Have you seen this lovely dentillated pediment? It once was the crown of a door casing inside of the first floor hall of the James Clemens, Jr. House at 1849 Cass Avenue in St. Louis.
The four pediments from the center hall door openings are now missing, as these photographs show.
However, the pediments were in place in the following photographs taken by this author on May 13, 2007.
If you have any information about these stolen pediments, please drop a line. Architects at Klitzing Welsch (314-772-8073) are looking for them. It's urgent, too -- they are preparing plans for rehabilitation and need them back! Even one would be very helpful.
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6 comments:
Wah! Why would someone want to steal those? Can they really use them? !!!
Are they replacable?
The last time I saw one of those it was lodged in the staircase to the cellar. I assume the thieves finally got it out somehow.
Scavengers, it seems, tend to steal whatever looks valuable, often destroying beautiful details in the process. The altars in the chapel were decimated by idiots who didn't even take the marble they smashed.
Sure, they make great "character" in some bland, ticky-tacky McMansion in Suburban Hell. Ya' know, a nice antiqued crackle finish would look great, says the unscrupulous dealer on Cherokee. Or the Internet fence operating out of his basement and garage in O'Fallon. Where he moved after the neighborhood "got a little dark". (Actual quote from someone with whom I once worked.) What's really sad is that these were probably sold by the thief for $20 a pop, and then resold for $200-300 by the fence. Who knows, maybe someone saw these posted and "ordered" them from their usual supplier.
Sad. Hope they are found.
I know it's fun to blame suburbanites for everything that ills the city, but those cornices are way to specialized for a suburban McMansion. They're more likely to end up in a house in the city, where they're better proportioned. I have a feeling they're sitting in one of those "eccentric" building supply shops located throughout the Southside.
Is there really and truly going to be an attempt to revamp James Clemens house? I hear positive news and want to stay hopeful, but everytime I go by, it just seems one step closer to irreparable collapse.
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