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Saturday, March 29, 2008

St. Stanislaus Kostka Poised to Demolish Historic School

An article in today's Post-Dispatch reports that St. Stanislaus Kostka parish is planning to demolish its historic school, possibly starting as early as Monday. The public is invited to tour the school tomorrow from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m.

More later.

10 comments:

Chris said...

This seemed to come out of left field; did anyone hear about this before?

Anonymous said...

they probably don't run a school anymore.

LisaS said...

no, anon, they probably don't, but those buildings convert pretty easily to apartments or small offices or any number of other uses. and they tend to be well constructed.

Anonymous said...

They do when in the hands of an organization interested in such uses.

If the owner isn't interested in such a program, then we get demolition.

How does the saying go...where there is no vision, the people perish?

Doug Duckworth said...

The building is in rather bad shape. I've certainly seen worse in schools that were abandoned and not secured, but it would cost a lot to rehab the school. Perhaps there is the issue of leadership and will, but a significant cost is required for rehab. Does the parish have the money? Is anyone else wanting to invest?

Anonymous said...

Doug,

This situation akin to the old Baptist Church in Old North.

If the owner doesn't put the property up for sale, then what difference does it make?

I'm guessing St. Stans parishioners plan to turn the building into green space for kielbasa roasts, beer parties, and warsher games.

Doug Duckworth said...

Well according to the PD article they had people come by and check it out, but no one was interested.

Anonymous said...

At what price? If they asked too much, then no one would be. If we don't know the asking price, then it's hard to tell if they were serious about selling. Without the whole story, we're just guessing.

The school was closed for 40 years. They certainly had a lot of time to figure out what to do with it if their aim was to save the building.

Once, again, this sounds like the Baptist Church situation up in Old North. Supposedly that building is for sale as well. However, no one knows what the price is.

Doesn't sound like a very motivated or serious seller.

Anonymous said...

What am I missing? Admittedly my view of the building is only from the street as I drive by it every day, but it doesn't seem substantially worse off than the multiple Blairmont properties in its vicinity that have walls collapsed, etc. It does look like the front addition is slowly falling off; however, that might be a benefit for the ultimate reuse.

Where is the outrage from historic preservationists?

Thomas Crone said...

Just posted some photos of this building, from Sunday's open house. Needing to add some notes and such, but the basics are loaded on flickr, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/51252573@N00/sets/72157604365254933/