The first of the two preliminary reviews is located at 7944-48 North Broadway.
This building in the Baden Business District is classic red brick St. Louis commercial architecture. The city says it was built in 1900, though it looks to be from an earlier era. Regardless, it's attractive and looks in good shape from the Google Streetview window (circa 2007). This Business District has a good portion of its DNA left to inspire a Main Street revival. The loss of this building (for what?) will definitely set things back considerably. See Toby Weiss's recent post on the Baden Triangle for a view of the architectural diversity and the potential of the area.
The second of the preliminary reviews is 3501-09 North Grand.
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I see a pattern here. Commercial buildings have seemingly been the first to go in any struggling neighborhood. When they go, a sense of a neighborhood's center fades and soon the residential component disappears too. This 3-story commercial building used to have similar in scale yet uniquely ornamented neighbors that lined the street for miles, unbroken. This building faces the intact and attractive Lindell Park neighborhood within Jeff Vanderlou. It would be most unfortunate for North Grand, which barely clings to a sense of urbanism from nearly its entire span north of Delmar, to lose yet another attractive historic commercial building.
The first of the two appealed denials is 3424 N. 14th Street in Hyde Park. If you click the link, the building in question is the multi-family building third from the left on the east blockface of North 14th.
The second of the two appealed denials is 3015 N. 19th Street. I can't seem to find this one in city records or on Google/Microsoft Live. Yet there are two important observations: it's located in the sensitive Murphy-Blair National Register District (part of Old North St. Louis) and the applicant is a church. This happens all too often.
It looks like May will be an important Preservation Board meeting. With a full scale attack on the North Side's architectural legacy, often-vacant commercial buildings and sometimes troublesome multi-family buildings are the most threatened.
More to come.
3 comments:
Geo St. Louis doesn't have any record for 3015 N. 19th, either. This isn't the first time I've seen the Preservation Board have the wrong address, but I'm still concerned. This is too close to my house for comfort.
I believe Bosley said he would not support further demolitions in Hyde Park. Unfortunately I suppose this does not apply to JVL.
How ridiculous. Is there anything even proposed to replace these buildings? We need a citywide moratorium on unless A) A better and higher use is proposed and FINANCED; B) Unsafe conditions that present a hazard to people. It appears that there is no good reason to do away with any of these buildings.
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