Categories
James Clemens House North St. Louis Northside Regeneration St. Louis Place

James Clemens, Jr. House

by Michael R. Allen

The Clemens House and chapel in 1908. Source: Archive of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

LOCATION: 1849 Cass Avenue; St. Louis Place; Saint Louis, Missouri
DATES OF CONSTRUCTION: 1858 (main house); 1888 (addition); 1896 (chapel)
ARCHITECTS: Patrick Walsh (main house); Aloysius Gillick (chapel)
DATE OF ABANDONMENT: 2000

Photograph from October 31, 2004 by Michael R. Allen.

What name does it take for a building to escape dereliction in Saint Louis? The historic home of James Clemens, Jr., an uncle of Samuel Clemens, sits vacant and decaying just northwest of downtown — with no future in sight. The lovely Italianate house is probably the only surviving house in Saint Louis with substantial cast iron ornament (all ornament is cast-iron on the original home), and certainly the last remianing house with a cast-iron front portico. Contrary to the opinion of naysayers who state that the home is worthless because Mark Twain likely never visited the house, the Clemens house is a valuable part of the city’s cultural heritage. After Clemens died, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet acquired the house and built substantial additions, including a graceful chapel. Their additions did not diminish the beauty of the large fenced lawn, a tranquil green space in what was once a highly dense neighborhood. They left the building in 1979, and a series of different social service groups occupied the building into the 1990’s. Maintenance fell off, leaving the interior in poor shape when the last tenant moved out.

Dormitory wing photograph from October 31, 2004 by Michael R. Allen.

The Berean Society used the original house as a homeless shelter through 2000, but did not perform needed renovation work. A Buddhist group bought the buildings in 2001 for use as a retreat center, but never raised sufficient funds for renovation. The buildings began showing spectacular signs of disrepair — the chapel roof and ceiling started collapsing, the porch on the mansion began separating from the house — until the city’s Building Division condemned the buildings. After a brief period of ownership by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority, World Trading, Inc. purchased the buildings. The company announced no plans for the property, and for a few weeks in fall 2004 the front fence entrance on Cass Avenue sported a for-sale sign with phone number. The property sold to a mysterious group of real estate speculators organized as Blairmont Associates LC. The Building Division has sued Blairmont for the condition of the house and their inability to perform basic maintenance; the case will be heard December 1, 2005.
Porch photograph from October 31, 2004 by Michael R. Allen.

Built St. Louis has a collection of exterior and interior photographs from 2003: James Clemens House

Categories
Century Building Downtown Parking Streets

Old Post Office Short on Parking Spaces

by Michael R. Allen

The new “old” curbs are in, the sidewalks are being paved and the vintage light standards are up at the Old Post Office in St. Louis. One thing is clear: there will be no on-street parking on the Old Post Office block when the renovation is done.

Really, for a project whose backers are so paranoid about insufficient adjacent parking, it’s a huge embarrassment that there is no actual street parking on three sides of the Old Post Office block itself. Such parking would be convenient to people wanting to stop in at one of of the Old Post Office shops and would form a protective buffer between sidewalk diners and through traffic on Olive, Ninth, Locust or Eighth streets. Assuming any of those people ever show up.

Categories
Downtown Parking Planning Urbanism

Too Much Parking Around 900 Block of Locust

by Michael R. Allen

“Viable real estate development in the Midwest depends in large part on the availability of parking. This is convincingly demonstrated in the Frisco Building, which has been beautifully rehabilitated but has enjoyed less than 50% occupancy since its completion — parking is the missing ingredient for success.”

So wrote Barbara Geisman, St. Louis Deputy Mayor for Development, in an August 29, 2002 letter to Carol Shull, Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places, opposing the National Register listing of the Century Building.

This statement came to mind as I thought again about the problems faced by the 900 block of Locust, which contains one of downtown’s largest parking garages and is just west of the one of the largest surface parking lot areas in the downtown core. If parking was the ingredient for success, the block would be thriving. The new Renaissance Grand Parking Garage opened in 2003 and the last building standing in the middle of the surface lots on the 800 block of Locust fell in 2002, creating more spaces. Yet the block is regaining health only with new residents and a new business that will have no reserved parking spaces.

I think the abundance of parking areas actually hurt the block by eliminating businesses that were located in storefronts cleared to make so much parking. The Ninth Street Garage that is replacing the Century Building on this block is a setback. Parking does nothing to create life on a block.

Categories
Downtown Streets

900 Block of Locust on the Rebound?

by Michael R. Allen

I have worked inside of the St. Louis Design Center Building at 917 Locust (built 1913, designed by Harry Roach) in downtown St. Louis for a few months now. First I worked at Art St. Louis and now I work at Landmarks Association. During this time, the building and its block has been rather gloomy: few tenants remain in the Design Center due to a forthcoming renovation planned by owners The Roberts Companies, the lobby is dark and cavernous from a 1980’s rehab and there has not been a single occupied storefront on this block of Locust. Add to this the ongoing demolition and construction morass at the Century Building site across Locust, the closure of 9th Street since last September, the ugly Renaissance Grand Parking Garage on this block and the ugly empty parking lot nearby that stretches from 8th to 9th along Locust, and the 900 block of Locust has been a fairly dispiriting place to work this year.

Until now, hopefully. Residential tenants have been moving into the rehabbed Board of Education building at 911 Locust since the spring, and a first-floor tenant seems to be preparing to open. More immediate to my concerns, Heuer Hardware and Locksmith is moving from the Louderman Building into the empty storefront downstairs at the Design Center. The block may be coming to life again! Perhaps next Gus Torregrossa will think about developing the shuttered four-story commercial building at 919 Locust and a buyer can be found for the stucco-covered 1860’s storefront building at the corner of 10th and Locust.

Density is life!

Categories
Century Building Demolition Downtown

Century Building Lawsuit Update

From Roger Plackemeier:

A number of people recently have been asking me how my lawsuit of the Century is going, so I want to give all who are interested a quick update. I disclaim upfront that I am not an attorney and so my legal vocabulary might not be perfect.

First a sentence or two of background. In 2004 Marcia Behrendt, Marti Frumhoff and I took legal action regarding the demolition of the Century Building. The Century Building is gone. Earlier this year the defendants in our lawsuits….MDFB (state), LCRA (city) and the two development firms (Stogel and Schnuck)….filed a malicious prosecution suit against Marcia and me (Marti’s case is still a live one so she was not included). They’re suing us for $1.5M+.

Two hearings have been held in front of Judge Steve Ohmer of the 22nd Judicial Circuit. The first was a month or so ago. The plaintiffs in the malicious prosecution case filed a motion to have our attorney, Matt Ghio, disqualified from the case. Judge Ohmer has not yet ruled on this hearing.

The second hearing was this morning. Marcia and I filed a motion for summary judgement. My non-legal explanation is that if the judge rules in favor of our motion, he is saying the case should go no further. I don’t know when he’ll rule on this hearing, but I can’t imagine it’ll be quickly given the amount of work he has in front of him.

If anyone is interested in my opinion on how the case is going, feel free to contact me privately. If you’re interested in how the plaintiffs think this case is going, read the Business Journal. In the meantime, I presume your tax dollars are paying for some rather hefty legal fees for the state and city.

[Roger can be reached at placker@excite.com.]

Categories
Century Building Demolition Downtown Historic Preservation

Century Building Demolition Started One Year Ago Today

by Michael R. Allen

Demolition of the Century Building at the behest of a determined group of polical actors began one year ago today. At least, the ceremonial wrecking began. The developers of the Old Post Office project that claimed the Century ordered their wreckers to gouge out parts of the building’s corners the night prior to a hearing on a restraining order against a demolition.

I’m sure readers know the story, but the loss of the Century Building and the ongoing attack on civic participation, tacitly endorsed by the Slay administration, still hurts pretty badly. Although I have to say that many good people opposed to the demolition met each other and made lasting and creative relationships through it. The opposition has taken the death and made life from it, while the some players on the other side seems to be mired in the quicksand of destruction. We have celebrations and friendships, and they have that hideous sinking parking garage with the cheap, cheap stucco and granite cladding so offensively displayed at Ninth and Olive. To say that they “won” would be very difficult indeed.

I should also note that our blog is one year old this week, as more testament to the fact that very good things were emerging when demolition began.

Categories
Downtown Louis Sullivan

Remember the St. Nicholas?

I just found this article in the online version of the May-June 2005 issue of the newsletter of the Antique Doorknob Collectors of America:

Louis Sullivan and the St. Nicholas Hotel, St. Louis, MO by Patty Ramey

It’s heavy on doorknob information, which is good because most people probably don’t know much about Sullivan doorknobs.

Categories
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
Documentation People Urban Exploration

Matthew Coolidge Coming to Town

Thanks to Larry Giles for the heads up on this.

Looking for St. Louis

Matthew Coolidge, founder of the Center for Land Use Interpretation, to explore St. Louis urban landscape Oct. 26-29

Oct. 12, 2005 — Forget purple mountains and fruited plains. The contemporary American landscape is more typically composed of parking lots and shopping malls, factory towns and industrial developments, argues Matthew Coolidge, founder and director of the Center for Land Use Interpretation (CLUI) in Los Angeles. Later this month, Coolidge will host a series of events investigating St. Louis’ urban landscape.

The visit — co-sponsored by the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University — comes as part of “Unsettled Ground: Nature, Landscape, and Ecology Now!” a yearlong series of lectures, panel discussions, artistic interventions and workshops exploring the intersection of contemporary architecture, art, ecology and urban design.

At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, Coolidge will lecture on “Interpreting Anthropogeomorphology: Programs and Projects of the Center for Land Use Interpretation.” (“Anthropogeomorphology,” a phrase Coolidge coined, refers to the landscape as altered by humans.)

The talk is free and open to the public and takes place in the Sam Fox School’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, located near the intersection of Forsyth and Skinker boulevards.

On Thursday and Friday, Oct. 27 and 28, Coolidge and Washington University students will examine a variety of “unusual and exemplary” St. Louis sites through a series of workshops collectively titled “Looking for St. Louis.”

On Saturday, Oct. 29, workshop participants will in turn lead additional volunteers over “routes” established by Coolidge.

Events conclude from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday with a special, one-night-only exhibition, also titled “Looking for St. Louis,” at the Sam Fox School’s Des Lee Gallery, 1627 Washington Ave. The exhibition will include images, texts, artifacts and diagrams drawn from the workshops.

For more information, call (314) 935-9347 or email samfoxschool@wustl.edu.

Categories
Demolition Downtown Parks

Bleeding Red

by Michael R. Allen

Some people look at the red-dyed water in downtown’s fountains this week and see the color of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, currently ending its last season is lovely old Busch Stadium.

Others swear that the red in the fountains comes from deep within the city, and that it may be the blood of the wrecked buildings that once stood where the fountains now jet. Does that red water in the US Bank plaza at Seventh and Locust not look like the life-stuff of the fallen Ambassador Building?