Wednesday, February 2, 2011

St. Louis Place in the Snow

I drove around the St. Louis Place neighborhood on two Saturdays ago, and saw some signs of life among so much desolation. Hebert Street continues its decline, and a street just to the south, showed evidence of a fire from the rear.I drove around to the front to take a picture, but there was a man sitting in a truck glaring at me as I drove by. Was he a brick thief, or merely concerned why an outsider was driving down his block?I continued on, and found these well-preserved houses on a side street. The on one on the left, with nice Italiante detailing, might still be occupied. Will this property be considered a "legacy property" by Paul McKee?I'm still amazed at the brazenness of the brick thieves who hit this house right on busy St. Louis Avenue. This house was beautiful, intact, and surely would have made a great home for someone. As it stands, it seems that demolition is its only future.I assume this six family (or twelve family) building right next door will be hit soon by the the brick thieves. And surely no one will take notice, again.

5 comments:

  1. ^^ how long ago was that one hit?

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  2. I think it's been about six months; many other people have captured the house in their own photography. I might want to note that this house was 100% structurally intact before.

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  3. What do you mean by brick thieves? What has happened? Where are you? I'm in Australia so sorry for the ignorance but I've never heard of such a thing? None the less it doesn't sound too good for the owners of those dwellings.

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  4. Due to the low quality of building materials in America nowadays, there is a black market for the brick of old buildings. St. Louis is famous for its brick, and much of it goes to the construction of buildings in other cities. The thieves strike abandoned buildings owned by absentee landlords, who probably don't even realize it's occurred.

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  5. abangxxx said:
    Lovely pictures but I wish you'd play with the lighting and the whiteness of the snow. We didn't have any snow around here. What caught my attention was those footprints in the snow.Whose was it? What was the story behind it?
    Anyway, I can be reached at:
    http://www.globalfairviews.com
    http://ahmadayu.wordpress.com

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A Blog detailing the beauty of St. Louis architecture and the buildup of residue-or character-that accumulates over the course of time.