Visitation Park: a microcosm of the condition of St. Louis 1:08 AM

Decayed, but slowly resurgent.

Fractured, yet still beautiful.

The Visitation Park neighborhood was so-named because of the school and religious institution that used to anchor Cabanne and Belt Avenues, from 1892 to 1962.

Viewing the picture below, it's hard to believe that anyone would have allowed this building to be demolished. It was a breathtaking landmark--a status that probably did it in in the 1960s, considering the costs of rehabilitation and the uncertainty of a "changing" neighborhood.



KETC has done a wonderful history of the park (now known as Ivory Perry Park) and the neighborhood around it in their "Living St. Louis" series. You may access it here.

I cannot help but hold a grudge against Visitation Academy, who abandoned Visitation Park for the pastures of Ballas and Highway 40 in the 1960s. Their predictable move only further harmed the neighborhood they claimed was "too dangerous for their girls to walk to" (See the Living St. Louis video above for that quote).

Now no one can walk to their campus!

For that reason, Visitation Park is a microcosm of the city of St. Louis as a whole. In a city always a victim of urbanophobia, an indifferent citizenry simply threw up their hands in a climate of racial change and federal incentives to head out west. "Sure, let's move this community anchor to a place that is community-less," they must have said. No, not aloud, but in a mere thoughtless acquiescence, as if paralyzed in a river current.

Is auto-ownership next to Godliness? Is a visit from Jesus more likely if you locate your House of God along a major interstate?

My W.W.J.D. radar is beeping at the thought that He just might have remained with the dwindling neighborhood where He was needed most. And, with any luck, he would not have been embarrassed by the magnificent, even ostentatious chateau.

A quote from our fair Mayor re: biking 11:18 AM

I don’t have the kind of daily schedule that would let me bike to work. But, if the weather stays this nice a while longer, you might find me along the River Des Peres Trail on a Saturday morning soon. I’ll have a helmet on.

From yesterday's MayorSlay.com blog post.

Personally, I'd like to see him rearrange his schedule to include biking to city hall. It's a major boost for cyclists and urbanists when your city's figurehead bucks the personal automobile in transporting him or herself.

The very act screams, "I am the mayor of an urban area. And I am one of you."

Is that thinking too much into it?

Portland, Oregon's mayor-elect rides his bike to City Hall.

Walnut Park East and West 12:12 AM

I'm a total nerd, and totally obsessed with St. Louis, so I think about these things.

What are the Walnut Park neighborhoods like?

I got to thinking last night, while doing my Patch post, that there are some neighborhoods through which I've rarely traversed.

Besides cruising down Goodfellow and Riverview and other such streets back in the days of car ownership, I don't believe I've ever been through the residential streets of these two neighborhoods.

Am I missing out? I don't really know, I guess.

Well, luckily, as with the Patch, St. Louis Community Information Network has some pictures.

I won't post so many of the city's photographs this time, but I do have to ask: what's the residential context of the two neighborhoods? Walnut Park was ignored by Google's Streetview mappers, so that's no use.

Is it more like this house, on 5949 Lalite Avenue (W.P. West):




Or this one, at 6006 Garesche Avenue (also W.P. West):




Or it is more of a Baden-like hodgepodge?

Is it in good condition? Bad? Terrible?

Are there any neighborhood businesses? A small business district that's escaped me over all these years of dotage?

The Patch - East of Broadway 7:46 PM

Click here to pull up a map. Or scroll to the end of this post for a photo tour.

It doesn't look like much, but this forgotten section of St. Louis contains some of its oldest housing. The compact square blocks reflect the area's history--part of the Creole town of Carondelet.

If you removed some siding and tidied up a bit, you'd have the remnants of an old French and Spanish village. Many of the structures here date from the 1840s--and even earlier.

Even back in the anti-urban days of the 1960s, the City of St. Louis saw this area as a priority for preservation. The 1967 Riverfront Development Plan actually proposed dedicating this entire area to industry and moving all existing housing to flank a proposed park just to the north. In effect, they wanted to recreate the village of Carondelet as it once may have appeared.

While these undertakings usually create absolutely cheesy and inauthentic outdoor museums, I can't help but wish this one plan went through. Today, the area is more industrial area than residential neighborhood, as time and demolitions have taken their course. What houses remain are so altered from their formerly modest appearance that they appear to be cheap new construction.

I'd like to see another Riverfront Plan, but houses don't need to be moved this time. Instead, there needs to be a residential facade improvement program to bring these homes' history back to light. There also needs to be some infill that truly evokes the Creole cottages that lie underneath the ramshackle re-dos.

One of the very few remaining links to early St. Louis is slipping away almost unnoticed.

There's more history to be had in the National Register nomination of the "East of Broadway" multiple resource listing.

[To follow that last link, type in "MO" for state code and navigate to "East of Broadway"].

If my prediction comes true, and South Broadway becomes the city's next hot business district, we may some day see the Patch (east of Broadway) truly take off. There's a lot working against it, with heavy industrial neighbors not the least of those problems. Still, it's a historic and potentially handsome area. Imagine some new street lamps, sidewalks with brick pavers, street trees, a streetcar down Broadway, and we may have a deal.

The pictures below are from the St. Louis Community Information Network.


116 E. Steins St.
(Newly rehabbed as part of the Steins-Broadway Condos project.)


116-18 Steins St.
No offense to the owner of this property, but the siding-cladding of this historic structure is simply shameful. The Germanic limestone peeking out from the vinly is even more of a tease.


214 E. Steins
Who knows how old this double-balconied house is? Architectural ornament has long been removed. A quick check of city records claims an 1884 construction date. However, my experience with the St. Louis Community Information Network has taught me that they really don't have records prior to the 1880s, and so make guesses (and shoddy ones, it appears, some times) at the construction dates of earlier buildings.



218 E. Steins
A shoddy structure with some potential, despites its gritty location.


308 E. Courtois St.
While this is certainly no French Colonial structure, it's a handsome, if somewhat spare building that is deserving of preservation.


310 E. Courtois St.
This one could quite possibly be a late French Colonial structure (construction date: 1840s?). The roof pitch is suggestive of it. STL CIN says it was built in 1890--though it's not a member of any of the styles popular then--mostly Victorian styles, in St. Louis (Richardsonian Romanesque, Queen Anne, etc.).



7619 Water St.
Welcome to Old Carondelet!


7621 Water St.
A nice port-cochere example of a French Colonial. (I'm kidding)



7611 Water St.
It looks like Steins-Broadway Condos is renovating this French Colonial Style home! Nice! It's a great structure.


7623 Water St.
A cared-for but altered old Colonial.



7631 Water St.
A nice old row in the Patch. There's enough context here to redevelop this neighborhood into something truly special and valued.



7805 Water St.
This "newer" building (what--1880s?) brings the district architectural diversity.



7811 Water St.
Doesn't look like much, but what's underneath?


7827 Reilly Ave.
An ancient building that's slipping (slipped?) away.



7827 Reilly Ave.
A classic German limestone building covered by this latticed porch. It could be a two-story cousin to the better known Steins Row across Broadway.


7827 Vulcan
Solid industrial buildings along Vulcan.


The Jacob Steins House - Corner of Steins and Reilly Streets
Amazingly, this is still there despite the industrialization of this area (and despite this vintage shot that suggests the building is gone). Read more about the history of this house here.

That's all for now!

Accolades you can believe in. 2:13 AM

It's that time of year again--Riverfront Times' Best of St. Louis.

Dogtown wins Best Place to Live.

Our under-appreciated City Hall, a.k.a. Sooty Hall, wins Best Old Building.

It's a no-brainer, but I nearly wept to see it actually recognized. Without a doubt, Cherokee Street is the Best Mile of St. Louis.

The whole "Best Of" is one big civic hug, especially to the battered central city, inured to a lack of authentic affection.

Take this feel-good comment for example, regarding the best neighborhood bar in the City:

Choosing the best neighborhood bar in the city is sort of like picking the cutest puppy in a basketful of golden retrievers. Not. Easy. That's because, to the delight of city dwellers and the despair of their livers, there are so many great bars in so many great neighborhoods. Cozy taverns tucked into brick buildings, elegant wine bars anchoring nightlife districts, beer-and-whiskey dives popping up in between fancy restaurants — which to choose? This year we've spun the wheel and landed on Riley's, in Tower Grove East.

Thank you, RFT. Somewhere, 675 miles away, you've reminded a man to turn a temporary blind eye to Blairmont, to the Century Building's demise, the McPheeters Warehouse demolition, the loss of the Switzer, the endless corporate flight, the big boxes anchoring prominent onetime urban intersections, et cetera.


They can take our urbanism, but there will always be several dozen different watering holes to drown the sorrows in.


I love you, St. Louis.

Good night.

P.S. Oh...and a begrudging congratulations to Angry Black Bitch and Urban Review for their Best Blog titles, Editor's Choice and Readers' Choice, respectively.

Reiteration on Ballpark Village 12:04 AM

So a couple tenants have signed on to Ballpark Village.

Kansas City-based Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus PC (whew!) is consolidating its downtown and Clayton offices in Ballpark Village.

Brokerage and investment firm Stifel Financial Corp., already located downtown, is in as well.

And, in some of the best news yet, the Urban Blue's Ballpark Lofts are selling like gooey butter cakes--in a terrible market, especially for condos.

So we have an urban village on the west side of the Ballpark. Let's just call that Ballpark Village.

We have confirmed tenants just north of the stadium. Great. Let's throw in some residential and more offices, and that will be the northern part of the Village.

To the south, we have major opportunities. Sure the potential Village to the south is cut off by Highway 40. But there needs to be a push to fill in some vacant lots and build structured parking instead of surface lots just south of the stadium. I would like to see enough infill and new activity to pull pedestrians post-ballgame down to the "Broadway Blues District"--with the incomparable trio of BB's, Beale on Broadway, and the Broadway Oyster Bar miraculously surviving spates of decline and demolition in that area.


View Larger Map

Check out the above map (zoom in to the "A"). Cerre Street is riddled with mixed-use (office, residential, retail, other commercial, even light industrial) potential. Build one structured parking facility on the west end of Cerre (forcing everyone to walk down the street toward new street-level retail). Have this parking garage extend below ground to accommodate for heavy ballgame traffic. Then, ninety percent of the rest of Cerre would be dedicated to a Village atmosphere. As I mentioned, perhaps we'd see some spillover and some real connection between downtown (specifically, this Ballpark Village) and the Broadway Blues District just to the south. Let's do that, and let's call that the Village as well.

But the biggest opportunity is the east of the District.


View Larger Map

That monster needs to go ASAP. That whole city block could be a series of "row house" style, 4-5 story commercial/residential buildings that would quickly become a hot address. This would bring activity and a 1000 percent aesthetic improvement to four blockfaces downtown. Another option, depending on demand, could be high or mid-rise office/residential towers.

Let's not forget this beautiful surface lot between the excellent Pointe 400 building and the stadium itself:


View Larger Map

Again, opportunities are endless. New high rise towers or smaller scale urban infill--it doesn't matter. It would be an amazing improvement and would go a long way in crafting a Village atmosphere that has been so often discussed. Plus, development on this large block could very well tie Ballpark Village to Chouteau's Landing, and specifically to that development's Historic Fourth Street area. Let's do all those things, and let's call them all collectively, Ballpark Village.

Of course, the issue here would be--ahem--parking, parking, parking. Of course, there'd still be room for a couple smaller, multi-story garages with retail on the bottom. Ultimately, though, the city needs to do whatever it can to confine most of the parking underground. The vitality of the Village would be amplified so much if unsightly parking was subterranean, and the Village had a more pedestrian-friendly look and feel to it. And so, yes, that means, sadly, the now historic twin-Busch garage on the west should come down too.

If we realized this Village, we'd have a true urban neighborhood on our hands, befitting of the very term "Village".

Because, when I think of Village, I think of an active, comfortable, inviting space where people always congregate--not a sterile, cramped collection of office towers and chain restaurants smashed into the old Busch footprint.

If we're going to build this Village, we should set our sights higher, or, perhaps more appropriately, we should set those sights wider. That means a recognition that the real Village will (or should, at least) go beyond the current borders of that old footprint. It should absorb the Ballpark Lofts, the Westin, Cerre Street, the Broadway Blues District, Chouteau's Landing, and all adjacent parcels.

Just some thoughts.

Aspiring Artists Take Note: Benton Park is hosting a Chalk Art Contest! 6:45 PM

From the mouth of Cherokee Street News, the Benton Park Neighborhood Association is holding a Chalk Art Contest in its namesake park.

For more information, proceed to the Cherokee Street News page.

St. Louis needs more events like these--encouraging both public art and community mingling.

Please attend! And take pictures. For me.

By the way, Blues City Deli is one of the sponsors as well--another one of the countless examples of a (particularly awesome) local business supporting the community.