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Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Demolition of Morse Shoe Company Building Starting Soon

The city's Building Division granted a demolition permit for the Morse Shoe Company Building (better known as the SKH Paper Company Building) on September 19. Demolition should begin soon.

There was no preservation review of the demolition permit, because the building was within the boundaries of a blighted redevelopment area created via an ordinance approved unanimously by the Board of Aldermen. Once again, the aldermanic system thwarts genuine urban planning review.

7 comments:

Doug Duckworth said...

St. Louis has the most historical housing in the entire state.

Give it 10-20 more years and this will no longer be the case!

Anonymous said...

Just out curiousity, what Missouri city will have more?

PE

Anonymous said...

So the bio-baby spills some milk.

Doug Duckworth said...

Jackson County, which includes Kansas City and Independence, has 53,871 homes built before 1939, and St. Louis County has 42,090 built before 1939.

Given that the numbers of all other areas include the entire County while St. Louis City is by itself, St. Louis, by area, has a huge concentration if historical housing. Looking at the number of newer homes built in these areas it is clear that by volume these Counties are building at a much faster rate. Yet are they demolishing their homes as fast as St. Louis City?

It could be said that if St. Louis continues its practices of neglecting these homes through agencies like the LRA, our number of historical homes will decline. In 1990 St. Louis had 108,490 historical homes; since 1990 we have lost 22,945 which is about 2300 homes per year. At this rate we will only have 62,600 historical homes in St. Louis City by 2010. From 1990-2000, Jackson County only lost 10,709 in the same 10 year period at a rate of about 700 per year.

Michael R. Allen said...

Doug,

Thank you for the hard facts. Excellent research.

Doug Duckworth said...

Hey, its what I do when I'm bored!

Doug Duckworth said...

Yeah, but the grammar issues are due to long hours at UMSL with little sleep. Please forgive me on that aspect.