Five Year Anniversary Post: A Manichaean Choice? Preservation vs. Development

Five years ago today, when I started this website, I never imagined that I would be posting close to every day. In the first year, I posted anywhere from two to three times a week, at most. Somewhere along the line, though, I posted seven times in one week, and I've never stopped. Looking back, it's interesting to see places I've photographed repeatedly for five years, and places I've just started photographing this year. Sadly, the first building I photographed that was threatened with demolition was the Switzer Building on Laclede's Landing; five years later, the site still sits vacant, not even properly graded and planted with grass.

Why do I continue? Maybe it really is an addiction, but it's a very rewarding one. I love every comment you all send me, thanking me for exposing you to some new (old) building in some corner of the city. It's ironic, because for every "undiscovered" part of the city, there are hundreds of people living around it that have already known about it for years. I like to think though, that my work, and the work of my colleagues, is changing people's opinions of the city. If just one person moves to the city, buys a house and fixes it up before it gets demolished for "progress" then I feel I have accomplished something. If I can get at least a couple people to get over the odious pessimism that so often engulfs this city, then I consider my work meaningful.

I'm so proud of my friends for successfully rallying and saving the old Del Taco building on Grand; slated for demolition for being "undevelopable," it is now going to be developed into host two restaurants, perfect for the large student population around St. Louis University. Funny how a building can go from one to the other in the span of a couple of weeks, isn't it? Maybe it just has to do with your attitude?

Which brings me to the message I have for all of you on the fifth anniversary of this site.

This spring hasn't been good for historic preservation in St. Louis.

Buildings get demolished every year in St. Louis, but the loss of two icons of the region's architectural heritage are meeting (or have met) the wrecking ball as I write this. I understand that not every building will be saved in this war for protecting the built environment in St. Louis, but what truly disturbs me is the attitudes of the people condoning their demolition and their sarcastic dismissal of preservation. While there are certainly preservationists out there that support saving buildings at all cost, even it means they sit empty for a century, most people I know who support historic preservation do so out of practical reasons. It simply is more logical to reuse an existing, great-looking building than waste the energy to tear it down and replace it with something that will probably not last nearly as long as the original. The walls of my house are one foot thick; short of an earthquake or roof failure, do you think anything would make them budge? Compare that to nowadays, where the floors of new houses I visit in the suburbs shake when I walk across them (I weigh 160 lbs). The floors don't shake in my house when I walk across them. Coincidence? I think not...

Numerous politicians and unelected leaders, who shall go unnamed, believe that the preservation of historic architecture, is an either/or Manichaean choice; you can either have development, or you can have old buildings. The simplicity, the shear stupidity and arrogance of this belief is killing St. Louis. Can you name one major historic building demolished since World War II in St. Louis that has given the city a huge boost in either tax revenue or economic activity? I challenge anyone to explain why tearing down the Ambassador Theater, Real Estate Row or any of the thousands of anonymous houses around the city that were structurally sound has benefited the city. Do you realize that all of the neighborhoods now featured in tourism brochures for St. Louis were once seriously threatened with complete or partial demolition? Yes, someone once thought it would be a good idea to clear cut Soulard, Lafayette Square, most of downtown and pretty much every house inside Grand Boulevard at one time or another. Stand up to those who say economic activity is impossible without demolition, and I suggest that if pro-demolition zealots are so principled, they should recuse themselves from enjoying all of those great, revitalized neighborhoods mentioned above which were saved from the wrecking ball--from their type of people.

In closing I want to share two pictures submitted to me by reader Keith Raske of a bizarre sight on Lafayette Avenue and Nebraska, an area heavily decimated by "good ideas." Yes, it is a double-wide trailer set up on three vacant lots, right next to two handsome Italianate rowhouses. Who wants to place a bet on whether the double-wide or the rowhouses will still be standing in fifty years?

Is that what you want your city to become?

Three Year Anniversary of Saint Louis Patina: Happy Birthday

Three years ago today, I began celebrating of St. Louis architecture: the good, the bad and the ugly. Through countless tanks of gas, dozens of rearview mirrors and dirty windshields caught in my shot, and only a handful of rude people asking indignantly, "Excuse me sir, what are you doing?" I'm having more fun now than ever. Scanning Facebook, I think I've met at least 100 people directly and indirectly through my website.

Every time a person on the street turns their head to see what I'm photographing, I feel like I've won a small victory for the historic built environment in St. Louis.

Three Year Anniversary of Saint Louis Patina: The Future

All this week, Saint Louis Patina is looking back over the last three years, revisiting the highlights of dozens of expeditions and thousands of photographs.

In the near future, I hope to get a Flickr account up and running with a comprehensive listing of all of my photos. Also, I want to get my Google Map linked up to neighborhoods and posts, listed by tags. Hoepfully, one day I will get a real website going, but that will be a while from now.

Three Year Anniversary of Saint Louis Patina: Favorite Photos

All this week, Saint Louis Patina is looking back over the last three years, revisiting the highlights of dozens of expeditions and thousands of photographs.

1) Highway 40, Closed to Traffic


2) Abandoned Diner, Goodfield, Illinois


3) Doric Temple, Paestum, Italy


4) Lafayette Square Rowhouses


5) Armour Meatpacking Plant, National Stockyards, Illinois


6) Logan Circle, Washington, DC


7) St. Augustine, St. Louis Place


8) Warren Street Demolished Apartments, St. Louis Place


9) Storm Moving Out, Baltimore, Maryland


10) Ceiling Fresco by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Church of Il Gesu, Rome

Three Year Anniversary of Saint Louis Patina: Favorite Places in St. Louis

All this week, Saint Louis Patina is looking back over the last three years, revisiting the highlights of dozens of expeditions and thousands of photographs.

Here are my top ten favorite places in the St. Louis area; these are places I have returned to time and time again for years, and captured the best photographs:

10. Lafayette Square, Near South Side

9. Benton Park, South St. Louis

8. Dutchtown, South St. Louis

7. Bellefontaine Cemetery

6. Old North St. Louis

5. Benton Park West, South St. Louis

4. Hyde Park, North St. Louis

3. St. Louis Place, North St. Louis

2. St. Augustine, St. Louis Place

1. Armour Meatpacking Plant, National Stockyards

Three Year Anniversary of Saint Louis Patina: Most Commented Upon Posts

All this week, Saint Louis Patina is looking back over the last three years, revisiting the highlights of dozens of expeditions and thousands of photographs.

My website is not exactly controversial very often, but every once and a while I set someone off for some reason or another. Here are the posts with the most (and continued interest) comments, along with some posts with the most strident and bitchy comments.

Dennis is Not a Rent-a-Cop!

My post on being busted in Portland and Westmoreland Places garnered significant reader response. Apparently "Dennis" is a good guy, despite being an %&@!$ to me.

That's Right It's an Oratory, You Gotta a Problem with Dat?

My lament that St. Francis de Sales was demoted from a parish to an oratory hit a raw nerve with at least one reader. Message received, buddy.

Sorry Lady, Crestwood Mall is Still a Ghost Town

I wrote a very old post about the death of Crestwood Mall, before all the mom and pop art galleries moved in, and boy did I hear about it from one woman. The comment was actually so profanity laced that I didn't publish it.

Fond Memories of Dutchtown

Originally this post was to allow my friends to see the house pictured because they were thinking about buying it. They didn't, but I still got some great memories from people who lived in the neighborhood.

The Lemps Continue to Fascinate

I received many great comments about people who lived in or near the Lemp Estate in southwestern Kirkwood.

Castlewood's History is Still Alive

One of my favorite places in the world is Castlewood, and I have many fond memories of hiking its trails. It seems many other people share my love of the area.

You've Never Heard of the Vandeventer Corridor?

Every once and a while I get some anonymous know-it-all who has to correct my posts.

April Fools!

This post speaks for itself.

Three Year Anniversary of Saint Louis Patina: Two Seminal Posts

All this week, Saint Louis Patina is looking back over the last three years, revisiting the highlights of dozens of expeditions and thousands of photographs.

These two early posts are of the greatest significant in the history of this website; one represents my first attempt at an historic architecture post I actually did for an old website that no longer exists, and the second is the post that covers the events that led me to finally meet other historic preservationists in St. Louis:

(1) Downtown St. Louis: Where No St. Louisan Has Gone Before

Read the original post here.

I was back in town for Christmas break of 2005, I think, and I had been reading some of the local blogs about downtown and North St. Louis. I got my street atlas out and started driving, not really knowing where I was going. I ate downtown, and went up to Crown Candy for the first time. There wasn't anybody there except a couple of cops eating lunch. I drove up Blair to the water towers, and then got back on the interstate. My appetite had been whetted, and I kept thinking about the Northside even when I returned to Washington, DC. I was slowly starting to realize that I wasn't really happy in DC anymore, and that maybe St. Louis wouldn't be such a bad place to live after all.

(2) My Encounter With Brick Thieves in North St. Louis

Read the original post here.

I had been working on Saint Louis Patina for several months at this point in September of 2007, and I was intrigued by St. Louis Place, one of the most battered neighborhoods in St. Louis. I decided I was going to go on my merry way and look for myself. Ten minutes later, I found myself flying down the streets of North St. Louis, desperately trying to escape from a group of brick thieves who were none too happy about me photographing on the same street as them. I e-mailed Michael Allen at Ecology of Absence about my experience (even though I had never met him before, I figured he would be interested in the brick thief story), and he invited me to a happy hour that was coming up soon at Shady Jacks. That night I met the first handful of what would become many people who share the same zeal and interest in St. Louis architecture. Almost three years later, I still talk with many of the same people. Sadly, brick theft continues, as I have been documenting, and only the future can say what will become of many of the buildings in the cross-hairs of brick thieves.

Three Year Anniversary of Saint Louis Patina: Celebrating All Week Long

Three years ago this Saturday, May 15, 2007, I embarked on a project I had been planning for over a year--before I had even moved back to St. Louis from Washington, DC. Back in 2006, I already had the name picked out, "Saint Louis Patina." I wondered if most people even knew what "patina" meant, but I liked the ring of it, so I went with it. Inspired by looking for years at the work of people who I now have the pleasure of calling friends, I knew I had something to contribute. All this week, I will look at the most popular posts, other posts that were meaningful to me, and some of my favorite posts and photographs.