bad mood at the moment, but seeing last night the Hardt Building at the northwest corner of Chippewa and Brannon bearing a huge wooden growth was quite a shock. The “growth” appears to be a one-story frame penthouse addition; a search of Geo St. Louis shows no corresponding building permits.

Here we have one of the finest examples of art deco architecture on the south side, standing in the dense and intact historic “Northampton” or Kingshighway Hills neighborhood. The Hardt Building’s stark, streamlined look is reinforced by the later, neon-robbed curved Keller Apothecary sign at the corner. Its visible addition of a third floor and its kissing cousin on Hampton (discussed by Toby Weiss here) add some intrigue; the obvious bow of the Chippewa elevation wall adds drama.

What does the addition add, besides more office space? It adds architecture at odds with the dramatic lines and parapets of the building below. It adds a visual focal point that overpowers the building below, capturing the eye and pulling it away from the bliss of jazzy polychrome masonry.

To get a better view of the addition, I headed west in the alley north of Chippewa. While the streets of this area are obviously packed with lovely brick buildings from the early-to-middle twentieth century, the alleys retain an amazing abundance of historic garages. Here we have an area west of Kingshighway and south of Arsenal more ripe for historic district status than many areas that are already listed on the National Register of Historic Places or City Landmark rosters. While a local district status is unfathomable for this area at present time, a national district would bring the tax incentives to discourage inappropriate alterations like the one rising on top of the Hardt Building.

Categories
North St. Louis St. Louis Place

St. Louis Avenue

by Michael R. Allen

Those seeking an interesting spring stroll and ride should consider St. Louis Avenue between Florissant and Parnell in St. Louis Place. There, historic 19th century townhouses in Romanesque Revival, Italianate, Second Empire and other styles meet the soft colors of red bud, forsythia, Bradford pear and daffodil thriving in unusually warm weather. Many of the blocks retain high density of historic architecture, and most buildings are lovingly kept on a street that bears the name of its city.

This stretch of St. Louis has the Fleetwood and Sons bar, the Polish Falcons “nest” (formerly the mansion of brewer Carl G. Stifel), the Black World History Wax museum, a genuine old-school rooming house, vintage gasoline pumps, lots of native Missouri granite, wrought iron fences, buildings owned by famous developers, lovely churches, a wonderful city park and enough St. Louis charm to topple the most stubborn cases of the blues. Anyone searching for sweet refreshment before or after a stroll can head to Crown Candy Kitchen at 14th and St. Louis to the east. All is well with the city, at least for awhile.

Categories
Documentation LRA North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North St. Louis Place

New Blairmont Map Online

by Michael R. Allen

We have a new Google Earth map of north St. Louis properties owned by companies controlled by developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. See the map here.

The map, created on March 13 and sent by a concerned resident of the St. Louis Place neighborhood, shows 637 properties owned by McKee’s companies.

For reference, this map includes pinpoints on adjacent properties owned by city-owned corporations like the Land Reutilization Authority, Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority and the Planned Industrial Expansion Authority. Also included are properties owned by Pyramid Construction and the partnership between the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance and the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group.

Categories
Bohemian Hill South St. Louis

Landmarks Association Reports on Bohemian Hill

The January/February issue of Landmarks Letter features a cover story on the controversy surrounding Bohemian Hill. Read it online here (in PDF format).

Categories
Documentation Events Gaslight Square People

Crone Reading from "Gaslight Square" at Gaslight Square

Thomas Crone will be reading from his book Gaslight Square: An Oral History on Thursday, March 29 at 6:00 p.m. in Gaslight Square. Well, our literary friend will be reading at one of the new houses standing where this history went down — at 4155 Olive Street, to be exact.

The event is sponsored by Metropolis St. Louis, which asks that people RSVP to policy@mstl.org.