Categories
North St. Louis Old North Streets

Progress on 14th Street

by Michael R. Allen

The mall is dead! Crews finally have removed all of the raised pedestrian mall on 14th Street in Old North. Work is underway on reconstructing the streets and sidewalks that will connect the neighborhood to the rehabbed buildings in the two-block stretch between St. Louis and Warren avenues.

One block north of the former mall, the Urban Studio Cafe opened last week at 2815 N. 14th Street next door to Crown Candy Kitchen. The cafe offers coffee, pastries and (starting tomorrow) lunch items.

The Urban Studio Cafe is open from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. daily. What a huge difference it makes for Old North to have a spot for residents to gather and hang out away from home! This is the type of “commercial development” that the north side needs most — development that builds up the social capital of neighborhoods.

Categories
Art North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

Northside Community Mural Proposal

by Anna Ialeggio

Dear Friends & Neighbors,

My name is Anna, and I live in the 5th ward. I have been following the McEagle developments with skepticism and trepidation. My frustration comes from the assumption that, in the name of progress, it’s all right to deny residents the right to participate in shaping their neighborhoods. I don’t believe that enough justification can ever exist to hand over the reins of half a city to a single private developing entity. Friends, we need to be honest with each other: this isn’t a choice that North City was given. This is a corner that North City was backed into. Now we’re in that corner, and we have to address the fact that development which doesn’t flow directly from the community will ever have the impact, dignity, or longevity that it ideally could. This is what worries me (quote from the Post-Dispatch 9/5/09, my emphasis):

Last month, the CBA held a meeting of its own, in a Cass Avenue church that’s on the eminent domain list. There were about 75 people there, most from the project area, for a talk about TIF and eminent domain and how to protect their rights.

At one point, the organizers asked for a show of hands: How many people had been in a room with Paul McKee? Had heard his plans from his own mouth? HAD BEEN ABLE TO ASK QUESTIONS?

Three hands went up.

This is a challenge that we can rise to. I’d like to help my neighbors ask questions, make suggestions, tell their stories, in such a way that nobody, least of all Paul McKee, can dismiss it. This is where the idea of a mural comes in. I’ve got an awful lot of paint, and somebody out there has a big wall that could be dressed up. We’ve all got something to say, and we can work together to help each other figure out what it is and how best to say it. This might be especially great for a community center, church, or school. We can make something that will be a testimonial to the determination and creativity of our neighborhoods. Everyone has a right to be a part of the future of where they live…

Developers build DEVELOPMENTS.
Communities build COMMUNITIES!

Please get in touch if you’re interested, or have a suitable wall.

anna.ialeggio -at- gmail.com

Categories
Brick Theft JeffVanderLou Northside Regeneration

Brick Thieves Strike Again on Montgomery Street

by Michael R. Allen

The 2900 block of Montgomery Street has changed a lot in the last two years, and I covered the changes back in June (A Block of Montgomery Street Two Years Later.

Brick thieves have laid claim to the small house at 2946 Montgomery, shown in this 2007 photograph just to the right of the former North Galilee Missionary Baptist Church.

Here is a view of what the west wall looked like yesterday. While the other houses and church remain sound, the architectural context will be more diminished. The other side of the street is now down to two buildings, one of which has been fatally damaged by brick thieves.

On August 16, 2007, this block was the scene for a press conference against the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit Act and bus tour of McEagle-owned property organized by State Representatives Jamilah Nasheed (D-60th) and Jeanette Mott-Oxford (D-59th) and Alderwomen April Ford-Griffin (D-5th) and Marlene Davis (D-19th). McEagle had already bought out most of the buildings on that block, making it a perfect example of a block that had actually become vacant and dangerous because of the developer’s acquisitions. (Coverage from the time: Urban Review and Urban Review STL Flickr.)

Times have changed, and some of the buildings are gone and two are on the way out. Also, the opinions of the elected officials involved with that event have changed significantly.

Categories
North St. Louis Northside Regeneration

NorthSide Press This Weeks Shows Support, Opposition

by Michael R. Allen

On Thursday, the St. Louis American published pro and con opinion pieces on the NorthSide project in its business section. The American has generally offered positive editorial encouragement, so this is a welcome and useful move on the paper’s part. The pro-NorthSide piece by Demetrious Johnson again is indicative of the wide swath of support that McEagle is building in the African-American community that opponents cannot ignore. The anti-NorthSide — or at least skeptical — piece by accountant Keith Marquard analyzes the first draft of the developer’s tax increment financing application and finds it lacking. I hope that opposition sticks to careful, fact-based analysis like this in the weeks ahead.

An article in today’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Tim Logan, “Selling NorthSide: Slowly, steadily, McKee pitches plan to the neighborhood he wants to remake” (link to expire because the paper takes content down quickly), draws the focus onto McEagle’s outreach in north St. Louis. The article makes it clear that the developer — personified through Paul J. McKee, Jr. even though a corporation is the actual developer — lacks widespread support or opposition. The supporters quoted still have doubts and questions, and the opponents seem to support the general idea of developing the wide swath of north St. Louis while concerned with eminent domain.

The Post article corresponds well with the tone that I encounter in the affected neighborhoods — lots of skepticism, some support and some outright unbending opposition. Everyone wants better communication and more effective leadership from the aldermen and the mayor’s office. Few people seem opposed to the vision laid out by McEagle, just key details. Some who support much of the plan doubt the developer’s capacity amid a tough real estate economy, news of a foreclosure against McEagle at NorthPark and the scale of the plan.

The picture emerging in early September makes it extremely clear that the NorthSide project is most controversial in part, not in whole, and that the time is here for strong public-side leadership to shape and constrain the project. At this stage, the project is still a vision, and there are no redevelopment bills pending at the Board of Aldermen. It’s easy to change a bill before it is written — if public demand is clear and elected officials are ready to take the lead.

Categories
Mortgage Fraud

Crestwood Developer Gets More Federal Prison Time than Doug Hartmann for Lesser Offense

by Michael R. Allen

Per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

The owner of a Crestwood development company was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison Friday for a mortgage fraud that cost lenders hundreds of thousands of dollars and sent 16 homes into foreclosure.

That developer, Joseph A. Baumeister, faces 13 more months in prison than Doug Hartmann, for a lesser crime(see “Doug Hartmann Gets Two Years, Life of Shame”, August 11). Also, the developer will pay $364,504 in restitution, an amount more realistic and more likely to be repaid than the $34 million judged against Hartmann. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen deserves recognition for meting out a stricter sentence for Baumeister than his boss, Acting United States Attorney Michael W. Reap, did against Hartmann.

Categories
Central West End Demolition

Ettrick Apartments Under Demolition

by Michael R. Allen

Demolition of the Ettrick Apartments at Forest Park and Euclid avenues is now underway. The Preservation Board approved demolition in July (see “Medical Center Creeping Into the Central West End”, July 26). Workers removed the limestone name plaque shown at left earlier this week.

Categories
Central West End Demolition DeVille Motor Hotel Historic Preservation Mid-Century Modern Salvage

All of the San Luis is Not Lost

by Michael R. Allen

This week, the St. Louis Building Arts Foundation accepted the donation of two of the light posts from the San Luis Apartments (originally the DeVille Motor Hotel) at 4483 Lindell Boulevard. Here’s a case where cooperation transcends conflict: Friends of the San Luis board member Jeff Vines saw the posts removed and contacted Tom Richter at the St. Louis Archdiocese. Richter promptly agreed to the donation and made arrangements with Building Arts Foundation President Larry Giles for pick-up.

The light posts are headed to the Foundation’s Conservatory in Sauget, Illinois, where they will live on alongside parts of the Century Building, the Ambassador Theater and countless other lost St. Louis buildings. As a board member of both the Building Arts Foundation and the Friends of the San Luis, I thank the Archdiocese for their assistance in preserving a small part of the modern motel!

Categories
Events North St. Louis O'Fallon

Good Times in O’Fallon Park

by Michael R. Allen

Last night, vocalist Denise Thimes closed out the last night of the O’Fallon Park Jazz Concert Series. Hundreds of people, including St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay, attended the concert, which was packed with a spirited long set from Thimes.

More than once, Thimes proclaimed her genuine giddiness that once again people were spending a beautiful late summer night at a concert in O’Fallon Park. Thimes and the crowd both shared the great feeling that things are on a different track for the historic park and its surrounding neighborhood.

The concert series is one of the many initiatives of the area’s recently-elected Alderman Antonio French (D-21st), and it is definitely a fun, visible way to proclaim that change is here. With the forthcoming groundbreaking on the new recreation center in the park, O’Fallon Park is finally getting its due, and along with it north St. Louis.

Video can be found on the 21st Ward website, and photographs are on Flickr.

No slight is intended toward two of my other favorite north side park-based concert series: the Whitaker Urban Evening Series at St. Louis Place Park and the Concerts at Ivory Perry Park. Alas, these have also concluded — make sure you check one out next year!

Categories
Carondelet Historic Preservation Industrial Buildings South St. Louis

Preserving a Sense of Site History at Carondelet Coke

by Michael R. Allen

Today Mayor Francis Slay and Governor Jay Nixon will hold a join press conference announcing a new plan to convert the 41-acre, city-owned Carondelet Coke Plant into an industrial park. Summit Development announced a similar plan in 2006, but the plan stalled after some initial work was done on the site — including bringing in a giant mound of containment soil.

I have published a basic history of the site and documented the buildings over the years. However, I never expected the buildings to be preserved. The site is contaminated widely with many substances related to the coke production process, which began at the site in 1915.

Still, there are two resources on the site whose preservation would require minimal loss of usable site and whose presence would provide the new industrial park with readily-identified icons. Given that the coke plant was one of the largest employers in the Patch section of Carondelet for over 60 years, some tangible link with the industrial past is fitting. Thousands of area residents worked at the plant, enduring the emission-laden landscape to support their families. Why not allow future generations the chance to see something when they visit the site where a grandfather or great-grandfather once worked?

The most obvious resources to preserve is the remaining brick smokestack, which stands at the south end of the coke oven battery. This was one of two stacks that relieved the smoke from the ovens. This stack dates to the ownership period of Great Lakes Carbon Company, which owned the plant from 1950 through 1980. Being constructed of modern brick within the past 60 years, it is in sound condition and requires minimal tuckpointing to survive another 100 years. Perhaps the stack could sit in a small public area with interpretive signage and photographs so that people can interact with the site history.

The other structure is visible only from the Mississippi River and also dates to the Great Lakes ownership period. This mighty steel coal loader dates to 1953 and was used to unload barge loads of coal arriving at the plant as well as to load outgoing barges with coke. The loader connects to the coke plant by an underground conveyor system. The basic structure is sound, although years of abandonment have led to rust and some deterioration of deck plating. There are few extant 20th century river side coal loaders in St. Louis.

I have marked the locations of each structure on this circa-1950 aerial view of the coke plant. Most of the remaining plant has been wrecked. The buildings literally are now ruins after being slowly and possible illegally demolished in the past two years.


Tying the new industrial life of the site to its past would preserve the tie of this site to the Carondelet community through a physical link. Our industrial past too often disappears through alteration and demolition, and in many cases active industrial sites leave behind few photographs of their historic life. Here we can leave some key parts of the past behind for future generations to contemplate.

Additionally, the Great Rivers Greenway District is discussing building a south trail system that would include Sugar Loaf Mound and run along the riverfront. Could the trail pass south to an industrial heritage site at Carondelet Coke? Joliet, Illinois has a lovely trail system that connects to Joliet Iron Works Park, an interpretive and recreational site that incorporates the ruins of the Joliet Iron and Steel Works. That site is a destination. Imagine if one could travel on a river side trail that linked a Native American mound with a river side coal loader, right here in St. Louis.

Categories
North St. Louis Northside Regeneration St. Louis Place

Existing Employment in St. Louis Place Should Be Retained

by Michael R. Allen

The website of St. Louis’ own U.S. Wiping Materials Company, Inc. boasts that the company “has been in business for over 100 years. Being centrally located in St. Louis Missouri has allowed us the ability to provide cost-effective shipping in a timely manner to all of North America.”

The central location for U.S. Wiping Material, manufacturer and distributor of towels, rags and wipers of all kinds, is a one-story brick industrial building at 2539 East Sullivan Avenue in St. Louis Place. Built in 1914, the building is a sturdy home to the company.

Next door to U.S. Wiping is the Bi-Angle Chemical Company, Inc. at 2531 East Sullivan Avenue. This plastics company is located in a handsome two-story Craftsman-style building built in 1916. The workforce is not huge, but workers can be seen all day on the back docks taking their breaks.

U.S. Wiping and Bi-Angle are located on a fairly deserted block between extra-wide Parnell Avenue and 25th Street, where Sullivan dead-ends at the Sullivan Place apartment complex. These companies’ building are located within the proposed boundaries of McEagle’s NorthSide project. While just outside of the boundary of one of the developer’s proposed “employment centers,” these employers may not be safe. A slide shown by McEagle on May 21, 2009 at Central Baptist Church shows these two building demolished. At the same meeting, McEagle chief Paul J. McKee, Jr. promised that McEagle would not move “a single job” out of the project area.

Of course, these companies might voluntarily sell to McEagle — but that would mean the loss of jobs in the heart of St. Louis Place, a move the developer says it wants to avoid. U.S. Wiping and Bi-Angle provide jobs, pay earnings and real estate taxes and hold down the fort on a lonely block. These companies and their buildings should be retained as part of the new development, not courted for departure.

To the south, Hopmann Cornice Company faces destruction for the NorthSide project (see “What Happens to Hopmann Cornice?”, June 3, 2009). Located on Benton Avenue between Parnell and Jefferson, Hopmann is located in a southern tail of the proposed “employmenmt center” and Benton Street is proposed for removal. While Hopmann employs a very small number of employees — as few as two at times — this is a family-owned business providing a highly specialized craft. The Hopmanns have survived in St. Louis Place since 1880, and their eviction would be a tragic end to a proud family legacy.

As a family-owned business, McEagle ought to be sympathetic to Hopmann Cornice and work around its small-footprint shop. After all, if the goal of NorthSide is to provide multi-acre business sites, how would retention of a 0.17-acre site impede any of the project goals? (The U.S. Wiping and Bi-Angle sites are 0.496 acres and 0.16 acres, respectively.)