Oak Hill Area of Tower Grove South - Now Historic 4:18 PM

I am jumping the gun just a bit, as Monday's Preservation Board meeting will see this National Register of Historic Places nomination approved, but I'm okay with that. The beautiful Oak Hill sub-neighborhood of Tower Grove South will soon be officially designated as historic. Some might scratch their heads and say, "well of course this neighborhood is historic," but in the eyes of the federal and state government, who issue lucrative historic rehabilitation tax credits, your property must be "officially" designated historic either individually or within an approved district.

Oak Hill will be the city's latest historic district. All over St. Louis, these fairly sizable districts are opening new parts of the city to investment in historic properties. Old McRee Town, Grand-Bates, St. Cecelia, the old Wellston shopping district along Martin Luther King, Marine Villa, and more have all been added to the Register recently. Oak Hill is 32 blocks containing 1,261 contributing buildings. Here is a map of the proposed Oak Hill district, from the Cultural Resources Office staff report for the April Preservation Board meeting:

The Oak Hill district extends from Gustine on the west to Portis Avenue on the east; Arsenal on the north to an irregular boundary on the south that includes Humphrey and Utah.

It is notable, to me, for its concentration of historic frame structures mixed in with classic red brick apartment buildings. It also includes the revitalizing Morgan Ford Strip, also known as Skinnytown, which may be the most immediate beneficiary of the historic rehabilitation tax credit. West of Morgan Ford, the architectural diversity increases, with some lightly detailed Queen Anne buildings and even some small Second Empire buildings. Below is a picture of Juniata at Alfred, one block west of Morgan Ford (courtesy of Google Streetview):

A brown brick four-family with St. Louis-style white baker's brick adorns the corner. It neighbors a nice red brick simply-detailed front-entry vernacular building. Next door to that are two Second Empire micro-mansions, followed by a series of simple frame front gable structures. There are a lot of styles working over here. When you throw in lushly planted streetscapes, the result is a beautiful, if understated urban environment.

I'm happy to see Oak Hill gets it due attention!

Fox Park Neighborhood Exploring a Local Historic District Expansion 6:03 PM

The Fox Park neighborhood is pursuing an expansion of their local historic district to include portions of the neighborhood south of Victor. (Click here to see blogger Mark Groth's excellent photos of the neighborhood).

For non-preservation types, a local historic district is a far different animal than a district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A local historic district comes with a set of rules and regulations for exterior alterations, demolitions, and new construction. Such regulations only apply for qualified renovations in a National Register district, and only if the applicant is seeking tax credits. National Register districts do not, by themselves, prevent demolitions in any way. If a project with federal funding is to impact a National Register property or properties, a process called Section 106 review is triggered which may recommend preservation of a threatened resource or resources. However, even Section 106 cannot in and of itself prevent demolition.

 Local historic districts are often the most effective at dissuading demolitions, as their enabling ordinances contain clear clauses pertaining to how to handle proposed demolitions and alterations. In these cases, the Preservation Board and Cultural Resources Office must defer to the intent of the ordinance. Lafayette Square's local historic district ordinance, for instance, basically prohibits all but the most unavoidable demolitions of any structure constructed in the period of significance. In a city like St. Louis, which lacks a powerful central planning authority, local historic districts are often also a means to introducing urban design standards.

Naturally, then, as local historic districts go much farther than National Register districts (which merely offer rehabilitation incentives), they're also harder to enact.

Fox Park appears to be going through the proper steps to assure that a local historic district expansion is not created without informing residents who will be affected. There have already been three "unofficial" public meetings, not including hearings that are required to introduce such legislation. Plus, on the neighborhood's recently refurbished website, there is a whole section explaining the rules of living within a local historic district. I find this to be a nice gesture towards residents worried about the extra regulations. All neighborhoods inside historic districts should provide this information on their websites.

The write-up even includes examples of "appropriate" and "inappropriate" designs, such as this figure displaying the proper storefront design:

The President's Corner section of the Fox Park Neighborhood News (Spring 2010), penned by Ian Simmons, expresses a point all too often overlooked in St. Louis. Here is a snippet of that text, with a portion bolded by me.

The members of the committee believe that, to continue the growth that has been evident in Fox Park over the last several years, both halves of our neighborhood must be preserved. Both halves contain the same housing stock built by German settlers, and the streets are lined with homes exhibiting beautiful exterior design, architecture, and brickwork; however, the southern half has seen more decay and deterioration, and less restoration. Abandoned, dilapidated homes invite crime into our neighborhood. Designation of a local historic district there would instead encourage rehabilitation of these homes, as owners and investors take advantage of tax credits which would then be available. This would also attract homebuyers to our neighborhood, who are eager to live in a cohesive, historic neighborhood. Expansion of the historic district would also help stabilize and eventually increase property values, protect neighbors’ investments, and encourage business investment in Fox Park. We believe expansion of the existing historic district will benefit not only the southern half of our neighborhood but also Fox Park as a whole. For these reasons, we hope neighbors will embrace this idea.

Simmons hits on a great point: we need cohesive, historic neighborhoods. It's easy to play the parochial card and to say "south of Victor" or "north of Delmar" or "east of Compton" or insert whatever direction and whatever street here, the neighborhood drops off. And we simply accept this as true. All of Fox Park has an interest in the success of just a part of it. That's a great message for the city as a whole. If Fox Park residents can see the importance in picking up a downtrodden section of their neighborhood, why do so many St. Louisans still write off "the State Streets" or "the North Side" or whathaveyou? We should want a cohesive city. That doesn't mean widespread gentrification. Rather, it means paying due attention to the less glamorous areas of our city and realizing our interconnectedness.

Stepping off the soap box, it's good to see yet more of the South Side be added to the expanding list of officially historically designated properties. Hopefully a developer will snatch up this property, located in the expansion area, and return it to use:

Thanks to Corresponding Fractions for the above photograph. I love Fox Park!

Brilliant Urban Design in the St. Louis of the Past 2:43 PM

Check out this row of buildings in the 5000 block of Louisiana in the very southern tip of the Dutchtown neighborhood.

The photograph is courtesy of the St. Cecelia National Register District nomination form, compiled and submitted by Lynn Josse and NiNi Harris. You may click here to view the full nomination, but be warned that it is a large PDF document with several photographs. Be patient.

This beautiful historic district has several rows like that of the above. The fanciful, stark white "bakery brick", a St. Louis original, creates striking patterns that almost literally "tie" streetscapes together. In the above example, some buildings have crowns; some have small porches; others don't.

The result is a neighborhood that is delightfully cohesive--never monotonous, but certainly harmonious. Brilliant.

Why Isn't the Hill in a Historic District? 9:38 AM

I sent an email to Favazza's restaurant regarding their plans to demolish two structures on Southwest Avenue per the temporary Preservation Board agenda released earlier this month. I received the following response:

Thank you for your letter, the building at 5209 was struck by the tornado 2-3 years ago, it appears fine from the from but there is only half a roof, its full of mold, and is beyond repair (we had SPACE, a local architecture firm look at the building and they recommended tearing it down. We have decided to save the other building and have some plans in the works for it If you would like you can come by any time to see, view, talk or add input about the buildings thank you, Tony Favazza

According to this email, only 5209 Southwest (the white Romanesque structure closer to Favazza's actual restaurant) will see a demolition request now.

I then got to thinking: accepting that it's true that 5209 Southwest is beyond repair, why not save the facade and structurally sound exterior walls?

Then I remembered: there's not a single incentive or directive to do so. The Hill is not located in a historic district of any kind. In fact, almost none of Southwest City is. Yet the Hill seems like a no-brainer. Sure, some might argue that the Hill is full of tiny homes and shops that are technically no architectural wonders. You might also say that, even if they were at one time, so many of them have been badly altered over the years.

But the Hill is culturally significant as one of St. Louis's most preserved early immigrant neighborhoods. The Irish in the Kerry Patch north of downtown ultimately settled the Dogtown area, but even Dogtown fails to retain the level of "Irishness" that the Hill does for "Italian-ness". Soulard's early French Creoles were replaced mostly by Germans. Ditto for Carondelet, which gets little attention for either heritage.

The National Register of Historic Places has a set of criteria for listing, one of which is cultural significance. While I think the Hill could easily pass through on architectural significance alone, it would definitely get by on cultural significance. The Hill needs to be designated historic for several reasons. An obvious one would be to allow buildings such as 5209 Southwest to receive the state historic rehabilitation tax credit.

A local historic district--always more controversial than a federal listing due to more restrictions placed upon homeowners--may be necessary as well. A good economy brought the Hill more than a few "teardown" eyesores. The Hill's deep and narrow lots were subjected to completely out of scale new construction that call all the attention on these unassuming blocks to the new megastructure.

Google Streetview caught the construction of one such home on Daggett, just east of Macklind:


View Larger Map

The Hill is such a unique cultural treasure for St. Louis. Every time I visit, I feel as if I've stepped back into the 1940s, the decade from which some of the signage and just the general "happy small town" aura seem to derive from in my own mind. At the same time, it's quintessentially urban: highly walkable, mostly intact, visually interesting. It should remain that way. Hopefully, on Monday, the Preservation Board will recommend a creative solution to the structural problems of 5209 Southwest Avenue rather than outright demolition.

Again, if you'd like to voice your opinion on the matter, the Board meets Monday, November 23, 2009 at 4pm. The location is 1015 Locust, Suite 1200.

When Was "X" Building in Shaw, CWE Constructed? 5:49 PM

These great architectural surveys by Landmarks Association of St. Louis have the building construction dates of every building within the Shaw and Central West End historic districts.


What a great historical research resource!


Here they are (PDFS):


Shaw

Central West End - West

Central West End - East


And a screen capture (of a portion of Shaw) to entice those who don't want to download a PDF:

"New" Historic Districts for St. Louis 9:03 PM

Think the recession has slowed the revitalization of St. Louis to a halt?

Well, it has not slowed historic district nominations in St. Louis, which, through tax credit availability, provide an economic boon to the host district!

The map below shows National Register of Historic Places districts that were: a) recently approved and listed; b) currently being surveyed; or c) rumored to be in the works. To view my comments with each district, please view the larger map.


View 2009 - New Historic Districts in St. Louis in a larger map

If you know of any others, comment on this post and let me know.

Special thanks to Michael Allen of Ecology of Absence for helping me with this map.

We're not all brick: the Goodfellow-Julian Concrete Block Historic District 5:21 PM

These are Missouri's first concrete block houses, all constructed between 1905 and 1906. All of them are on the 1200 block of Goodfellow or the 5700 block of Julian in the City's West End neighborhood.

I would recommend reading the National Register nomination (from whence these pictures came) for some invaluable history about concrete block construction in Missouri and St. Louis.

The pictures are from the late 1980s; at least one of the homes has suffered damage from a fire since. The second photo of the set (of 1200 Goodfellow looking northeast) has lost one of its buildings to demolition, confirmed via Maps.Live.Com's bird's eye view.







Luckily, the row of Concrete homes on Julian looks mostly intact.

Another great historic resource the city should be guarding with all its political might and yet, look at its condition. Then consider that this is a well maintained district in comparison to demolition-happy Ville, Murphy Blair, and Hyde Park. Of course, it's one block, and it's later construction than the majority of the contributing resources to those districts.

The West End has not been totally isolated from the remarkable turnaround of the East Loop just to the south: near whole blocks of new homes have been erected just north of Delmar in the past couple years. While it's nice that a middle class demographic seems interested in the homes, it'd be even nicer if somehow the spirit of the Concrete Block District (its bold new take on homebuilding at the turn of the century) could have graced the new construction of this century. Instead, vaguely "Colonial Revival" styles dot the cityscape.

Tudor Revival Historic District? 10:56 AM

I've had my nose in A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia McAlester and Lee McAlester for the past couple days. It's come as a great relief to understand the architectural style of the typical New Orleans shotgun home with East Lake detailing: they're Folk Victorians!

Anyhow, I was reading the section on Tudor Revival and saw St. Louis's offerings prominently featured. I could tell the house was a Northampton (possibly Southampton or Lindenwood Park) beauty--a dominating front gable that dramatically plunged down to the entryway. It also had the requisite "gingerbread" frosting along the foundation and framing the windows, doors, and corners. Most in St. Louis are familiar with this type of house, which occurs quite often in neighborhoods that were built up between 1915 and 1935.

No neighborhood seems to embrace the style quite as ubiquitously as Northampton, though. Luckily, despite my inability to secure my own pictures, Doug Duckworth has me covered! He recently took a photo tour of Northampton in the area around the amazing La Tropicana and the wonderful World Cafe.


I failed to mention how these homes often exaggerate their chimneys, but this picture has served me well in conveying this.


Aha! Another Tudor Revival feature: the false half-timbering. Those decorative timbers are not structural, but were meant to evoke their older English counterparts.


The Gothic arch doorway is a nice detail, though not typical to Tudor Revival.


Notice the tiny window in the lesser gable and, of course, the swooping and front-and-center gable that screams Tudor. As if to spite me, this one has a Gothic-arched door as well, though it's not quite as pronounced.

I won't pillage all of Doug's collection; you must visit the rest here.

But just thinking to how there are entire blocks of these "Hansel and Gretel" houses made me believe it's about time to add this charming neighborhood to the National Register. My suggestion for a name: Southwest St. Louis Tudor Revival Historic District. Or Northampton Tudor Historic District. I suppose the name Northampton only adds to the tribute to our neighbors across the pond.

This style was so popular in the early and middle 20th century that we were lucky enough to see whole neighborhoods of them. While perhaps neighborhoods like Northampton lack the gritty urbanism and architectural diversity of the neighborhoods to the east, it is hard to argue that these rows of frosted gables, tiny casement windows, rustic shutters, half-timbering--and yes, the stained glass!--are somehow unattractive.

Take a stroll down Lindenwood, or Pernod, or Fairview, or any number of Northampton streets and tell me you're not impressed by the playful intimacy of these little cottages.

The nation's first Post WWII suburban subdivision historic district 7:15 PM

As promised, here is the historic district of suburban MCMs that has made its way onto the National Register of Historic Places. It's called the Arapahoe Acres Historic District, out of Englewood, Colorado--some seven miles from Downtown Denver. Some are distant cousins to Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie and Usonian styles, while others forge a wholly new, 1950s modernist vision of the good life.


The Beville House, 1955


The Boxer House, 1955 - Streamlined Prairie?


The Fish House, 1953 - A more modest example...


The Frison House, 1952 - ...and a much more bold residence.


The Holland House, 1953 - The classic barely peaked roof, the orange brick, and the noticeable but not flamboyant car port all make this MCM example field guide worthy.


The Perdue House (no date given) - Notice that even the garage sports a half peak roof in imitation of the main structure.


The Irish House, 1953 - This one looks like a nearly direct FLW inspiration.



The Halpin House, 1952 - This structure could be mistaken for commercial architecture in a different context (say, a large road). Several gas stations and automotive shops of the 1950s might have even featured a larger relative to the mini-car port that this house boasts. The "glassiness" is a marker of the era and will eventually sugue into the even less ornate and more glassy "International" style craze of the 1960s.


The Orr House, 1955 - A pronounced break from pre-War classicism and yet an appeal to simplicity and mutedness define the MCM period. This house, though odd in its proportions, somehow manages to pay some respect to its natural landscape.


If you'd like to see more (and read descriptions), try clicking here.

Miami Modern - a success story for "auto age" preservationists 5:47 PM

To Miami residents, this is not news. For those of us in harsher climes, this relatively new historic district (as of 2006) may seem groundbreaking. Miami fought to get a swath of Biscayne Boulevard (BiBo to locals) preserved in order to save it from the wrecking ball. Sounds like a familiar preservation effort, right?

Well, the structures to be salvaged are mostly post World War II concoctions, in a style that locals have dubbed "Miami Modern." As a city that pioneered the first (and now widely loved) Art Deco historic district in the country, Miami again appears on the forefront of the preservation movement. Mid-century modernism just might have a fighting chance if word of Miami's spearhead catches on. Granted, "Miami Modern" is just a wee bit on the ornate side compared to the more subdued Mid-Century Modern ranches found up north. Still, it's worth noting that somewhere in our country, mid century architecture has been dubbed historic.

Other notables about the district? It's Miami's first historic commercial (as opposed to residential) district.

See pictures below of the Miami Modern (MiMo) / Biscayne Boulevard Historic District: