Odds and Ends

MCPHEETERS WAREHOUSES NEARLY GONE: The McPheeters Warehouses on Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard, subject of a Vital Voice column of mine published in June, are nearly gone. Demolition started two weeks ago, and now the one-story cold storage warehouse and most of the center building are gone.

SHANK SONS HONOR ISADORE: Peter and Stephen Shank have published Firbeams, a lovely website featuring the residential architecture of father Isadore Shank.

KIEL PROGRESS: In the St. Louis Beacon, Charlene Prost reports on progress in the plan by SCP Worldwide and McEagle Properties to re-open the Kiel Opera House.

VACANT BUILDING INITIATIVE: As featured in a story on KSDK TV this week, Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett (D-6th) has introduced Board Bill 174, which would require owners of vacant buildings to pay an annual registration fee, carry liability insurance and secure all openings, among other requirements. Church and nonprofit property is exempt, but Land Reutilization Authority property is not. More later.

STATEWIDE PRESERVATION CONFERENCE SEPTEMBER 10-13 IN ST. CHARLES: The 2008 Annual Statewide Preservation Conference begins on Wednesday, September 10 in St. Charles. I am co-presenting a workshop with Jan Cameron of the St. Louis Cultural Resources Office entitled "Vernacular Architecture from the Stone Age to the Space Age." Details here.

DRURY WANTS TO DO WHAT?: At Vanishing STL, Paul Hohmann reports on a bizarre plan by Drury Hotels to demolish the northwest corner of the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood for a new hotel. The plan threatens the Lambskin Temple and many historic homes. Drury will present the plans tonight at the Gibson Heights Neighborhood Association meeting, 7:00 p.m. at 1034 S. Kingshighway.

Emergency Demolition? No, That Might Make Sense.

The house at 1512 Montgomery Street in St. Louis Place is a perfect example of the city's senseless approach to dealing with vacant buildings. This handsome old tenement happens to be owned by developer Paul J. McKee, Jr.'s Blairmont Associates LC, but that's not what is notable here. What is notable is that the old building has had a severe lean to the east for many years. The building appears twisted, as if it were made of pliant red rubber. The building has also been vacant for at least a decade -- not surprising, considering the slope of each floor. In December 2006, the Building Division condemned the building for demolition, putting it on a long list with a wait period for demolition funding.

During an early July storm, the gable end collapsed onto the parking lot of the adjacent Church's Chicken. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

We all know what's next, right? The Building Division swoops in with an emergency condemnation and demolition order, and the lot is quickly just another expanse of straw-covered dirt.

Guess again. The building still stands as of the date of writing! The Building Division has not issued any emergency order, and the owner has applied wooden and tube-steel bracing of questionable utility. (Honestly, the part of the building most likely to fall has already fallen.) Here is a house that could not be rehabilitated without complete demolition and reconstruction. Even moderate correction of the lean would cost more money than the house would ever be worth. Contrast this condition with other vacant houses in St. Louis Place and other neighborhoods that have been put under the "emergency" axe for happening to have a non-structural rear wall collapse or by literally being adjacent to a building that has collapsed after a bout of brick thievery. I've watched the Building Division take down structures easier to repair (and located in more desirable spots than next to a fast food restaurant) than the sad house at 1512 Montgomery Street.

There is no consistency in the use of emergency condemnation procedures. Often the decisions make no sense in regard to preservation planning or structural necessity. Discussions about how to shape a new vacant building policy in the city should examine ways in which the Building Division's power to use emergency condemnation powers could fall under some sort of review. We have relatively weak cultural resources and urban planning laws, but what good comes from those laws often gets undermined by a quick decision over on the fourth floor of City Hall.

There needs to be coordination -- not a new board, office or commissioner position, but simply a smart policy of cooperation between the Building Division, the Cultural Resources Office, the Planning and Urban Design Agency and the aldermen. As this house shows, even the most tenuous-looking building isn't going to fall over tomorrow. There is time to make smart choices.

Cut Off, Cut Down

Three weeks ago I wrote about the loss of a house at 2569 Montgomery Street in St. Louis Place (see "Cut Off", July 25, 2008). The house and the house next door were owned by companies tied to developer Paul J. McKee, Jr. and had suffered severe damage at the hands of criminals who steal brick. Now the house next door, at 2571 Montgomery Street, is gone. This photo dates to the demolition last week. Now this block is down to two remaining houses across the street from each other to the west. One of those houses is owned by a McKee holding company.

Preservation planning, anyone? It's much cleaner and safer than demolition through the urban warfare of brick theft.

Your Building Here?

When the two old stucco-covered buildings at the southwest corner of Washington Avenue and 14th Street fell late last fall, few would have guessed that the site created would be an empty, open pit this summer. The buildings fell for the proposed SkyHouse project (see "SkyHouse Raising Issues," April 29, 2007). That project seemed like a sure thing. Now, the project is dead in the water, and the site is the subject of rumors of foreclosure. We may not see a new proposal for a 22-story building on the site, but hopefully this site doesn't become the Bottle District of Washington Avenue -- just the Ballpark Village.

Cut Off

Shown here is the house at 2569 Montgomery Street in St. Louis Place before its demise at the hands of brick thieves earlier this year. When I took this photograph in February, thieves had already taken down much of the western wall of the house, causing interior collapses. Not long after I took this photograph, a brick wall collapsed on some thieves working on this house and, in the ensuing attempt to dig out one of the wreckers, police arrived on the scene to ticket the "crew" with trespassing. At least, that's the word on the street -- court records don't turn up anything.

The false-mansard-faced two-story house was built in 1888, long before Parnell Avenue to its east was widened out of proportion with demands. This house stood on a block orphaned between the needless expanse of Parnell -- a formidable pedestrian boundary -- and the expansion of industries to the west that involved major street closures. The life-flow of cities and blood alike is circulation. Any part cut off from circulation eventually dies. This house ended up in the possession of Blairmont Associates in 2005. No surprise that the owners of the house next door sold to Blairmont sister company Sheridan Place in 2006.

Another Lost Chance

In "Daily Dose of Blairmont #12" back in March 2008 (the daily series is now up to #137), Built St. Louis author Rob Powers presented the graceful mansard-roofed four-flat at 2341 University Street in St. Louis Place. Powers' chronicle of historic buildings in north St. Louis owned by developer Paul J. McKee Jr.'s holding companies shows us both solitary survivors and houses that contribute to groups of historic houses. This building was one of the latter -- while the block face across the street is gone, the north side of the 2300 block on University is fairly intact toward its west side.

In his blog post, Powers asked the question: "Will this row, like so much around it, become nothing more than a memory, leaving no trace of what this neighborhood once was?"

Sadly, the answer has come: Yes.


On June 9, the city's Building Division issued an emergency demolition permit for the building. Unlike many other McKee-owned buildings on the near north side, this house was protected by occupied neighboring houses. The brick thieves never arrived to carve up the fine house. Although vacant and deteriorating since at least 1989, the house was in pretty fair shape as vacant north side buildings go. The house was pretty rough when McKee's Blairmont Associates LC purchased the house from Ruth Erbschloe in 2006, but not unsound under reasonable interpretation of city code. An emergency order seems rash, even from the perspective that the house needed wrecking.

Then again, we don't have means for making very careful choices about houses like this one. The 5th and 19th wards, where McKee's holdings mostly lie, lack preservation review for demolition. Even without the questionable emergency order -- not the first in this neighborhood for a building that seemed sound under city ordinances -- there would have been little to stop this demolition, save the owner. The owner, of course, has made no plans clear. With no comprehensive plan for land use and preservation coming from either the city or McKee, much of St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou stand in a torpor -- except that which will no longer stands. Add the house at 2341 University to the list.


What a shame this loss truly is. As Powers notes, that block is pretty solid architecturally. The house immediately to the east is obviously well-tended, retaining many original architectural features including its iron fence. Obviously, that house should be an anchor for spreading redevelopment on a block still residential in character. There are plenty of blocks in St. Louis Place where one can find large expanses for new construction. Those retaining historic residential fabric and homeowners need a careful approach we're not likely to get without a public planning process. The real "emergency" is the lack of coordination between city government, McKee and stakeholders in St. Louis Place and JeffVanderLou.

Vanishing Bakery

Currently under demolition, an old bakery complex stands at the northwest corner of Cook and Sarah avenues inthe Vandeventer neighborhood. While not as large or as architecturally refined as some of the larger bakeries of the city, the complex here typifies the smaller bakeries that were opnce sources of neighborhood employment across the city's working-class neighborhoods.

While growing into a complex of at least four different sections, this complex had its start as a small neighborhood bakery operated out of the two-story brown brick corner building. The permit for the corner building dates to January 6, 1904, when baker F.J. Schneider (who resided nearby at 1115 S. Sarah) took out a permit for a $13,000 facility. The bakery may have been small, but that cost is not insignificant. H.F. Holke (office at 2583 Wrne Avenue) served as contractor and little-known Otto Bachner (office in the Wainwright Building) was architect. These names indicate the extent of German settlement in this part of north St. Louis.

Schneider continued to expand his operation, adding oven in 1905. The operation was called, oddly enough, the "French Bakery." In 1909, Schneider built a two-story stable on the alley side, hiring A.H. Haesseler as architect. The 1909 Sanborn fire insurance map captures this point in the bakery's history:


Here we see the bakery building at the corner, showing the first floor partitions and the three bake ovens then in place. This map shows that the block was essentially a residential block, with houses just a few hundred feet from the hot, pungent world of the bakers. However, just west of the bakery the map shows a "bottle works" operating along the alley behind a house. (That building was later incorporated into the bakery.) This mix of uses was not uncommon in the early 20th century even in well-kept neighborhoods west of Grand Avenue. Our ancestors were doing the "live-work" lifestyle long before it got any coverage in Dwell. In 1910, Schneider again expanded, taking out a $19,000 permit for "alterations to a second-class bakery." Hartmann Building and Construction Company served as contractor. Additional permits from 1918 show installation of four more ovens and significant alterations. By 1919, the bakery was owned by Nafziger Baking Company. That company continued to expand the facility, and on February 18, 1928 took out a $42,000 permit to build a two-story addition to the west of the 1904 building, most of which is missing in my photographs. This particular bakery ended its baking days as the Taystee Bakery, operated by the American Bakeries Company.


The robust concrete-framed inudtrial buildings showed few signs of deterioration when owner Transformation Christian Church took out a permit this year for demolition. Located in the 19th Ward, which is not covered by the city's opt-out preservation review laws, the demolition was never reviewed by the Cultural Resources Office.

Another Lost Corner in St. Louis Place

In March, I wrote about the tragic loss of an entire block of buildings in St. Louis Place due to brick rustling. Many of the houses on the 1900 block of Wright Street between Florissant Avenue and North 20th Street were owned by Paul J. McKee, Jr., but three were owned by others. (See "Brick Rustlers Decimate Wright Street Block," March 26, 2008.) Two buildings comprising a magnificent row had been the property of DHP Investments, the failed company led by Doug Hartmann that left over 120 historic city buildings in various states of abandonment, including the landmark Nord St. Louis Turnverein. Hartmann's buildings here were imposing three-story buildings with elegant masonry details, mansard roofs punctuated by squared dormers and even intact cast iron balconies.

Missing from my earlier coverages was mention of a row that stood across the alley on Dodier Street until this February. The two buildings at 1944-50 Dodier Street were not as exotic as their neighbors to the south, but they were every much as responsible for creating the sense of place for the neighborhood. The best part of these two buildings was their relationship: the eastern tenement building was wide and set back from the street, while its conjoined neighbor with commercial space came right up to the sidewalks on both Dodier and 20th streets. This pair beautifully demonstrated the order or urban space as it recedes from the public sphere to the semi-private. Here, the public was that which is immediate to the right-of-way, while the semi-private was removed just enough to mark the boundary between residents and passers-by. Both buildings were completely urban.

The details were also lovely. The tenement's brick dormers pack a punch not found in the small belt courses and elegant but typical stone sills. Next door, a corbelled cornice, central dormer and vivid stone keystones give a plain brick wall pizazz. The details are common for vernacular buildings of the 1880s and 1890s, when these were built. While the rarity of such buildings and their details makes them more precious, their historic commonality provides the real significance. There was a time when such finesse was a matter of course even in working class housing.

Alas, these buildings fell into the hands of the city's Land Reutilization Authority by the 1970s, and were vacant for awhile before Victor Casine (whose ownership of another building recently was profiled in the Vital Voice) purchased them in 1982. Casine promised rehabilitation, but did little other than allow further deterioration. The city's Building Division reported the buildings as vacant for every year that Casine owned them. Numerous citations led to one suit filed by the city against Casine. Casine himself sued the city in 1989 for supposedly damaging the property when the Forestry Division mowed the overgrowth Casine did not trim himself.

After three years in which Casine did not pay outstanding liens and taxes on the property, the Sheriff auctioned the houses in 2003. This time was on the cusp of McKee's purchasing, and so the buildings found no bidder. The Land Reutilization Authority took title once more, and after the rear walls collapsed was granted emergency demolition by the Building Division in January 2008. And so it goes. Those new to following land speculation and demolition in St. Louis Place should know that the tragedy is not new and has never been closer to real solutions as it is now. A long time ago, buildings bit the dust without so much as a photograph taken and owners let property decay without a call to the alderman, let alone protests at City Hall. Now, there is relatively wide attention on the future of the neighborhood. From that attention could come action.

Casino Claims Historic North Riverfront Warehouses

My latest Vital Voice column, "Lumiere Place Looms Over Historic Warehouses", tells the tale of three industrial buildings on Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard between Biddle and Carr streets about to be wrecked by the city government because Lumiere Place claims the buildings are hurting its revenue.

That twisted logic could be twisted straight to demonstrate why the casino owners should use their own money to buy and renovate the buildings, but it won't be. Read the bad news in the article, and then come back here to look at these images of the splendid, sturdy masonry of these warehouses, one of which may be the oldest surviving cold storage building in the city. (It's always frustrating when that determination becomes a matter of trivia about a lost place, rather than part of the narrative that helps people understand their extant built environment.)

Two Blocks of Florissant Avenue in 1985

While demolition permit numbers show that the peak decade for material building loss in the Old North St. Louis and St. Louis Place neighborhoods was 1970-1980, a substantial slower loss has transpired since then. The cumulative result is that streetscapes recognizable as urban places twenty-five years ago now form desolate landscapes lacking architectural definition.

Two photographs of the west side of Florissant Avenue in 1985 taken by Mary M. Stiritz for Landmarks Association of St. Louis depict the absurd reality that in the near past, the eastern edge of St. Louis Place was marked by the familiar nineteenth century vernacular masonry buildings that typify other sections to this day.

Nowadays, Florissant Avenue is a confused corridor notable for its many vacant lots and the needless wide expanse of roadway that awaits MetroLink expansion. This area was once a vital part of a beautiful neighborhood. In 1985, Landmarks was preparing a survey leading to expansion of the Clemens House-Columbia Brewery Historic District; sufficient physical stock existed here to allow major expansion of a national historic district. Today, further expansion remains a fantasy at best due to continued loss.

Behold the northwest corner of Warren Street and Florissant Avenue, today a sun-scorched vacant lot:



While the architectural context is visibly diminished, the important corner site is occupied by a building that becomes a landmark heralding the site as one for human comfort and exchange. As we rebuild St. Louis Place, we should ensure we have good corners, and not drive-through lanes, curb cuts and fences where the marks of human settlement should be.

The second photograph shows the block of Florissant between North Market Street on the south and Benton Street on the north:



Here was a hybrid row of commercial and residential buildings, all brick but differing somewhat on setback, height and style. There are a few side-gabled buildings, with a mansard-roofed store second in from the corner adjacent to a flounder house with a generous side gallery porch. Dormers abound. There's even a modern Payless Shoe Store at the right of the image. This is a resolutely urban group, friendly to the pedestrian and attractive to the eye.

All of these buildings are now gone.

Locust Street Building Demolished -- But NOT For a Parking Lot

A few people have asked me about the current demolition of a building at 3126 Locust Street in the Locust Business District just east of Compton Avenue.

The building being demolished unfortunately could not be included in a recent Locust Street Automobile Row Historic District extension due to heavy alterations. While remaining sections of the building show a Spanish Revival facade of stucco and brick, the building was clad in metal paneling until very recently. The installation of the panels damaged the facade, and the owner -- Scott Pohlman, who developed the residential building next door to the east -- elected to demolish the building and build a new residential structure on the site.

In 1888, this was the site of the new First Christian Church building. The present building sections date to 1913 and 1919. A 1919 city directory shows Gill Piston Ring Company and Standard Roller Bearing as tenants. The tenant listing is not surprising; "Automobile Row" on Locus included perhaps more parts manufacturers and distributors than automobile dealers and distributors. Companies like these made St. Louis the "Second Detroit" (almost first).

While 3126 Locust may have been salvaged, and I think it could have been, at least there is a redevelopment plan leading to a beneficial trade-off. There have been too many parking lots added in recent years, especially by St. Louis University -- which makes no secret that parking, not development, is its end goal.

Old North Building Owned by McKee Demolished

The house at 1412 Sullivan Avenue in Old North St. Louis fell to wreckers last month. The building was already badly deteriorated when Paul McKee's holding company Babcock Resources LLC purchased the property at a sheriff's sale in October 2007. (See "McKee Purchases Building on Stable Block in Old North", October 25, 2007.)

Complaints from some neighbors over bricks falling from the parapet wall led to Building Division action. No, not stabilization or a nuisance property suit, but "emergency" demolition, via an order issued on April 16 by Demolition Supervisor Sheila Livers.

The 1400 block of Sullivan Avenue has only seen one demolition since the start of the twentieth century. The block of Hebert Street to the north has seen none (although it has three McKee-owned buildings on it now), making it the only fully intact block in Old North. Still, this block of Sullivan came in closely behind, with a strong sense of historic character and committed residents.

Obviously, McKee cannot tear down the rest of the block. Mayor Francis Slay would be crazy to approve eminent domain use in Old North, where he has attended several house fundraisers for his campaigns. McKee's interest in this property stems from its ability to help him qualify for acreage requirements under the Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credit as well as to have further political leverage in Old North. The building was inconsequential to his plan -- but vital to the sense of place of those who look out of their windows and now see a pile of brick bats.

Would it have hurt McKee to have put a new roof on the building and done some brick work? Those expenses would have qualified as maintenance costs under the same tax credit that covers demolition. Promises to do better with maintenance are meaningless in the face of demolition by neglect.

For residents of Old North, amid a $35 million rehabilitation project that will reopen 14th street and rebuild 28 buildings, this is a small blow. We're on a roll. Still, that makes this loss so much more senseless.

The House at 20th and St. Louis

We shall never again see this beautiful house at the northeast corner of 20th Street and St. Louis Avenue in St. Louis Place, just north of the boundary of the Clemens House-Columbia Brewery National Historic District. Wreckers took down the house last week as part of a city demolition package. The house had fallen on hard times. Vacant for years, the house lost its roof through collapse and sections of the western wall were beginning to collapse inward. Its owner was an elderly man who lived in the ruins; he was apparently on a bus downtown to try to stop the demolition when the wreckers started their work. The home was mostly gone when he returned.

Nonetheless, the beauty shone through the devastation. This was one of the few early large corner houses on St. Louis Avenue. Notice the shallow setback from St. Louis Avenue and the lack of any setback at all from 20th Street. Originally a single-family home possessing the same grandeur of its peers on the avenue, the house is resolutely urban in character. St. Louis Place had an order of fine houses, and homes on St. Louis Avenue were more prosaic than the slightly more expensive ones that lined both sides of the St. Louis Place park. Hence this house balances the expression of wealth its owners intended with a conventional placement of the home typical of the street. No one could have expected seclusion on a main thoroughfare.

What was most striking about the home was its intact features. Although derelict, the house was never painted and kept its wooden windows, the cornice, dormer, slate shingles and even its roof cresting. The eclectic mix of Second Empire and Italianate features was restrained by the purity of expression typical of its time (likely the early 1880s). The front wall was brick, the lintels simple stone arches. There was little pretense despite its stylistic impurity.

Standing vacant, the home was almost frozen in time. While the home remained immobile, the forces of water, gravity and time moved forward against the house.

[Read more about a building across the street here.]

Preservation Board Approves Flounder House Demolition, Denies Demolition in The Ville

Here's a quick report of some actions at yesterday's St. Louis Preservation Board meeting.

2915 Minnesota Avenue: Preliminary approval for demolition granted 4-2. Terry Kennedy, Mary Johnson, David Richardson and Anthony Robinson in favor; Melanie Fathman and Mike Killeen opposed.

4477 Olive Street: Unanimously deferred until the July meeting to provide more time to explore alternatives.

4568 St. Ferdinand Avenue: Demolition permit denied. Killeen, Fathman, Robinson and Richard Callow in favor of motion to deny; Johnson, Kennedy and Richardson opposed.

Fate of Flounder House on Monday's Preservation Board Agenda

On Monday, the Preservation Board will determine the fate of this old city-owned flounder house at 2915 Minnesota Avenue in Tower Grove East. The 710-square-foot home lies outside of the boundaries of the Tower Grove Heights Historic District, making it ineligible for rehab tax credits without landmark designation. Clearly, the building is eligible in its own right -- there are fewer than 30 flounder houses left in the city, and the building type is indigenous. Alderwoman Kacie Starr Triplett (D-6th) is seeking demolition, while the Tower Grove East Neighborhood Association strongly opposes demolition. Triplett's application was deferred by the Board two months ago to provide the Cultural Resources Office (CRO) time to develop a pro forma showing that rehabilitation is feasible.

Working with developer Will Libermann, who recently rehabbed a flounder house at 3330 Missouri Avenue in Benton Park, CRO has arrived at an impressively economical budget; see its report here. Liebermann's plan would restore the derelict home to former beauty while creating badly-needed affordable fully-rehabbed, historically-sensitive housing. (His other flounder sold for $125,000.) With the neighborhood behind preservation, there should be a clear outcome but Triplett remains stridently in favor of demolition.

Should the Preservation Board approve demolition, there would be yet another decision creating a housing gap between upper-income residents who can afford fully-rehabbed historically-sensitive homes and lower-income residents who largely cannot. Here is the rare opportunity to cut against the gap. While the home is smaller than your average multi-family conversion, it is a great size for a single person or a childless couple.

The Preservation Board meets Monday, April 28 at 4:00 p.m. in the 12th floor conference room at 1015 Locust Street downtown. See the full agenda here.

Same Old Story?

Same old story: the owner of the lovely building at 4477 Olive Street pictured here is applying for a demolition permit. The city's Preservation Board will consider the demolition on preliminary review at its regular meeting on Monday; the city's Cultural Resources Office is recommending that the board deny the application.

Next-door neighbor Youth Technology Education Center wants to demolish the building immediately for green space, but anticipates eventual expansion. (Again, same old story.) While Alderman Terry Kennedy (D-18th) supports demolition in deference to the center's laudable accomplishments, the Central West End Association is opposed to the demolition.



The Craftsman style storefront building was built in 1917 and designed by architect Edward H.A. Volkmann, who designed several other buildings in this vicinity. Several unusual elements, like the finials atop the raised parapet sections, the balcony and the former arched center display window have led to all sorts of guesses about the building's origin. One story had the building as a fire station. The truth is a bit more mundane -- the building was built for the St. Louis Cleaning Company and used as by the clothing cleaners at least through the 1930s. Cleaners were an important new business type in the early twentieth century, catering to the city's newly-mobile middle and upper classes. The Central West End has several old cleaners' buildings, with the most resplendent being the Anderson Laundry on Washington Boulevard west of Euclid.

Last year, the commercial district on Olive Street between Pendleton and Walton was added to the city's Central West End Historic District. With historic rehabilitation tax credits now available, the street is being remarkably transformed. Before that, Central West End Builders had already obtained National Register of Historic Places designation for and rehabbed the Lister Building, Taylor-Olive Building and Eugene Field School (directly across the street) around the intersection of Taylor and Olive. (The following photograph shows the Lister and Taylor-Olive buildings' proximity to the building at 4477 Olive.)



Apparently there is a developer interested in rehabbing the building, which until recently was used as storefront church. (Same old story, huh?) In the last two years, developers have rehabbed or are rehabbing almost all of the other buildings on this block, and there is even new construction including the Center. Good things aren't just coming -- they are here, and this finely-detailed building should be a part of them.

The Preservation Board meets Monday at 4:00 p.m. in the 12th floor conference room at 1015 Locust Street downtown. The full meeting agenda is available here.

Demolition of St. Stanislaus Kostka School Underway

Demolition of the St. Stanislaus Kostka School at 1413 N. 20th Street is now underway (see "St. Stanislaus Kostka School Deserves a Reprieve," April 6). Aalco Wrecking is the demolition contractor and Bruce Gerrie has salvage rights.

Haven of Grace Applies for Demolition Permit for House It Promised to Save

Haven of Grace has again applied for a demolition permit for the house at 2619-21 Hadley Street in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood. On April 9, the non-profit provider of housing for pregnant homeless women took out a demolition permit application to machine or hand wreck the venerable house that it has sought to demolish before.

The rear wall of the 1880s-era Italianate house mysteriously collapsed in February, and Haven of Grace has neither stabilized the wall nor covered the opening created by the collapse. The collapsed wall is not load bearing, however, and the roof and other walls of the house are intact.



In February 2007, Haven of Grace proposed demolishing this house and another older house at 2605 Hadley Street. Haven of Grace wanted to build three new apartment buildings on the sites to expand their ability to offer intermediate-term housing. Since the houses were contributing resources to the Murphy-Blair National Historic District, the demolition permit applications went to the city's Cultural Resources Office, which denied the permits. The Preservation Board considered the matter on appeal. The Old North St. Louis neighborhood was forced to contemplate a difficult balance between its heritage and one of its best neighbors. At the meeting hearing the appeal, Haven of Grace Executive Director Diane Berry and her architect Tom Cohen announced a compromise plan in which Haven of Grace would agree to mothball the house at 2619-21 Hadley if the board would grant the demolition application for 2605 Hadley. The board unanimously voted for the compromise proposal, and construction proceeded.

Neighbors noticed something strange this fall. Instead of three new buildings, only two were built. The house at 2619-21 Hadley was not mothballed, but left to sit. The new buildings were as sensitive to the neighborhood's fabric as their renderings suggested, and neighbors were pleased both with the design and the density. Best of all, the buildings carried the street face on that side established by the vacant house at one corner and another occupied building at the other. With just one more new building and a rehabilitation of Haven of Grace's old house, the block would be complete.



Alas, that scenario did not come to pass. Haven of Grace claims that the house is beyond rehabilitation. The third building is not under construction because the old house is viewed as a risk that could collapse onto or against the new building.

Haven of Grace decided to back away from its compromise proposal. This is despite rancorous discussion that led to Berry leaving the board of directors of the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group. This is despite soul-searching among the neighborhood's committed preservationists, who had vowed never again on demolition only to be faced with a terrible choice. Most of these people went against their own principles out of respect for Haven of Grace, and either endorsed or condoned the demolition of the house at 2605 Hadley Street, which had not been as far gone as many buildings that have been saved in Old North.

Meanwhile, the house is in no immediate danger of collapse. Due to the Preservation Board denial of the permit last year, the matter will have to be appealed to the Circuit Court. If last year's contest was exhausting, this one could be worse.

Is there any room for compromise this time? The only compromise would seem to be some situation in which haven of Grace would not be responsible for rehabbing the house but could also be assured that the house would be rehabbed in a timely manner. Unless Haven of Grace would sell the house, though, the matter is up to that organization -- and its wishes are clear.

Frame House in The Ville Demolished

I first noticed the the house at 4233 Aldine Avenue in The Ville in the fall. The one-and-a-half-story house was unusual for its neighborhood. With a side gable and dormers, the frame house was almost a version of the traditional "double pen" country home. The symmetrical double pen house is typified by two doorways, usually located at the very center of a house, with each door leading to one large room. Additions often added space.

This week, I wanted to show the house at 4233 Aldine to a colleague. I had never ventured inside the vacant house to examine foundation and construction method, so I can't guess about the date of construction. Now, the house is gone. The lot is strewn with hay and grass seed. We'll never know much more about this frame house that probably pre-dated much of the Ville.

Although known widely as a brick city, St. Louis has a rich traditional of frame vernacular construction. Sadly, much is gone. The house in the Ville is yet another missing part of the tradition.

Emergency Demolition Orders Made to Suit?

Last week I noted the demolition of the three-story commercial building at Page and Kinsghighway in Fountain Park (see "Demolition Comes Twofold to Page Boulevard"). A driver struck the corner column on the first floor of the building, leaving the corner unsupported. Owner Roberts Brothers Properties did nothing to stabilize the corner, and eventually the building started collapsing at the corner. On March 21, the city's Building Division issued and emergency demolition permit for the building -- and two other freestanding buildings on the same parcel!

The emergency order includes two two-story commercial buildings that stand east of the condemned building. These buildings are vacant and also owned by Roberts Brothers Properties, but have no structural damage that would warrant emergency condemnation and demolition under the city's building code.

The inclusion of these buildings in the demolition order brings to mind last year's demolition of the entire Brecht Butcher Supply Company Buildings, owned by Paul J. McKee, Jr., despite the fact that only one of the three buildings suffered enough fire damage to warrant emergency condemnation. In that case, the three buildings shared party walls, so the Building Division's action made a little more sense even if it was premature.

This time, the three buildings share no walls. There is absolutely no connection between the collapsing corner of the large building and the condition of the two neighboring buildings. Should we assume that the Building Division is willing to twist public safety laws to allow owners to clear sites for development? Or perhaps the Building Division has such prejudice for historic buildings that it cannot restrain itself faced with an opportunity to take down three buildings instead of one?

No matter what the intention, the result is that one city agency assigned to uphold public safety is thwarting any attempt to implement real preservation planning. Really, all three of the buildings at Page and Kingshighway could have been preserved. Even after the corner collapsed, the corner building was stable enough to repair. The Building Division could have ordered emergency stabilization. Although the Division can only spend money on emergency demolition, and not stabilization, perhaps it's time we changed that, A temporary corner support -- which one can buy at Home Depot and many homeowners could have installed -- would have cost much, much less than demolition and given the neighborhood more time to explore the future of the building.

Our demolition process suffers from a lack of development vision. Without meaningful citywide preservation planning, each demolition decision is made without any legal guidance. The Building Division has discretionary power that prevents careful planning. Yet even if the Division wanted to step in and try to stabilize a building, it lacks enabling authority to do so. These issues need to be resolved. Currently, only an alderman can intervene in this process and force an outcome -- and not always. We need to reform our demolition process through enactment of real comprehensive preservation planning legislation.