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Fire Shaw South St. Louis

The Lost Twin at Shaw and 39th

by Michael R. Allen

At the northeast corner of 39th and Shaw avenues stands a three story brick building at 3867 Shaw Avenue that has been fully rehabilitated.    The building sports newly-painted wooden replacement windows and a developer’s sign out front.  Where once its red-brown brick walls showed signs of the grime of age, now is is clean testament to a building’s redemption.

The building, which dates to 1914, is a handsome example of our city’s eclectic Craftsman vein of building and the concurrent rise of mass-produced building products.  The Hydraulic pressed brick, the machine-cut limestone that sparingly adorns the wall and the galvanized metal cornice with its perfectly stamped brackets all show the creative potential of machine age ingenuity.  The stone entrance set into jack-on-jack brick (brick laid corner to corner) within a round-top relieving arch is a particularly fine feature.

The building at 39th and Shaw also stands as the remainder of a set of perpendicular twins that doubled the density of the corner parcel. The twin neighbor of the same age met a horrible end just a few years ago yesterday. I took the photographs here on October 31, 2004.

Between the hours of 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. on October 26, 2004, the St. Louis Fire Department responded to three alarms within a four-block radius. Three buildings — all owned then by the Garden District Commission — were ablaze: a two-flat in the 4000 block of Folsom Avenue, a house in the 4000 block of McRee Avenue and the three-story apartment building at 1854 South 39th Street. All would be demolished in subsequent months.

The twin neighbor was obviously damaged severely by the fire. Rescue would have been possible, but expensive since the roof and top floor had completely collapsed at the building’s north end.

Demolition of the apartment building at 1854 S. 39th Street took away one contributing resource from the Shaw Historic District as well as the existing residential density of the site. Perhaps some day the site will again give rise to a building. Mean time, the next door neighbor stands as a reborn twin separated at death.

Categories
North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Northside Regeneration

by Michael R. Allen

Judge Robert Dierker Jr.’s decision to not allow a new trial in the Northside Regeneration case puts us no further behind than July 2, when the judge issued his ruling in the case that struck down the project’s redevelopment ordinances.  Then and now, it remains clear that the redevelopment ordinances need further legislative attendance.

After the ruling, Northside Regeneration attorney Paul Puricelli told Tim Logan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the company might appeal.  The City Counselor’s office seems to favor an appeal.  But Puricelli also said “One of the things we’d be looking at is to enter into a project agreement with the city.”  That’s the track his client should take.

In recent weeks, rumors of settlement discussions in the case suggested a very unlikely end to a complaint made on the lack of transparency: a clandestine agreement among lawyers far from the residents affected by the outcome of the case.  Dierker’s ruling could preclude that outcome, which contradicts both the original plaintiff’s motivation and the need of residents to have binding protection against condemnation.  The “settlement” should be made openly through public ordinance.  I realize that wish is far too innocent for a process now in the hands of attorneys — but it is what the judge’s rulings compel.

Categories
Missouri

Missouri Preservation Searching for Executive Director

Missouri Preservation, Missouri’s statewide historic preservation advocacy organization, is searching for an Executive Director.  Criteria for the position are being developed, and the targeted hiring date is mid-February 2011.  Interested parties can contact Missouri Preservation at preservemo10@yahoo.com.

Categories
Gate District Preservation Board

Chouteau Buildings May Be Demolished

by Michael R. Allen

The Preservation Board of the City of St. Louis was set to again consider demolition of the row of commercial buildings at 2612-30 Chouteau Avenue (southwest of the intersection with Jefferson Avenue) at its meeting on Monday. The item was pulled from the agenda and will not be considered this month, but will likely return next month — perhaps with more support than before.

The buildings are owned by Crown Mart, Inc., which purchased them to prevent a competitor from opening a gas station on the site. Crown Mart plans to demolish them and replace them with a vacant lot.

The chief sin of these buildings may be the layers of unattractive, unmaintained paint that owners have applied over the years.  Underneath the paint is brick and, in the case of the building shown immediately above, cast iron and red sandstone.  Few ho have seen the city’s renaissance in recent years could doubt the reuse potential peeking out from under the battleship gray and bright red.

The buildings have found supporters, too — and a spot on the region’s preservation watch list.  After the Preservation Board unanimously denied demolition on preliminary review in April, the Landmarks Association of St. Louis placed the buildings on its Most Endangered Places list.

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Events

“Collective Memory in St. Louis” Symposium Starts Thursday

Starting Thursday and running through Saturday, Fontbonne University hosts the symposium “Collective Memory in St. Louis: Recollection, Forgetting and the Common Good.” Registration for the symposium is $40 and is open to the public. More information is online here. Missouri Historical Society Director Robert Archibald delivers the keynote address Friday.

Several panels deal with built environment topics:

Public Space and the Problem of Solidarity (9:00 a.m., Friday)
• Kate Boudreau, Saint Louis University – “Fairgrounds Park: Foregrounding St. Louis’ Inequities”
• Michael Allen, Preservation Research Office – “Making Parks in the Central City: The Evolution of the Gateway Mall”
• William Rehg, SJ, Saint Louis University – “Memory and the Problem of Solidarity: How Can Cities Foster Allegiance?”
Moderated by Mary Beth Gallagher (Fontbonne University)

Visual Culture, Memory, and Identity (10:45 a.m., Friday)
• Adam Kloppe, Saint Louis University – “A Spectacle for the Eyes and Mind: The Photographs and Speeches of the Congress of Arts and Sciences, World’s Fair, 1904”
• Greg Ott, Fontbonne University – “Sorting Out the Detritus: Cindy Tower and the Discontiguous Sites of Art and Appreciation”
• Kris Runberg Smith, Lindenwood University – “St. Mark’s Windows: Reflections on 1930s Politics and Theology”
Moderated by Angie Dietz (Missouri History Museum)

Nineteenth Century Saint Louis (10:45 a.m., Friday)
• Kristen Anderson, Webster University – “We Bear No Hatred and No Bitterness Toward Our Former Foes: St. Louis Germans and the Memory of the Civil War”
• Kenneth Parker, Saint Louis University – “Archbishop Peter Kenrick and Collective Forgetfulness: Why a Leader at the First Vatican Council Faded from Local Memory”
• John J. Han, Missouri Baptist University – “Nineteenth-Century Saint Louis in Mark Twain’s Works”
Moderated by Thomas Finan (Saint Louis University, History)

Riots in Saint Louis (10:45 a.m., Friday)
• Luke Ritter, Saint Louis University – “American Vigilantes and Irish Gangs in St. Louis: The Know-Nothing Riot of 1854”
• Lou Robinson, Saint Louis University – “Forgetting to Remember: Memory and Commemoration of the East St. Louis Race Riot of July 2, 1917”
• Jeffrey T. Manuel and Samanthe Braswell, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville – “The 1917 East Saint Louis Riot in Historical Memory”
Moderated by Harper Barnes (Author of Never Been a Time: The 1917 Race Riot That Sparked the Civil Rights Movement)

Urban Museum Collaborative Roundtable – “Discovering Untold Stories: Touchstones to a Changing Landscape” (9:00 a.m., Saturday)
•    Barbara Decker, Museum Consultant and project Director for the Urban Museum Collaborative
•    Lois Conley, The Griot Museum of Black History
•    Barbara Faupel, Eugene Field House Museum
•    Andrew Hahn, Campbell House Museum
Moderated by Caitlin McQuade

Memory and the Built Environment in Saint Louis (2:30, Saturday)
• Gregory Taylor, Fontbonne University – “Forgotten Monuments: Excavating a Corporate Past”
• Christina Mathena Carlson, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville – “At the Intersection of History and Life: City Museum as Space for Historical Preservation and Urban Renewal”
• Frederick A. Hodes, Independent Scholar – “St. Louis Streets and Their Witness to the City’s Past”
Moderated by Jody Sowell (Missouri History Museum)

Categories
Alton, Illinois

Alton’s Grand Theater Gets Landmark Status

Last month we reported on the citizen effort to secure city landmark status for the Grand Theater on Alton.

Good news comes from Alton Area Landmarks Association President Terry Sharp:

The Historic Commission voted to give the Grand Theater local landmark status. The owner can appeal this decision to the city council. So far he has not taken action to do so. Having local landmark status is one step to save the exterior of the building.

A group of citizens is having meetings about saving the Grand Theater. Contact Bill McKenzie (463-0625) for more info.

Categories
Events

Tour of MHS Library and Research Center Tomorrow

This month the Rehabbers Club of ReVitalize St.Louis will visit the Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center for a guided tour! Research is a big part of any historically accurate rehab and the Library staff have agreed to give our group a window onto the many fantastic research resources available at its facility on Skinker, which is itself a one of St. Louis’ architectural treasures.

WHEN: Tour starts at 9:00am this Saturday October 16th.

WHERE: The Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center is located at 225 S. Skinker Blvd., across from the golf course in Forest Park. More info at: http://www.mohistory.org/lrc/your-visit/how-to-get-here/parking-transit

The number does not actually appear on the building. It is a yellow brick building with a double staircase in front and a domed roof. There are banners for the library on the light poles nearby.

PARKING: The Library and Research Center is two buildings – an old and a new. The library is in the old (north) building, and the parking lot is just to the south of the new storage building. There is also free parking on both sides of Skinker.

Our tour starts before regular museum hours, so after you park, come to the staff entrance, which is up the driveway between the old and new buildings. It’s the door on the right, under the blue awning. Just inside the door, there is a Security office. We will meet there at 9:00am.

Categories
Brick Theft

“Brick Thieves” Song

by Michael R. Allen

For Bill Streeter’s Brick by Chance and Fortune (slated for completion in December), our town’s inimitable Pokey LaFarge has crafted a song about brick thieves that is chilling, smart and catchy. Tap your toes and learn the sad story of St. Louis’ underground when you listen to the newly-released studio version of the song, which is simply entitled “Brick Thieves.”

“I tell you St. Louis, we ought to have had enough,” sings Pokey mournfully, and I am sure readers of this blog will agree.  If only the song were a plaintive elegy instead of a sober observation.

Categories
Events North St. Louis Riverfront

Reminder: North Riverfront Tour Tomorrow

Afterward, stick around for Artica: Artica invites you all to summon your muses, pack up your gear and gather once again for St. Louis’ most spectacular fab-dilly-iscious weekend of art, performance, music, ritual and creative revelry!

Saturday October 9th, 11:00am to Midnight
Sunday October 10th, Noon to 8:00pm
Location: The corner of Lewis and Dickson Streets on the North Riverfront

Categories
Alton, Illinois

Alton Historic House Tour on Sunday

The Alton Area Landmarks Association announces:

2010 Fall Historic House Tour
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Noon until 5;00 p.m.
$12.00 / Person

Tickets are on sale now at the Alton Visitors Center at Piasa and Broadway Streets. Sunday tickets will also be sold outside at 4th and Henry Streets and at the Hart House, 524 Belle Street. If you have any questions, call Terry Sharp at 463-5761. Looks like it is going to be a beautiful day.