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Eleven Most Enhanced Buildings Awards, May 1999 Landmarks initiated the 11 Most Enhanced Awards in 1996 to recognize the
city's best examples of quality rehabilitation, adaptive reuse and
outstanding new construction in historic contexts. To be considered for our
1999 citations, a project must have been completed between January 1, 1998
and May 1, 1999. The jury also looks for geographical balance, for different
building types exhibiting various styles and dates of construction along with
a range of ownership and financial collaborations. The Saint Louis Brewery Tap Room Samuel L. Sherer (1866-1928) is the
only architect in St. Louis history to have been widely read as an
architectural critic and greatly respected as the Director of the St. Louis
Art Museum. His
Lambert-Deacon-Hull Printing Company at 2100 Locust Street (later Swift
Printing Company) from 1901-02 is probably his best-known work. The breadth of Sherer's career and the quality of his
buildings are even more remarkable given the fact that he was not formally
trained as an architect or artist. Tom Schlafly is also a renaissance man
who combines marathon running, avid bicycling, a love of literature and a
keen wit with the production of great beer and the practice of law. Tom and his partner Dan Kopman
took several big risks when they bought the fire-damaged Swift Printing
Company building in July of 1991. Was it possible to start a micro-brewery in St. Louis
and, if so, would anyone come to the desolate area featured in "Escape
from New York" - an Armageddon movie shot mostly in St. Louis? The answers were emphatically
"yes"! The Saint Louis Brewery Tap Room
opened in the south part of the complex in December of 1991. Six months later Landmarks' members
(with pale ale in hand) enjoyed the Club Room on the second floor at our
Annual Meeting and marveled at the project timetable achieved by the builder,
the late Ann Watka, and architect Tom Cohen. In 1997, the partners again chose Cohen to help move
forward with the adaptation of the north building which features a new
entrance, expanded brewing capacity, additional bar and banquet space with
rental space above. World's Fair Pavilion Henry Wright came to St. Louis in 1902
to work on the landscape design for the World's Fair. That job and the subsequent
restoration of Forest Park had been assigned to George Kessler, the Midwest's
foremost landscape architect. Young Wright, whose training included drafting in a Kansas
City firm followed by the two-year degree in architecture at the University
of Pennsylvania, worked for Kessler's St. Louis office until 1910. He then embarked on his own career with an enviable
commission in his pocket: the design of three prestigious subdivisions in
Clayton including Forest Ridge and Brentmoor Park. Wright would go on to become
internationally famous as a planner after his departure for New York in 1923.
Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, Radburn in New Jersey and Chatham Village in
Pittsburgh are among the works which caused Lewis Mumford to write that
Wright "dared to put beauty as one of the imperative needs of a planned
environment." That principle is evident in the World's Fair Pavilion
designed in 1909 when Wright was still at work for Kessler. The Pavilion sits where the Missouri
Building from the World's Fair was sited; funds from that Fair paid for its
construction. How appropriate it is that three generations later we are all
hard at work on another restoration of the park. Again, much of the money will come from private sources as
in this case where the $1.1 million project under the direction of Cohen
Hilberry Architects was funded by generous contributions to Forest Park
Forever. 1819-1829 North 20th Street Landmarks completed a two-phase
National Register nomination for the Clemens House/Columbia Brewery District
in 1986. Included within
the boundaries were 226 buildings of historic significance. Most were late 19th century
working class houses including the five, two-story brick buildings lined up
between 1819 and 1829 North 20th Street. Three were built in 1891; two, the following
year. Three were topped by
slate-covered mansard roofs; two, by decorated front parapets. But one hundred years after
completion, all five were in danger of vanishing as have scores of such
houses in the district. Phoenix One began as a grass roots
effort in the early 1990s with the formation of the Pruitt-Igoe Development
Corporation. First, the corporation concentrated on
helping residents with repair and minor renovations. Next, they enlisted the help of
the Regional Housing & Community Development Alliance, the St. Louis
Equity Fund, the Community Development Agency and NationsBank. All provided financial
assistance for the corporation's first big renovation effort designed to
provide high quality rental apartments at affordable prices. Credit R.G. Ross Construction
and architect Mark D. O'Bryan with the creation of eleven units that
attracted far more applications than available space. The Pruitt-Igoe Development
Corporation hopes to build on this success with Phoenix Two, a combination of
rehab and new construction located nearby. Campbell House Carriage House A handsome two-story carriage house
with servants' quarters above was a trademark of St. Louis' elite families
until the 20th century. The
one at 1508 Locust (then Lucas Place) was constructed circa 1869 for Robert
and Virginia Campbell whose three-story townhouse had been built in 1851. At
mid-century the elite subdivision lay just west of the City Limits. But the era of opulence on Lucas Place would barely last
for one generation; soon, the wealthy would move west, away from the expanding
city and encroaching commercial development. The Campbell House remained in the family until the
late 1930s when it seemed likely that the estate would be dispersed. Instead, Stix, Baer & Fuller
bought the property, then presented it to the newly formed Campbell House
Foundation as part of the department store's 50th anniversary celebration. Several years ago Jeff
Huntington, the Foundation's Executive Director, secured enough funding to
direct the preparation of a much-needed historic structures report. Original paint colors along with
mechanical and structural challenges were all documented before the
Foundation announced its $1.5 million campaign to restore the entire site. Almost half of that total has
already been raised. The
Campbell House Carriage House, now a museum exhibit area designed by Kimble
Cohn, was recreated at a cost just over $200,000. It is the first phase in this ambitious project. Suter-Murphy Building A one-story frame church was built at
the corner of Cooper and Wilson in 1903 on land purchased from
Anheuser-Busch; an adjacent two-room grade school was constructed in 1906. By the following year, St.
Ambrose's school was overflowing with 125 pupils enrolled in grades one
through five. An evocative
article from that same year carried in the St. Louis Republic described the
city's newest ethnic neighborhood as follows: During the day things
are usually quiet, except at the cooperative stores where the women are
purchasing supplies for the evening meal. The men are all at the works [the
clay mines], and only the women are at home. The children play in the
streets. But after 6 o'clock there is a great change. Supper is over and as
darkness falls upon The Hill and the lights begin to break through the little
windows, the sound of music breaks on the air and The Hill is in gala attire. Testimony to the pervasive ethnicity
of this emerging neighborhood is revealed in the building permit from May
1912 for a $4,500, two-story building at 2131 Cooper (now Marconi) with store
below and apartment above: the owner's name was Salvatore Cutele, the
architect's name -- Vincent Italian! Over the years the street name changed
from Cooper to Marconi and the little storefront has housed a dry goods
company, a billiard parlor, an athletic club, a grocery store and a
bar/restaurant. Vacant in recent years, the building was becoming an eyesore.
Tom and Debbie Suter bought the property in 1997. With the help of friends
and family, they converted the upstairs into two apartments, turned the first
floor into space for 3 separate businesses and dedicated the Suter-Murphy
Building to their fathers who as tradesmen helped shape the landscape of this
city. 3010 Wisconsin In 1985, Landmarks completed a
voluminous National Register nomination for the Benton Park neighborhood.
Included in the original research (later published in the History Museum's
"Where We Live" series) was a fascinating section on the Icarians. A foreign-born colony of Utopians exiled from Nauvoo after
internal dissension, the immigrants acquired land outside St. Louis' city
limits in 1858 and built a new community near today's Hill neighborhood. But this settlement also
collapsed due to internal disagreements; in 1864, the Icarians formally
disbanded. At least twelve
families chose to move to Benton Park. Seven extant houses and one
manufacturing building constructed by the Icarians were identified in our
National Register nomination. One of the earliest is the diminutive frame house at
3010 Wisconsin built in 1865 by perfumer Joseph Loisear in a variant of the
vernacular Creole Cottage style. Vacant for more than ten years, the building was
rescued by the Benton Park Neighborhood Housing Corporation with the strong
support of former Alderman Martie Abbousie and the city's Operation Impact
program. Architect Ed
Heine, neighborhood residents and city design staff met the challenge to
restore the original building and design an addition that would not dwarf it. Pyramid Construction worked with the design team to
minimize "gap" financing from the Community Development Agency. Jefferson Heritage Bank provided
construction financing. As serendipity would have it, the loan officer at
Jefferson was Mark Mesnier. His ancestor, Charles Mesnier, was an Icarian
architect and neighbor of perfumer Joseph Loisear. 5429 Algernon Colonel John O'Fallon's rise to wealth
in 19th century St. Louis should be the subject of a mini-series. Born in Kentucky in 1791, young John
came to St. Louis after the War of 1812 to work with his uncle, General
William Clark, as an Indian Agent.
With his first fortune in
hand from that career, O'Fallon purchased a huge tract of land off
Bellefontaine Road, chose the highest point to build a fifty-room mansion and
sold off the excess land at great profit. Later,
he augmented his fortune with shrewd investments in banking and railroads. Ten years after his death in 1865, the
city's purchase of the 158-acre estate for O'Fallon Park helped direct a
steady pattern of residential development. The house at 5429 Algernon, built for the Albert J.
Morganthaler family, came in the last wave. The estimated
cost on the building permit for their Arts & Crafts two-story brick house
designed by Charles R. Greene was $20,000 in 1923 dollars. It would take over $131,000 in
1999 dollars to completely renovate the property after a foreclosure in July
of 1997. This is the
third project completed by the O'Fallon Housing Corporation in partnership
with the Third Ward Neighborhood Council and the Community Development
Agency. Construction
financing came from United Missouri Bank; architectural work was provided by
the city's Craig Shields. The
house was pre-sold before work began. St. Louis Post-Dispatch Building This award was an exception to one of
the jury's basic rules for consideration of a project. That requirement states that the project must have been
completed by May 15 of the year the award is presented. Over the last ten years we have
received numerous phone calls about the remuddled downtown property at Tucker
and Olive from would-be developers who wanted assurance that they would be
able to get historic rehab credits if they removed a 1960s curtain wall. No
informed opinion could be given until the curtain wall was, in fact, removed.
No one was willing to take
the risk, until now. Finally, a dramatic improvement is
underway. Slowly but
surely, the curtain wall is being removed to reveal a damaged but proud
historic building designed in 1915 by Barnett, Haynes & Barnett for the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Known
most recently as the Missouri Bank Building, the vacant property was acquired
from the City's Land Reutilization Authority at an auction last year.
Financing for what promises to be an exemplary $2 million project has been
provided by Lemay Bank. Western Waterproofing is the contractor at work on
the facade. The intrepid
developers are Jerome E. Glick and H. Meade Summers, III. Old Main The centerpiece of the collection of
mental health buildings on Arsenal is known as Old Main, an imposing domed
structure designed as the County Insane Asylum in 1864 by William Rumbold -
also the architect of the Old Courthouse dome. St. Louis boundaries were expanded only seven years
after the $700,000 building was completed, and the facility was operated by
the city until 1948. By now, the complex housed 3,844
patients. Since only a small percentage of them were city residents, St.
Louis arranged to give title to the State of Missouri for 53 acres of land
and all the buildings for only one dollar. In late 1990, the State announced its
intention to demolish Old Main. Landmarks joined State Representative
Bud Barnes and others in urging that the landmark be kept and put the
building on our 11 Most Endangered list. State Representative Tony Ribaudo (whose District
included Old Main), joined the effort, writing the Director of Mental Health
that he found the demolition proposal "abominable"! Legislators pushed an amendment
through the Senate in 1991 that directed the Department of Mental Health to
hire consultants to do a reuse feasibility study, but it was not until 1997
that money was finally approved to move forward with renovation. Since then, Yarger &
Associates Architects have worked with Vince Kelly Construction on this $10
million project. Stork Inn Constructed in 1910, the Stork Inn at
4527 Virginia Avenue was the first of three delightfully picturesque
establishments designed by Klipstein & Rathmann for August Busch who
hoped to counter the growing prohibition movement by creating wholesome
images of Old World charm on sites with maximum visibility. The Stork Inn occupies a wedge formed
by Taft, Idaho and Virginia; the Feasting Fox sits at an important corner of
South Grand at Meramec; the Bevo Mill boasts a location that now identifies
an entire neighborhood. Survival
of the Bevo has never been in doubt, but we almost lost the Feasting Fox and
the Stork Inn. In both cases a
brave, determined family came to the rescue. Dale and Gwyn Preston and their eight
children live only a few blocks away from the recently vacant, formerly
pigeon-infested Stork Inn. With
$15,000 to purchase the derelict property and the hope that $50,000 could
transform it, the Prestons embarked on what quickly became a community
effort. Finished after more like
$120,000 in mid-May, the former Stork Inn (complete with a rental apartment
on the top two floors and an ice cream parlor) is now home to the Preston Art
Glass Studio. Dale Preston
served as general contractor for a talented group of tradespeople while
William Elliott and Tim Mulligan brought the design skills. Historians NiNi Harris, Karen
Bode Baxter and Esley Hamilton provided encouragement and technical
assistance; the city's facade improvement program along with state and
federal historic rehab credits assured the necessary financing. The Vedder Condominiums St. Louis Hills observes its 70th
anniversary this year as a model planned community. Conceived by Cyrus Crane
Willmore (attorney, real estate czar and showman), St. Louis Hills opened
with grandiose celebrations and a prospectus to match just 30 days before the
stock market crashed. Few thought that Willmore's vision of homes in a garden
setting for 25,000 persons could succeed. It did, mostly through the
founder's remarkable initiative. When sales lagged, Willmore brought in Harry Truman
to campaign for his 2nd Democratic nomination to the US Senate. When early residents complained about
the lack of public transit, Willmore bought a bus and ran it from the end of
Tower Grove streetcar line at Macklind up to Francis Park and back. The bus passed by a singular property
at 5845 Nottingham built in 1936 as a family compound where aunts, uncles and
cousins enjoyed one another's company, but lived in six separate apartments. Designed and built by Gustave
Sturmfels for Adolph Vedder, the welcoming Art Deco property was owned and
operated by Vedder's daughter Vera Molz from 1936 until her death in 1996. Renovation of The Vedder
Condominiums (which began in early 1998) included the restoration of terrazzo
floors, stained glass, decorative plaster and the multi-colored illuminated
fountain. A single level
unit on the second floor was expanded into the attic to create a third
penthouse in this upscale $400,000 conversion by Cornerstone Properties with
Jim Hentschell, architect. |
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