As of last Friday, the two-story Italianate house at 3438 Dr. Samuel Shepard Drive in Midtown, known as the Wagner House, was gone.
Here's the time line of the demolition:
February 29: St. Louis University closes on the sale of the house.
February 29: St. Louis University applies for demolition permit.
March 4: Building Division approved demolition permit. Since the house stands outside of the Midtown National Historic District and within the Nineteenth Ward, which has no preservation review, the city's Cultural Resources Office did not get to review the permit.
March 12: Workers begin removing interior fixtures and millwork.
March 17: Demolition of the house begins.
March 21: Demolition complete.
Read more at Vanishing STL: SLU Strikes Again! Destroying the Wagner House at 3438 Samuel Shepard.
Monday, March 24, 2008
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6 comments:
Midtown structures of architectural merit or historic value are endangered to the extent that they are in proximity to Biondi's "vision" for SLU, which looks simply like 1950s urban renewal policy. No one of any governmental authority dares question or impugn the good father's approach to "redeveloping" the campus environs. Or maybe I'm mistaken; does anyone know a specific instance of him not getting his way, esp. when his way involves demolition, like the Marina building formerly at Grand and Lindell? I guess we can look forward to more "plazas", parking lots and embarrasingly bad art. Is there any building SLU would hesitate to flatten and instead investigate reuse? St. Louis will be one hot town, the second we get all these buildings out of the way.
It really bothers me that SLU has been so quick to demolish historic structures. One of the things that I think makes parts of SLU's campus so attractive is that they have preserved historic structures. Whenever I drive by, I think, I wish I had gone to a school that looks like that! I guess someone else was in charge when those decisions were made.
The last post beautifully highlights the subtleties of St. Louis.
Anonymous. Believe this: they are concerned about far more than one off campus old building.
Looks like other universities are guilty of this as well.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/ban_demolition-by-greedy-universities.php
blogger cut off the link.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/
ban_demolition-by-greedy-universities.php
I wonder what Biondi would have wanted to do with Cupples House? Father MacNamee fought successfully to save it and is hailed as a visionary for doing so. Would Biondi have fought to save it?
Dumb question.
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