I learned today via the Preserving St. Louis Facebook page that the Midwood Hotel in downtown Overland is slated for demolition. Apparently St. Louis County is planning to construct a roundabout at the six-way intersection of Midland Boulevard, Woodson Road and Milton Avenue. A photo from Emporis indicates that a few other buildings fronting Woodson may have already been demolished for the project.
The building with its signature glass block rounded corner was constructed in 1956 according to St. Louis County property records. This is later than I had thought. If anyone knows differently, please comment. The joist pockets in the facade indicate that the canopy seen over an entrance near the rear of the building once wrapped the entire length of the street facing elevations. What would have been storefronts on the first floor had been converted to small hotel rooms.
The building is a wedge shape that tapers down to less than ten feet wide at the alley.
The intersection of Midland and Woodson is pretty bleak from an urban design perspective. The Midwood is really the one of the only buildings left that addresses the intersection in any direct manner, and its loss will further disconnect the already separated sections of the commercial district.
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Most of the buildings missing in the aerial shot have been gone for years, if not decades. When the QT was built, they tore down the other wedge building (left), the old Eagle Gym building has been gone for a while and is now a mostly unused "plaza" (right). The other large open corner space (bottom left) has been open for as long as I can remember. It's the parking lot for what used to be a National, then various video stores, and now is a Save-A-Lot. Downtown Overland has lost far too much of it's historic downtown to have a cohesive shopping district.
I was able to talk Overland into giving me a tour of this building. If anyone is interested in seeing the interior, you can view them here:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.404669912985922.1073741829.323636854422562&type=1
Wow, Thanks for sharing Mandi!! Love the bright colors of the rooms, the curvy walls and that crazy skinny exit stair!
You're welcome! It was a crazy set-up in there! I was told that it used to be a medical building, which explains the tiny rooms and the shared bathrooms on each floor. It will be demolished in a month or two. There is a public meeting coming up about the roundabout. I have been staring at that strange old building in awe for years, so it will be sad to see it go.
That 1956 date does sound late. I lived there in '65 and it was the "hotel" then, all never much activity, probably rentals. That corner used to be all solid buildings, now it's a field!The strip there was much like what Cherokee St. in the city used to be like. Cool!
Mike Boyd
The 1956 date seemed late to me as well given the style, but the simplicity of the building speaks to something post-war. in any case it is sad to see it go for probably nothing in it's place.
Its a shame when a old building must come down but the Midwood has been home to prostitution and drug dealing for years.
Growing up in Overland, my family doctor was in there, The Millwood building, for sure. The mafia car bombing that took place at the at that time National grocery store, now Save a Lot, across the intersection back in the mid 70's happened while I was at the doctor.
Wow downtown Overland brings back memories, the Woolworth store that had a grille, the record store across the street from where Woolworths was, then the little dinner up the street, its now Georges, was even used as a set to a movie made made in the 80's, then also remembering the Western Auto, now Chimi's restaurant, my parents bought my 1st bike from there. Overland use to have a Christmas parade every year and Overland Garage drove this old car that had 2 front ends welded together, I got my parents old 8mm home movies of this. Walking to New Overland School also gone with the post office in its place now. Larry Lamberts auto parts store on Lackland next to Schnucks at that time now Family Dollar. Some many Great Memories what a GREAT family town Overland was as a kid growing up there in the 50's and 60's
I lived in the Midwood for a short time in 1985, it was rental apartments with shared showers and toilets. It was a dump. I was only there a few days before a room opened in the home next door that was also owned by the same people/company. I believe it was 9205 E Milton. I moved to the 2nd floor of that house and lived there for several months. There were 2 bedrooms upstairs, I had one and a black woman was across the hall in the other. The entire first floor was occupied by a family, the dad worked at Purina I think, and he had a son in his 20's that was deaf. There was a Hardee's across the street on the corner. I remember several old men coming in every morning and digging coffee cups out of the trash to get free refills. One of them showed everyone who would listen his release papers from the asylum that was nearby(?). I was told that due to lack of funding that many patients had been released and he was one of them. I don't know if any of that was true since I wasn't from the area.
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