Categories
Events

Also Tonight: Intangible Rivers

While you are on Cherokee Street tonight, stop by this wonderful show. Works in Jessi’s show take inspiration from the historic course of the River Des Peres, (alas) not frequently the source of visual art. – M.R.A.

Intangible Rivers: A Subjective History by Jessi Cerutti
Reception: 5:30-10p, March 18
Location: The Zeigenhein, 3346 Texas Ave.

A lifelong resident of St. Louis, Jessi Cerutti explores personal memory and local history through printmaking and fiber arts in this SIUE MFA Printmaking Thesis Exhibition. Cerutti pushes the limits of the traditional print, merging ink and fiber to create objects that illustrate an accumulation of history, memory, and change. The exhibition features print and sculptural artifacts alongside installation-based works. Enjoy drinks and the music of WolfPeach Society DJ Collective during the reception.

Categories
North St. Louis O'Fallon

O’Fallon Neighborhood Survey Continues

Yesterday the Preservation Research Office staff spent the morning undertaking our second session of intensive photography for the neighborhood-wide architectural survey funded by Alderman Antonio French through The Acts Partnership. We are photographing each and every one of the neighborhood’s lovely buildings in order to prepare descriptions of each one needed for the National register of Historic Places historic district nomination we will submit this year.

Here are some of yesterday’s scenes.

These two connected buildings are at the southwest corner of Lee and Warne avenues.
This Tudor Revival apartment building is at the southwest corner of Clay and Lee avenues.
Continue reading “O’Fallon Neighborhood Survey Continues”
Categories
Infrastructure North St. Louis O'Fallon Streets

Brick Alleys in the O’Fallon Neighborhood

As the Preservation Research Office team conducts its architectural survey of the O’Fallon neighborhood of north St. Louis, it has noted the presence of several intact historic brick alleys. Paved with “paver” bricks made by local manufacturers in the last 19th and early 20th centuries before the rise of concrete street paving, brick alleys are part of the built landscape of the neighborhood — and the city. Unfortunately brick alleys have disappeared along with brick streets. O’Fallon is fortunate to have some remaining in good repair. Those shown here can be found in the H-shaped alley network between Fair, Green Lea, Clay and Penrose streets.

Brick alley running north between Penrose Street and Green Lea Place just west of Clay Avenue.
Brick alley running north from Penrose Street to Green Lea Place just east of Fair Avenue.
Categories
Mid-Century Modern St. Louis County

Tropicana Owner Tino DiFranco on Bowling in St. Louis

The owner of Tropicana Lanes, Tino DiFranco, spoke at the Tropicanniversary — the 50th birthday party for the bowling alley — on March 15, 2011.  Modern STL sponsored the event, which attracted a large crowd that celebrated one of the region’s best-known “Googie” buildings. More on the building soon — here’s Tino.


Categories
Events

Sunset Hills Historical Society Program on the Lemp Estate

Sunset Hills Historical Society Program on the Lemp Estate Hosts Guest Speaker Davidson Mullgardt
Monday, March 28 at 7 PM at the Sunset Hills Community Center

The Sunset Hills Historical Society will hold its monthly meeting on Monday, March 28 at 7 PM at the Sunset Hills Community Center. The featured speaker will be Davidson Mullgardt, who will be speaking about the Lemp Estate, located in Sunset Hills. The home was formerly owned by the Lemp family who brewed Falstaff beer.

“Because many of the records were destroyed, there are recent discoveries about the Lemp saga,” said Davidson Mullgardt, historian and former high school English teacher.

He will be demonstrating some of those discoveries, discussing the Lemp family, their beer-brewing business as well as the architecture of the home that is in Sunset Hills.

The Lemp Estate is currently a private residence and inaccessible to the public.

The City Hall of Sunset Hills is located at 3939 South Lindbergh Blvd. and the Community Center is just behind it in the same complex.

 

Categories
Events

This Week: Mid-Mod Bowling, Mythory and Vacant Property

by Michael R. Allen

A very busy week starts tonight…

Tropicanniversary
Tuesday, March 15 from 6 – 9 pm
Tropicana Lanes, 7960 Clayton Road

Tonight we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of St. Louis’ best-known postwar bowling alley, Tropicana Lanes. All are welcome! The Tropicana owner, Tino DiFranco, is turning over 26 lanes to Modern STL fans and lowering the price. At 7 p.m., Tino and I will present a program on the history of the Tropicana and bowling culture in St. Louis. We’ve pulled together an illustrated slideshow on Tropicana and Googie architecture in St. Louis, too, which you can watch as you pick up that spare…

St Louis Mythory Tour
Friday, March 18 starting at 5:00 p.m.
Cherokee Street west of Jefferson Avenue

On Friday, March 18th Cherokee street will be alive like never before with art, music, food, drinks, and live demonstrations on almost every block as local artists and business owners collaborate to welcome over 1,500 visitors to St. Louis for the Southern Graphics Conference International.

Emily Hemeyer and I have joined together to create a series of semi-temporary kiosks highlighting bizarre sights and fantastic stories that make St Louis’ history nearly mythological. Kiosks will provide glimpses and directions to curiosities such as the sunken ship, hidden street car entrances, the Pruitt-Igoe wildlife area, buried caves, and mound formations of the ancients. Prior to city-wide distribution, seven kiosks will be “hidden” throughout Cherokee Street for conference-goers to enjoy now and explore later.

Open/Closed: Exploring Vacant Property in St. Louis
Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19
Old North and Hyde Park

Open/Closed: Exploring Vacant Property in St. Louis is an event that readers of this blog need to attend. The city’s first annual conference on vacant property presents an opportunity for community stakeholders, leaders, artists, and activists to strengthen their knowledge of the vacant property issue and to develop new solutions.

Panels will explore successful reuse strategies (economic and creative), community engagement, the role of city government and whether wide-scale reuse of vacant land in St. Louis is feasible. Vacant schools get a stand-alone panel at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, with Landmarks Association’s Assistant Director Andrew Weil included. On Saturday at 4:15 p.m. I have the honor of joining Stephen Acree, Hank Webber and Paul J. McKee, Jr. for a panel on “Regeneration.” With our different approaches and skill sets, the conversation will be provocative, wide-ranging and hopefully informative. Saturday night concludes with a special sneak preview of Bill Streeter’s forthcoming Brick by Chance and Fortune.

I may end this week exhausted, but between the joy of bowling, the amazing display of creativity Friday and the intense examination of our future on Saturday you should end it with a sense that anything is possible in this big city called St. Louis.

Categories
Historic Boats Mid-Century Modern

Admiral Reaping Scrap Windfall

by Michael R. Allen

St. Louis Marine, owner of the S.S. Admiral, got lucky: the company is scrapping out the mostly-metal boat at a time when scrap value is up. According to one observer, the scrap weight of the Admiral is 3300 tons, and the cost of dismantling is about $50 per ton. By the time the streamlined ex-steamer exists only in public memory, St. Louis Marine is likely to have made anywhere from $600,000 – $700,000 in scrap.

Categories
Churches North St. Louis O'Fallon

Help Turn a Vacant Church Into a Community Center

From the Acts Partnership

The former Full Gospel Apostolic Church, built in 1913 as the Bethany Evangelical Church.

The Acts Partnership is partnering with Alderman Antonio French to purchase a beautiful, vacant, historic church building to house services for youth and seniors. The response has been great since we first put out the call for help last week. We’re almost there! But time is running out. THE SALE CLOSES ON MONDAY! So if you haven’t yet, please make a donation today to help a great 21st Ward non-profit purchase this historic vacant church building to make it a home for services for youth and seniors.

Channel 2 covered the effort this week:


The building, located in the O’Fallon neighborhood just a block away from O’Fallon Park, stands on the corner Red Bud and Rosalie Streets. The Incarnate Word Foundation, a great partner and supporter of north St. Louis, has agreed to matching generous donation so if you can donate $50 today, The Incarnate Word Foundation will match your donation with another $50! So give today and help us stabilize the community and provide services to seniors and youth this summer.

Detail of bay on the church.

Donate here.

Categories
DALATC Historic Preservation Missouri Public Policy

Changes to Missouri Historic Tax Credit Pass Senate Committee

by Michael R. Allen

Yesterday the Missouri Senate’s Ways and Means Committee passed by a 5-0 vote a committee substitute to Senate Bill 280 (now SCS SB 280), which would implement many of the Tax Credit Reform Commission’s recommendations. The new version of the bill takes the bill from 109 to 254 pages, and tacks the Compete Missouri legislation (SB 279) onto the bill.

Included among SCS SB 280’s numerous policy changes are several that would change the state historic tax credit for the worse. Here is a summary of the changes:

  • Caps all annual issuance of historic tax credits at $75 million;
  • Sunsets Missouri’s historic tax credit after August 28, 2015 unless the legislature re-authorizes the program;
  • Prohibits “stacking” of historic tax credits with Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Neighborhood Preservation Act tax credits;
  • Authorizes the Department of Economic Development to define an “applicant” for the credits;
  • Permits only qualified rehabilitation expenditures (QREs) incurred prior to issuance of the tax credits;
  • Establishes a limit of $50,000 in tax credit issuance for an owner-occupied property, and prohibits applications from owner-occupied properties purchased for $150,000 or more.

    • The most pernicious change is the new cap formula, which does not separate small and large projects as the 2009 cap did. The result will be a system that throws homeowners, small business people and neighborhood groups in the same mix as developers with stronger political connections. This new version of the Missouri historic rehabilitation tax credit would be highly politicized, and would allow the Department of Economic Development to pick winners and losers.

    Among other sections of SCS SB 280 is the bizarre recommendation that no applications be taken for the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit (DALATC) after August 28, 2011. Looks like the “tax credit for one man” — a charge that Department of Economic Development officials refuted at a public forum in St. Louis in September 2007 — will become exactly that. Why not simply end the program altogether? The DAATC has a sunset in August 2013. Under SCS SB 280, applications would end this year but the program would continue to exist for another two years. I cannot pretend to understand that logic.

    Readers, what do you think? Don’t tell me — tell your state senator and Governor Jay Nixon!

    Categories
    Events North St. Louis Riverfront

    Two North Riverfront Public Meetings in March

    Branch Street Connector Public Meeting
    Thursday, March 10

    5:30pm – Branch Street Walk-Through
    6:00pm – Meeting and Visioning Session

    LOCATION: For both the walk-through and the meeting, meet at Old North Restoration Group Office, 2700 N. 14th Street

    The Mississippi River, the Riverfront Trail, and the McKinley Bikeway are incredible resources that are just a 10-minute walk or 5-minute bike ride from our community, but most of us rarely visit them because we don’t have safe access. Branch Street is our community’s only remaining direct connection to these assets. We need your help to create a new vision for Branch Street. Please join us for a walk-through and visioning session to identify the major issues and generate ideas for improving Branch. The meeting will include an update on the Trestle project from Great Rivers Greenway staff.

    Port/North Riverfront Land Use Study Public Informational Meeting
    Thursday, March 24, 2011 – 4:00pm until 6:00pm

    Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) Bissell Point Waste Water Treatment
    Plant
    Environmental Compliance Building Auditorium
    10 East Grand Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63147

    The North Riverfront of the City of St. Louis (stretching from Mallinckrodt at the south end to Cementland at the north) is currently undergoing a RFP process for long-term land use planning. This area accounts for over a third of the entire Mississippi River frontage of the city of St. Louis, is home to the Riverfront Trail, proposed Iron Horse Trestle, and a good percentage of historical industrial architecture.

    Directions:
    1. Take I-70 to Grand Avenue
    2. Go east until Grand Avenue dead-ends at the front gates of the MSD Bissell Point Wastewater Treatment Plant
    3. Enter the front gates and follow the signs to the Environmental Compliance building
    4. The auditorium is located inside this building, just to the left as you enter the front doors.