St. Mary's Infirmary

I don't have much to say about the long-suffering St. Mary's Infirmary on Papin Street on the near South side. Stripped of all of its historical context, it sits vacant, and rapidly deteriorating a block from Chouteau Avenue.

I expect that it will be unceremoniously knocked down at the behest of AmerenUE some day in the next couple of years.

Plans for its conversion to condos seems to have died with the real estate bubble bursting.

A back wall has collapsed, and the evidence of spalling inside the wall on the east side of the building was apparent when viewed last week.

I'm afraid I'm going to drive by one day and see that the entire east wall has fallen off of the building.

Shortly thereafter, the news media, hungry for another story that supports their narrative that the city is falling apart, will report that an emergency demolition has commenced.

And one last vestige of one of the oldest parts of the cit will be gone forever.

See pictures of the interior, from several years ago, here.

Here is my post from three years ago of the same building; sadly nothing has changed except for the worse.