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Flounder House JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Flounder House on Cass Avenue

by Michael R. Allen

Tucked alongside a commercial building, sometimes obscured by trees and with a partly collapsed roof, the one-story flounder house at 2704 Cass Avenue evades attention.  Yet the small house’s craftsmanship shows in details like the dentillated cornice on the side elevation.  There are signs that the front originally had a wooden or galvanized cornice, but the chance that anyone will ever know for certain is slim.  The chance that the house will survive the next decade may be slimmer still.

The house may date to 1885, but could be older.  It stands on City Block 1843, bounded by Cass, Elliott, Sheridan and Leffingwell avenues — a city block that has never had an alley.  This house and much of the rest of the block is owned by Northside Regeneration LLC.  Once part of dense urban fabric, the little house has become doubly noteworthy: it is one of only three buildings left on this block, and one of perhaps as few as 160 remaining flounder houses in St. Louis.

Categories
Iowa Terra Cotta

Lemp in Ft. Madison

by Michael R. Allen

While working in Ft. Madison, Iowa recently I noticed an unmistakable emblem of the St. Louis empire. At the southwest corner of 7th Avenue and Avenue G downtown, the parapet of a building caught my eye.

Joined with the corner building — and united by lovely green mid-century tile — to form a Sears store, the narrow building told me of its connection to my city.

Two stories above the sidewalk in an Iowa river city, arrested in fine terra cotta, was the mighty shield of the William J. Lemp Brewing Company.

As I rounded the corner, I saw that the building wrapped the corner building in an L-shape. On Avenue G, the wider elevation was definitely the main entrance.  Research showed that this building was built for Kiel & Burster Liquor Dealers, the exclusive distributor of Lemp beer in this area.  Many brewery distributors and tavern owners in the late 19th and early 20th century adorned their buildings with terra cotta brewery emblems.  Anheuser-Busch’s emblem is more prevalent than Lemp’s, but there are some surviving buildings with the Lemp shield outside of St. Louis.

Categories
Chicago Downtown

Blair Kamin in St. Louis

by Michael R. Allen

Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin turns his Cityscapes blog toward St. Louis. Today’s introductory post includes this provocative assessment of Busch Stadium: “a retro ballpark that is too competent and context-driven to hate, but too bloated to love.” Stay tuned for more.

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North St. Louis Old North

Help Transform an Old North Yard in Ten Seconds

by Michael R. Allen

This lot at 13th & North Market is the site of the house of the twenty-fourth mayor of St. Louis, Henry Overstoltz (term, 1876-1881). Since Graham and Viveca Lane started rehabbing the building next door, it has become the couple’s future side yard. Geothermal excavation made the long-time vacant lot even less yard-like, but Graham and Viveca have a shot at turning the situation around right quick.

This yard is a contestant in KSHE’s Great Green Yard contest. The station is picking the top five this week, so our Old North rehabbing friends need you support. Take ten seconds to vote for their project here.

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Historic Preservation Public Policy

U.S. House Fully Funds Historic Preservation Fund

by Michael R. Allen

Yesterday by a vote of 209-193 the United States House of Representatives passed the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act of 2010 (H.R. 3534), sponsored by Representative Nick Rahall (D-WV). The CLEAR Act is important to historic preservation efforts because it included the first-ever full annual appropriation of $150 million to the federal Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), one of the conservation funds funded by offshore oil lease revenues. The HPF and the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) have been funded through lease revenues since the 1980s.

The HPF provides federal money available to state and tribal historic preservation offices through matching grants for preservation planning, architectural survey, educational programs and other activities authorized in the Historic Preservation Act of 1966. Certified Local Governments — like St. Louis, Kirkwood and Chesterfield to name a few locals — can apply for funds through state historic preservation offices. The HPF, created in 1976, allows local budgets to stretch.

The U.S. Treasury Department estimated that the balance in funds that can only be appropriated to the HPF at $2.7 billion in Fiscal Year 2009. Previous Congresses have authorized anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of the $150 million annual appropriation that Congress authorized in 1974.

Categories
Downtown North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Northside Regeneration and City Museum Now Neighbors

by Michael R. Allen

The big story this week is that Paul J. McKee Jr.’s Northside Regenation LLC filed a post-trial (well, post-ruling) request for a new trial to Judge Robert Dierker, Jr. The City of St. Louis apparently is joining the request. On July 2nd, Dierker invalidated the two city ordinances that constituted Northside Regeneration’s redevelopment agreement with the City of St. Louis.

Not mentioned in recent news reports is the fact that Northside Regeneration is still buying property for its project.  The most recent purchase brings Northside Regeneration’s holdings directly into downtown. On June 4, the company closed on a nearly $2 million purchase of a large parcel containing a warehouse building located at 1424 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. (The parcel is highlighted on a Geo St. Louis map below.)

If that address is not familiar, its surroundings will be: the parcel is one block north of the City Museum, and for the last few years its parking lot has been home to a changing assortment of fire engines, school buses and even the original cupola of the City Hospital’s Administration Building.

Categories
Adaptive Reuse North St. Louis Old North

14th Street Mall in 1991

by Michael R. Allen

On Thursday, July 29th, the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group and the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance will cut the ribbon on Crown Square, the new name for the former 14th Street Mall. The public is invited to the celebratory event, which runs as a street party until 8:00 p.m. Indeed, there will be an actual paved street on the two blocks of 14th and Montgomery streets for the first time since 1976.

Not much time passed after the 14th Street Mall grand opening on March 21, 1977 before the street closure started having negative impacts on the businesses of the dense commercial district. Storefronts devolved to lesser uses and ultimately entire buildings went vacant. Within ten years, the 14th Street Mall was a failure, and by the early 1990s was a symbol of the decay of the near north side. No longer.

A look back at photographs taken in 1991 by Cindi Longwisch, then Assistant Director of Landmarks Association of St. Louis, shows dire conditions. That we are celebrating rebirth of the collection of historic buildings 19 years later is nothing short of miraculous. A few of the buildings on 14th Street in the two blocks did not survive the mall years, but most did.

The building at2709 N. 14th Street, shown above, was one that did not survive. However, the buildings to either side have been fully rehabilitated as part of Crown Square.

The Eugene Building at the southwest corner of 14th and Monthgomery has an ornate entrance and extensive colorful catalog terra cotta ornament. The building is now fully rehabilitated as part of Crown Square.

The building across the street from the Eugene Building, at the northwest corner of the intersection, as been extensively rehabilitated by owner Peter Sparks. Work is not yet complete, but the transformation is beautiful.

Demolition of the building at 2715 N. 14th Street was underway with Cindi Longwisch took this shot. The heavily altered one-story building at left, 2713 N. 14th Street, was demolished as part of the Crown Square project.

Categories
Central West End Hospitals Preservation Board

BJC Seeking Demolition of Jewish Hospital Nursing School Building

by Michael R. Allen

UPDATE: The Preservation Board unanimously voted to deny the demolition on a preliminary basis.  Board Member David Richardson made the motion to deny, and Melanie Fathman provided the second.  Anthony Robinson voted “aye” and Chairman Richard Callow abstained from voting.  Mary Johnson arrived after the vote.

At the meeting of the Preservation Board today (Monday, July 26), the board will consider preliminary approval of demolition of the College of Nursing Building at the Washington University Medical Center. BJC Healthcare is requesting preliminary approval so that it can demolish the building for open space until it is ready to build a new building on the site.

Built in 1926, the College of Nursing Building is a sturdy, attractive flat-roofed building with a limestone base and red brick body. The building is fine, but not very significant, as a work of architecture. What makes the building significant is its original use as the Training School for Nurses for Jewish Hospital. The building is sound and human-scaled on a campus suffering from undistinguished giantism in recent construction. Besides, BJC has no immediate plan for redevelopment. By ordinance, presence of a redevelopment plan is a key consideration in Preservation Board determination of whether preliminary approval of any demolition is appropriate.

The city’s Cultural Resources Office rightly is recommending that the Preservation Board withhold preliminary approval at this time. The Preservation Board meeting is at 4:00 p.m. at 1015 Locust Street, 12th Floor. Written testimony may be submitted to the board via Secretary Adona Buford, BufordA@stlouiscity.com.

Categories
Historic Preservation Public Policy

House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Restores SAT, PA and Heritage Area Funding

From Preservation Action:

On Thursday of this week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior and Environment held a mark-up of the FY2011 spending bill. Despite a difficult budgetary climate, Chairman Jim Moran (D-VA) said in his opening statement, “We have restored many grant programs that have for years been Congressional Priorities, including Save America’s Treasures, Heritage Area Partnerships, [and] Preserve America…”

Earlier this year, the Administration proposed eliminating all funding for the Save America’s Treasure and Preserve America programs, and cut National Heritage Area spending by one half. Popular with members of Congress, there was a great deal of speculation that the funding would be restored in the House and Senate budgets. Nevertheless, a wholesale grassroots push for restoring funding for these programs was undertaken by PA, the National Trust and several other national partners.

The overall Interior/Environment spending cap set by the full Appropriations Committee allows for $32.24 billion in discretionary spending compared to $32.33 billion in the Senate and $32.37 requested by the President. The exact funding levels for State and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, Save America’s Treasures, Preserve America and Heritage Areas have not yet been released.

Categories
East St. Louis, Illinois

Monroe Manual Training Center

by Michael R. Allen

Few 1910’s buildings in the St. Louis area anticipate the Art Deco style as much as the Monroe Manual Training Center at 1620 Martin Luther King Drive in East St. Louis. The building’s symmetrical form, flat roof, angular lines, large expanses of windows and mostly-abstract terra cotta ornament are extremely precocious for this 1916 building. The building’s purpose — serving as home for a progressive school aimed at training young people in the industrial and mechanical arts — only heightens its machine-age aura. The central pediment proclaims “Learning and Labor,” a proud summary of the values of the inter-war period, when modernist ideas were being refined to seeming perfection. Yet the Monroe Manual Training Center building is not an early Art Deco palace. There is a hint of Beaux Arts classicism in its small doorway pediment, which displays garlands and a keystone. The Greek-key frieze, running along the entire cornice and also above the doorway opening, is more classical than modern. The building’s architecture is forward-looking but not quite avant-garde.

Still, the building’s stylistic refinement — although not its modest scale — is on par with educational buildings being built in Chicago at that time, such as those of Dwight Perkins, Richard Schmidt and Arthur Hussander (see Jacob Riis School). These buildings embodied a fascination with the intersection of machine age and education as well as the influence of nascent European modernism and the Prairie School philosophy on architects trained in classicism. In 1916, both East St. Louis and Chicago were bustling industrial centers whose leaders saw no limits to their cities’ growth. Civic leaders pushed for strong and progressive public education, including innovations like manual training, as well as for grand civic architecture worthy of budding metropolises.

Today, the Monroe Manual Training Center stands empty, diagonally across the street from the now-demolished Gateway Community Hospital. The old dreams of East St. Louis are dormant, and new dreams have yet to include this building.