Lost on Laclede

Friday morning I saw a photo posted on Facebook of this building on Laclede between Vandeventer and Sarah being demolished. The building had a very attractive terra cotta facade that had been painted.

Detail of the terra cotta facade. The building is similar to one almost directly across the alley facing West Pine. Several photos of that building can be seen on an August post from Seeking St. Louis. Both buildings have terra cotta fronted rectangular elements with bow truss garages behind. My guess is that these were auto dealerships.

The building had apparently sustained some wind damage in 2010. This aerial shows some roofing had been blown off and one column of terra cotta on the facade has been replaced with concrete block in what looks like a recent repair. From the exterior appearance, there is nothing though that would seem to warrant demolition.

A Google streetview shows the building in context. In the distance is the 6 North apartments which nicely bookends the block. Across the street is a large vacant lot where the Center for Emerging Technologies hopes to build a new building. Combined with the post office parking lot, now there will be a pretty large hole on the north side of the street.