Finding myself in Old North St. Louis, I discovered that a couple of houses had collapsed mysteriously over the weekend.
This one is right in the middle of other inhabited houses.
The other one is right in the middle of the Old North redevelopment area, and sits right next to successfully rehabbed houses.
If you look carefully, you can see that there are still dishes in the cabinets on the second floor.
You can thank Blairmont for the first one. They bought it a year or so back. After a roof collapse, the city has ordered emergency demo and the building is now rubble.
ReplyDeleteThe second one was supposed to be a gut rehab with two walls relaid. Instead, somehow the whole thing collapsed. OOPS. It's slated to be reconstructed, though only time will tell if it actually happens.
The second house is a part of the Crown Village / 14th St Mall project and will be rebuilt to historic preservation standards within the original timeline of the project. The bricks are just off resting for now, they will be back.
ReplyDeleteThe house never had a separate south wall, it was a row house sharing the north wall of the neighbor. The rear was missing prior to the start of the project, and the front wall was badly bulged. They touched the building with heavy equipment to remove remaining roof pieces and it just went bang.