Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Building in a Historic Section of St. Louis Collapses; Across from Shaw's Garden

A building collapsed in the heart of a historic neighborhood. The residential building sits right across from St. Louis' famed botanical garden.

The back wall of the building actually collapsed. It happened sometime Sunday morning and both residents and city leaders say this has been a problem property for the past decade." It happened in the historic Shaw neighborhood at 4274 Flad.

"Houses on the next block are going for half-a- million dollars. Supposedly the world class botanical garden is right across the street," says McGraw Milhaven, a local radio personality who lives right next door to the building. Milhaven says it's been vacant for the past 10 years.

The owner has been cited for a number of building code violations. "The city supposedly has tried somehow to somehow get him to fix up this building for 10 years. He hasn't done it. I could have sat and sold tickets to this thing because you knew it was going to happen at any moment," says Milhaven.

Milhaven says within the last week the back wall on the building was starting to buckle. Eighth Ward Alderman Stephen Conway was called-in to take a look. "I came last week, looked at the property. Had the city send the building inspector out. They cited it for the bulge in the wall," says Alderman Conway. Conway says this was the latest of many citations for the building's owner through the years. 

For now, what's left of the building has been roped-off and a building inspector who visited the property Sunday plans to recommend demolition. That won't come soon enough for Milhaven, who sits sandwiched between two of the property owner's buildings. "It's a beautiful street, why have a burned out building next to you?"

3 comments:

  1. Mike Roberts12:33 PM

    Why in the hell does it take 10+ years fighting blight and getting zero results in this particular situation. And we wonder why people are moving out of St. Louis. Come on people, let's get our act together and get action to preserve and clean up ALL neighborhoods.

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  2. Anonymous2:16 PM

    You see…..this is what all the building inspections and occupancy permits buys you! If the laws aren’t enforced and violators prosecuted you might as well not waste time and money on “neighborhood preservation”.

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  3. Anonymous11:02 PM

    If a wall has fallen off a historic bulding, a reasonable response would be to re-build a wall. Why is the prospect of demolition immediately invoked.
    Isn't this building a part of are architectural heritage and worth atleast attempting to save?

    Or would you rather see it replaced with a vinyl sided horror.

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