Grand Center's Surroundings Continue to be Wasted Away

Every time Grand Center takes a step forward, such as the rehabilitation of the historic Missouri Theater office building into a new boutique hotel, it seems that it takes a step back with the loss of smaller buildings on the districts periphery creating an isolated island.

This week ReFab posted a few photos on instagram (not the photos above) of a deconstruction they have begun in Grand Center. It didn't take me long to figure out that the building is at 3826 Olive Street near Vandeventer. The building is one only three structures left on the south side of Olive Street between Vandeventer and Spring Avenues. The other two are the William Cuthbert Jones House and the former Henry L. Wolfner Library for the Blind, both individually listed on the National Register. 3826 Olive is not listed on the National Register and falls just north of the jagged boundary of the Midtown National Register Historic District. 

Because we live in a City of 28 Mayors, each can choose whether or not their ward has Preservation Review. Marleen Davis chooses to not have Preservation Review for the 19th, so buildings like this regardless of potential historic merit are completely unprotected from demolition. 

The City had condemned 3826 Olive in May 2015 due to an isolated partial collapse of a small portion of the rear masonry wall. This is a common issue with buildings that have been vacant and had their rear gutters stolen. The building is owned by Olive West Properties, LLC, whose address it that of the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. This entity also owns a few other buildings on the block and much of the vacant land. While a demolition permit and cost has yet to be posted on Geo St. Louis, I would bet that the above collapse could have been repaired for what it is costing to take down the building.

City property records indicate the building was constructed in 1904. I suspected the sloped roof was originally a photography studio and it turns out that it was both the studio and residence of photographer Orville Caleb Conkling until at least 1929. 

The north facing sloped portion of the roof would have been glass similar to this long ago demolished castle like building that once housed the photography studio of J. C. Strauss on Franklin Avenue. Photo from Bygone St. Louis.

With the right kind of fostering, targeted marketing rehabilitation of the variety of existing buildings with small infill development between, the 3800 block of Olive could have potentially become a hip gallery district, a seemingly natural offshoot of an arts district and fed by a stream of patrons from the critical mass of arts institutions that has been built up over the last 25 years. 

Instead, redevelopment in Grand Center has targeted the largest, and the most ornate buildings in the district centered on Grand Boulevard. The variety of small ordinary buildings, the kind of buildings that make up vibrant cities, have been considered expendable so that as they fall the land can be banked for new larger developments that in the best of economic times over the last few decades have simply not materialized. As a result, the 37-3800 block of Olive, like much of what surrounds the arts institutions of Grand Center, is a wasteland of vacant lots, parking lots, and crumbling sidewalks.

Maybe with a little more land we could hope some developer will come along and build another Sub-Standard. 

Why We Shouldn't Give Up The Clemens House

In the weeks following the the Clemens House fire on the morning of July 12th, I saw many friends and fellow preservationists post RIPs and other comments essentially giving up the historic complex as being gone. While the fire was obviously a tragic event, it should not be concluded that the end is here for the Clemens House. Maybe its my experience with bringing back many buildings that were essentially shells, some seemingly on the brink of destruction, but I don't believe we should give up on the Clemens House. Here's why: 


A: Not much has really changed with much of the structure. 


Today the Clemens House complex stands as a shell, but I would argue that this is not much different than its condition before the fire. The complete lack of any care or maintenance had already reduced the Clemens House complex to a group of shells. Nine years ago, in May 2008, the main roof of the chapel building collapsed. Much of the east wall also collapsed, over half the roof was gone and the west wall was left buckled, but still standing. The front and rear walls of the chapel remained with about one bay of roof at each end. Over the past nine years the remaining portions of roof deteriorated severely with the front bay completely gone and the rear section down to sagging joists and rotted sheathing. Photo of the chapel above by Paul Sableman.


The roof and interior floor structure of the original mansion had not fared much better. Around the same time of the chapel collapse, portions of the parapet at the demising wall between the original house and dormitory addition fell onto the house roof creating holes in the northeast and northwest corners. With no repair done, these holes grew over the years with the interior floor structures below deteriorating and eventually most of the large rooms at the rear of the original house collapsed pancaking into the basement. The last time I was in the house several years ago, the floors of the front rooms were also deteriorating rapidly from openings in the valleys of the roof. By this year, these floors were to the point of requiring complete reconstruction.


While the four story addition to the house had fared slightly better overall, the roof by this year resembled a wavy piece of Swiss cheese giving no protection to the interior structure. An entire section of the west mansard fell off of the building a few years ago leaving a gaping hole. As of several years ago several floor areas were unsafe to walk so I can imagine that by this year the percentage of structure that was to the point of needing complete replacement had risen dramatically. The recent fire simply burned off what remained of the severely deteriorated wood floor and roof structures that by this year required almost complete replacement. Some more photos of collapses and what appears to be earlier fire damage in the mansion can be seen in this RFT article.


B. Significance of the Clemens House. 


The James Clemens house designed by Patrick Walsh in 1858 is one of St. Louis' very few remaining antebellum mansions; its Italian Renaissance Revival design is distinguished by an extensive use of cast iron for the portico, quoining and window enframements which is unique in the city's domestic architecture. 
It has been said it is the finest application of cast iron on a residential building outside of New York City. Cast iron was usually utilized on commercial structures, but the St. Louis Great Fire of 1849 apparently convinced Clemens that the exterior of the home needed to be fireproof, so the mansion was adorned with many cast iron features. 

In memory of James Clemens' wife. Walsh and Porter White, a plaster artist, were instructed by the grieving Mr. Clemens to reproduce Eliza's image in the ornamental plaster ceiling molding on the first floor, in a Carrara marble mantle in the parlor, and in other design elements. Eliza's death mask was also carefully re-created in cast iron and used in the exterior ornamentation over every window of the mansion. 


The 1896 chapel which adjoins the house, designed by architect Aloysius Gillick for the Sisters of St. Joseph, carefully follows the Italianate forms of the earlier building. The stone trimmed pedimented porch with paired Ionic columns and paired brick pilasters at the second story repeat motifs from the original mansion.

C. Paul McKee owes St. Louis! 


After spending years secretly acquiring thousands of buildings and vacant parcels through anonymous shell corporations Paul McKee publicly revealed his grand plan for Northside in May 2009. The plan he said would include 3 million square feet of office and retail space, 1 million square feet of light industrial space, hundreds of new apartments and single family homes, parks, street improvements and even its own trolly system. In October 2013 the St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved $390 Million in TIF financing for McKee's Northside plan. Additionally, the State of Missouri gave McKee $43 Million in Distressed Areas Land Assemblage Tax Credits. The Land Assemblage Tax Credit was custom written by McKee's lawyers and due to the large quantity of land required to be purchased, he is to date the only recipient.

Since unveiling the grand plan for "Northside Regeneration" over eight years ago and with hundreds of properties now owned for over a decade, McKee’s track record as a property owner has been nothing short of abysmal. The reality has been an intentional Northside Disintegration. Buildings owned by Mckee, many of which were occupied and in decent condition, were immediately emptied and left unsecured. Doors and windows mysteriously disappeared hastening the cycle of intentional demolition by neglect. Many buildings succumbed demolition by brick theft, and many of these were were hastened by arson fires. 
See Built St. Louis' pages on Blairmont, one of several of Mckee's shell companies that purchased the properties. Note: Almost all the beautiful historic structures on the page linked above have since been demolished.

While there are certainly many other absentee landlords who abandoned their properties and let them rot and crumble (St. Louis Public Schools could be included on this list), the sheer quantity of historic buildings that have fallen in the last 10 years as a direct result of McKee's blatant and intentional neglect has probably not been seen since the days of urban renewal clearance in the 1960s. It only seems less dramatic because it has occurred over a decade. What has replaced all the buildings and neighborhoods that have been decimated by Paul McKee? Absolutely nothing! Yes the NGA is building its new campus at the corner of Jefferson and Cass, but this should not be considered a win as the result of McKee. Out of all that was to come from the grand plan, the only Northside project McKee has completed is a moderate rehab flip of an existing office warehouse building.

While most of McKee's grand plan for North St. Louis envisioned new construction, McKee also promised to preserve and rehabilitate about 60-80 houses and buildings he dubbed "legacy properties". Although he refused to ever release an actual list of these properties, he specified that the Clemens House would be rehabbed. McKee however provided no more protection for the legacy properties than any other buildings he owned that were left to rot. Another presumed legacy property was the Bernhardt Winkelmann home at 1930 St. Louis Avenue among what was referred to as "Millionaires Row" in the Clemens House-Columbia Brewery Historic District. This beautiful home was struck by brick thieves on multiple occasions with no response to clean-up, secure, or protect the remainder of the home in any way. Eventually the thieves removed literally the entire house leaving a pile of wood behind the stone facade, which was then unceremoniously demolished.

McKee claims to have spent a lot of money stabilizing the Clemens House. The reality is that the only work done was removal and storage of the 2-story porch and removal of portions of the chapel roof, supporting trusses and portions of the east wall of the chapel. The removals occurred because the porch and the rest of the chapel roof were on the verge of imminent collapse because they had not been properly protected from the elements. If McKee had truly stabilized the structure, the roof and floors of the mansion wouldn't have been collapsing into the fucking basement! 

After 10 years of broken promises, its time for McKee to make good on at least one: Stabilize and rehab Clemens!!

D. Precedent

Rebuilding and restoration of a building shell that remains after a fire or collapsed such as the Clemens House complex is more common than you might think. Here in St. Louis there are a few relatively recent examples.

In Lafayette Square, two buildings on Mississippi Avenue that were part of an International Shoe Company factory had sat abandoned for decades. The buildings deteriorated to the point where about 30% of the 5-story building had collapsed into the basement and the rest of the roof had mostly collapsed. The roof of the 1-story building was collapsing as well. This didn't keep Craig Heller from pursuing a rehab for lofts, commercial space, and a restaurant. He hired Pyramid to re-construct and stabilize the buildings and the development was later finished by Conrad Properties.

The finished exterior of the end of the M-Lofts building that was reconstructed.

The Lister Building at Taylor and Olive in the Central West End had similarly deteriorated to the point where the rotted floors and roof had to be completely removed and re-built. It was also rehabbed into loft apartments and ground floor commercial space.

From the exterior you can see upper floors being re-framed even as collapsed debris was still being pulled out from the first floor.

An interior view of the shell (photo from the now defunct original website).

Another local example is the reconstruction of several on Dick Gregory Place to create affordable apartments in the Ville neighborhood off Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. The interior floors, walls and roofs of several of the large but severely deteriorated large homes and portions of the mixed use buildings had to be completely re-built. Crown Square and the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, both in Old North St. Louis, are two additional projects that involved extensive re-building of collapsed portions of buildings.
  

An exterior wall of the mansion w/ iron window frame covering the outermost brick. 

Despite being gutted by fire, the walls of the Clemens House remain solid and stable. The exterior walls are four wythes (courses) thick, which is unusual for a residential structure. The exterior walls, including the tall front wall forming the outline of the pedimented portico (which was disassembled several years ago and is safely in storage), are braced by interior masonry walls that run north-south on both sides of the center hall and by intermediate east-west masonry walls that separated the large front and rear rooms of the mansion. All of these interior walls are three wythes thick.

 Portions of floors and woodwork survive in the west front rooms.

While a large percentage of the upper floor walls of the structure at the rear of the house collapsed during the fire, a substantial amount of the original 2-story walls of the original portion of the rear structure have survived largely intact. Like the main house, this portion of the structure also contains many interior masonry walls that are largely intact and stabilize the remaining portions of exterior walls. There are some portions of the east wall of the dormitory addition that are standing 3-stories tall un-braced. These should be stabilized in place and possibly have the upper portion removed. The condition of the chapel is largely the same as before the fire, with the front, rear, and west walls standing un-braced. These should be braced in place.

Now that McKee's negligence to keep the Clemens House secure has allowed an arsonist to torch the complex, its time for the City of St. Louis to hold McKee accountable and if necessary, force him to secure and stabilize the remains of the mansion, dormitory, and chapel in a manner that preserves it for rehabilitation or restoration. If McKee refuses, the City of St. Louis should either seize the property or force McKee to donate the Clemens complex to an organization that commits to stabilizing and facilitating eventual rehabilitation. Additionally, as the Post recently editorialized, the City should raise the amount fines for property owners that won't keep their buildings secure and allow them to deteriorate to stop the cycle of simply paying the fines as a cost of business.

Demolition of the Southern Funeral Home Nears

A few weeks ago the founder of Refab, Eric Schwartz messaged me to say that Refab was going to be salvaging items from the interior and exterior of the Southern Funeral Home on S. Grand Boulevard and asked if I would like to photograph it before it was demolished. Of course I replied: Absolutely! 

The Southern has been vacant since 2010 and was put up for sale in 2011. A proposal that year to demolish the funeral home to construct a Dollar Store was denied, but in 2015, a proposal from Vecino Group of Springfield, Missouri that involves rehabilitation of the adjacent Parkside Apartments that fronts Carondelet Park was approved the St. Louis Preservation Board by a vote of 3 to 2. 

The St. Louis Cultural Resources Office had determined that the 1929 Spanish Colonial Revival style funeral home by architects George Kennerly and Oliver Steigemeyer was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, which would have made the building eligible for both Missouri and Federal Historic Tax Credits if it had been rehabbed.

Instead of rehabilitation, the Southern Funeral Home is being demolished so that an addition can be added to the Parkside apartment building.

The interior of the Southern Funeral Home features a beautiful large chapel, that with the exception of some minor vandalism, is in very good condition. Most of the multi-colored leaded glass windows had been stolen.

A close-up of one of the decorative plaster air grills at the front of the chapel.

The rear wall of the chapel was composed of decorative plaster grills. Other than the graffiti, the grills are in perfect condition.

The entry hall outside the chapel has a fair amount of water damage, but considering that I have seen video of smoke billowing out of this very window from a fire in 2014, this room and the interior of the funeral home in general was in better condition than I anticipated.

Another long hall that runs the length of the funeral home parallel to the chapel and is in worse condition, with a fair amount of water damage. The damage however would certainly be repairable. Other than the crown molding, the hall was not ornamented.

Another small room north of the main hall is also heavily water damaged. 

A reception room where the long hallway and the entrance hall intersect features a beautiful beamed ceiling that is in much better condition, with some smoke damage evident, but little to no water damage.

The office in the northwest corner of the first floor contained one of the few fully intact multi-colored leaded glass windows. 

 The apartment upstairs was also in much better condition than I had imagined it would be, with flaking paint and some vandalism being the main issues.

 The apartment features several kitschy trompe l'oeil murals throughout the living and dining rooms.

In the kitchen, beneath some yucky 1970's sheet vinyl, there was some amazing multi-colored diamond patterned linoleum.

The basement was somewhat of a mess with a couple rooms that were the apparent location of the 2014 fire. Fire damage however, was limited to a few rooms on this level. The construction of the building's floors are concrete joists with clay tile infill between, which is fairly common for 1920's commercial construction and was used due to its resistance to fire. While we did not do a thorough investigation, it was apparent that there was no structural damage to the building do to the fire.

Terra cotta ornament was used sparingly on the buildings exterior. This multi-colored door surround was one of the most detailed examples. For the past week or so, Refab has been working to salvage all of this beautiful terra cotta, the remaining leaded glass windows as well as interior decorative items, doors, moldings, etc. Within a few weeks, demolition of the building will commence.

If you are not familiar with Refab, they are a non-profit organization that provides training and employment opportunities for homeless veterans salvaging building materials and deconstructing buildings that are slated for demolition. Refab has a warehouse at 3130 Gravois where they sell the salvaged building materials. You can find just about anything you want in this treasure trove including doors, windows, decorative trim, hardwood floors, plumbing fixtures, hardware, cabinets, appliances, and a seemingly endless variety of one-of a kind vintage items.

The vacant Parkside apartment building at the corner of Grand and Holly Hills is slated to be renovated as part of the development to be dubbed the Intrada. The development will provide a mix of affordable apartments seniors and supportive housing for youth aging out of foster care. Both of these are greatly needed uses, and the fact that the vacant Parkside building will be rehabbed is a very positive aspect of this development. I wish however that even a partial creative re-use of the Southern Funeral Home could have been either integrated into the development or developed along side it.

This site plan that was recently published on NextSTL shows the existing L-shaped Parkside building fronting on Holly Hills with the new addition to the north, which will turn the building into a U shape. Surface parking will replace the Southern Funeral Home. 

One of the frustrating things about this demolition is that the empty asphalt lot behind MJ's on the Park is part of the funeral home property and is currently owned by the developer, but appears to be left out of this project. If the newer portions of the funeral home were removed (the rectangular area behind the red tile roof), retaining the original building, enough parking probably could have been created using the space behind and the unused lot to serve both the apartments and a new use for the funeral home. The parking lot immediately east of the Parkside building is owned by the New Testament Christian Church, which is located just across Tennessee Avenue. 

At the very least, the Preservation Board should have required that the new addition be rotated so that it fronts on Grand Boulevard, but instead, surface parking will now be the prominent street frontage replacing the funeral home as illustrated by the fenced area in the elevation drawing above.

The Southern Funeral Home was likely doomed by a Development Report by ND Consulting that was done in 2009 for the Carondelet Housing Corporation, which discusses the potential for rehab with Historic Tax Credits, but then says that due to the configuration of the building, it should be demolished and the site should be redeveloped for something new such as a "stand-alone restaurant". This report was cited by the Cultural Resources Office in the Preservation Board agenda where it recommended the demolition request be approved.

The loss of the Southern Funeral Home is unfortunate due to the rarity of good examples of Spanish Colonial Revival style buildings in St. Louis. If this demolition occurred in southern California or another area where this style is more prevalent, it might be just a mere blip on the radar screen, but in the Brick City, this loss really stands out.

Missouri Historic Tax Credits Threatened with Elimination

An RFT story from January 1995 documenting the impending demolition of the Ambassador Theater Building in Downtown St. Louis (3 years before Missouri Historic Tax Credits began).

According to the Historic Alliance for Missouri, state Senator Andrew Koenig is sponsoring the “Corporate Welfare Elimination Act”, which would essentially shut down the Missouri Department of Economic Development in a misguided and ill-informed matter of “principle”: SB226 prohibits the transfer, sale, or assignment of tax credits under two dozen current programs including the Historic Preservation Tax Credit, Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Brownfield Tax Credits. 

Senator Koenig zealously opposes state government participation in economic development planning, subsidy, investment, or competition for new business with other states. He erroneously includes the Missouri State Historic Tax Credit program in the same category as subsidies. In fact, the Missouri Tax Credit program is a profit center for the State of Missouri, bringing in more tax revenues that it costs. The Missouri Growth Association has documented that since its inception in 1998, the Missouri Historic Historic Preservation Tax Credit has produced $8.2 billion in direct economic development in Missouri and more than 40,000 jobs.

What is at stake if Missouri eliminates Historic Tax Credits? 

Quite simply, rehabilitation projects become far less feasible to financially work, which means empty historic buildings will continue to sit abandoned and many will end up being demolished sharing the fate of Ambassador Theater Building. The Ambassador and several other notable National Register buildings were demolished in the 1990's prior to the enactment of the Missouri Historic Preservation Tax Credit. If the program had begun a few years earlier, these landmarks would still be here today. Killing the program would return Missouri to the not-so-good old days.

So what can you do?

If you are able to, please attend Preservation Day at the Missouri State Capitol this Wednesday, February 1st from 9 AM - 4 PM. Join with several preservation organizations across the state for an annual gathering at the capitol to let Missouri State Representatives and Senators know face to face how important the Missouri Historic Preservation Tax Credit is to our states economy! Even if you can only attend for a few hours, visiting your lawmakers in person can be extremely effective.

Call some Senators:

If you cannot attend in person, Please take a half an hour out of your day on Wednesday to make some phone calls to Missouri Senators and urge them to defeat SB226 or any other bill that would eliminate or significantly cut the Missouri Historic Preservation Tax Credit. Here is a phone directory for all Missouri Senators and here is a district map. Prioritizing calls to Republican Senators in rural areas is advised. 

THANK YOU!