The End Of The Hodiamont Streetcar Right-of-Way

Forty-six years ago today the last streetcar in St. Louis stopped rolling down the streets. The Hodiamont was St. Louis’ last streetcar line. The Hodiamont ran in city streets from downtown to just west of Vandeventer Ave where it went into its own private right-of-way.

ABOVE: Looking east on the last eastern section of the Hodiamont Right-of-Way

ABOVE: Hodiamont ROW ends

ABOVE: Cole School was built in 1936

ABOVE: In 1909 the site was home to United Railways that owned the Hodiamont line. Click imaged to view larger version. Source: UM Digital Library Sanborn Maps Collection

ABOVE: The streetcar tracks come out of the private right-of-way and head east on Enright Ave

ABOVE: The streetcar tracks come out of the private right-of-way and head east on Enright Ave

Eventually new rubber-tire buses with air-conditioning  replaced  the older streetcars:

Only three lines were left in April 1964, when the new Bi-State agency winnowed the system to the Hodiamont line, which ran from downtown to the Wellston Loop. Along the way through north St. Louis, the Hodiamont had its own right-of-way, like a railroad. (STLtoday.com article from 2010 — recommended)

I can’t help but wonder if running a new modern streetcar through this right of way today would make sense. Or even a bus line?

– Steve Patterson

Beautiful Detailing On Older Infrastructure

Many of you have probably driven under the railroad tracks while traveling on Chippewa St between Gravois Ave and Meramec.

ABOVE: Chippewa going under the railroad tracks

If you’re like me you never paid much attention to the design of the underpass. But earlier this month I was on a MetroBus heading westbound on Chippewa and it had to stop at the light at Meremac (aerial) and there was the railing right next to the bus window.

ABOVE: Close up of railing on Chippewa at Meramec

I love the detail, so much more interesting than today’s infrastructure. Seems we either get boring stuff with zero detail or over the top designs. I’d much rather see a nice balance.

- Steve Patterson

Richard Nickel Died 40 Years Ago

ABOVE: Cover of book on Richard Nickel's photography, click image to see book info on Left Bank Books website

One Chicago resident was obsessed with photographing, stopping demolition of and lastly saving pieces from buildings designed by Louis Sullivan.

Architecture photographer Richard Nickel spent years with his camera, documenting — and arguing against — the demolition of buildings in Chicago. Thirty-five years ago this month, Nickel died trying to document the demise of a building designed by Louis Sullivan, whose architecture helped define the Chicago cityscape.

In the ’60s and early ’70s, Nickel watched the demolition of so many of Sullivan’s buildings — and buildings created by other turn-of-the-century masters — that he wrote, “I look forward to the day when I never have to enter a wet, charred, smoky building again.” (NPR)

He died 40 years ago today inside one of those buildings.

Nickel was killed on April 13, 1972, while attempting to obtain more items for SIUE, when a stairwell in the Chicago Stock Exchange building collapsed on him. He is buried in Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery, not very far from where Sullivan is buried. He died without completing his great collection of photographs of Sullivan’s work, but Nickel’s black-and-white photos have been displayed at the Art Institute of Chicago and elsewhere. The Richard Nickel Committee and Photographic Archive is a non-profit organization devoted to preserving the photographer’s work, and holds the copyrights for most of his pictures. (Wikipedia)

Some items previously salvaged by Nickel had been purchased by Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). Some are on display in the The Louis H. Sullivan Collection in Lovejoy Library.

Nickel would be 83 if he were alive today.

- Steve Patterson

913 Locust As Narrow As It Looks

Squeezed in between two taller buildings is the structure at 913 Locust St. The building is only 23 feet 9 inches wide, the full width of the lot.

ABOVE: The little building at 913 Locust was built in 1900

According to city records (Geo St. Louis) it was built in 1900 — after the building on the right but 13 years before the building on the left. Like many buildings downtown it got a new appearance during the 20th century. Anyone out there know more about this building?

- Steve Patterson

Charless Home To Close, Future Uncertain

A longtime St. Louis institution won’t reach its 160th anniversary:

The Charless Home, which opened in 1853 as the “Home of the Friendless,” will soon be the home of no one.

Bethesda Health Group, which bought the facility in 2006, said Monday [3/19/2012] it will close the home by June 30. Low occupancy and financial losses are the culprits, said Ken Bass, Bethesda’s senior vice president of senior living. (STLtoday.com)

If you’ve been a longtime reader here you might recall my post from June 6, 2006:

Despite the spin in the Post-Dispatch back in April the Charless Home, founded in 1853, is not “merging” with or being “acquired” by Bethesda Health Group. The folks I talked to tell me Charless’ Board is essentially paying Bethesda to take the south side landmark. The Charless Home has prime real estate at I-55 and South Broadway (map) yet the board has voted to give the real estate and millions of dollars to Bethesda in exchange for… well, nothing.

The board, comprised mainly of Clayton & Ladue socialites, is making a huge mistake. I’m told the Charless Home has nearly $17 million in the bank, hardly a distressed non-profit. A few board members voted against giving Charless to Bethesda and instead suggested they take on medicaid patients and consider constructing independent living housing on their grounds. (Full post)

Monday’s article says ”ownership will revert to the non-profit Charless Foundation.” The Foundation does have active registration with the Secretary of State (view) but it’s unclear what will become of the property. The property, located in the 9th ward, is in a “preservation review” area so any proposed demolition would be reviewed by the Cultural Resources Office.

ABOVE: Entrance to the Charless Home at 4431 S. Broadway, click image to view aerial in Google Maps

I sent an inquiry to the official board contact and received a reply indicating committees have been set up to gather information to help them asses their options.

- Steve Patterson

Remembering Wendell O. Pruitt and William L. Igoe

Pruitt & Igoe will forever be known around the world as the names on the biggest failure in modernist public housing, Pruitt-Igoe. When the Pruitt-Igoe complex was designed it was to be racially segregated. The black portion was named after Wendell O. Pruitt and the white portion after William L. Igoe. Who were these men?

Pruitt

Wendell Oliver Pruitt (June 20, 1920–April 15, 1945) was a pioneering African-American military pilot and Tuskegee Airman originally from St. Louis, Missouri. He was killed during a training exercise in 1945. After his death, his name, along with William L. Igoe’s was given to the notorious Pruitt–Igoe public housing complex in St. Louis.

Pruitt grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, as the youngest of ten children to Elijah and Melanie Pruitt and attended Sumner High School. He then furthered his education at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, becoming a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

Pruitt, already a licensed pilot, enlisted in the Army Air Corps Cadet Flying Program in Tuskegee, Alabama, eventually graduating and being commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on December 11, 1942.

After graduating from flight school at Tuskegee, Pruitt was assigned to the 332nd Fighter Group, then stationed in Michigan. The 332nd was transferred to the Mediterranean theater in late 1943 where Pruitt flew the P-47 Thunderbolt.

In June 1944, Pruitt and his occasional wingman, 1st Lt. Gwynne Walker Peirson, landed direct hits on an enemy destroyer that sank at Trieste harbor in northern Italy. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for this action. Thereafter, the 332nd flew the P-51 Mustang as their primary fighter aircraft.

Pruitt teamed with Lee Archer to form the famed “Gruesome Twosome”, the most successful pair of Tuskegee pilots in terms of air victories. The “Gruesome Twosome” are featured in a History Channel show entitled Dogfights: Tuskegee Airmen. Pruitt flew seventy combat missions, was credited with 3 enemy kills, and reached the rank of captain. (Wikipedia)

Wow, a very impressive young man! Read more here and here. Pruitt is buried at St. Peters Cemetary in Normandy (source). His parents died in the 1960s and are also buried there.

ABOVE: Pruitt School was adjacent to Pruitt-Igoe, still standing

Pruitt couldn’t have been any more different from Igoe.

Igoe

William Leo Igoe (October 19, 1879 – April 20, 1953) was a United States Representative from Missouri. He attended the public and parochial schools of St. Louis and graduated from the law school of Washington University in St. Louis in 1902. He was admitted to the bar in the same year and commenced the practice of law in St. Louis. He was member of the municipal assembly of St. Louis from 1909 until March 3, 1913, when he resigned to enter the United States Congress.

Igoe was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1913-March 3, 1921). He declined to become a candidate for renomination in 1920. He resumed the practice of law and was an unsuccessful Democratic nominee for mayor of St. Louis in 1925. He was chairman of the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners 1933-1937. He died in St. Louis on April 20, 1953 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery. (Wikipedia)

Igoe lived a long life — 73 — and had an impressive career. Clearly he was a man of privilege, maybe his accomplishments were just average  given his background?

Two men who likely never crossed paths are forever linked.

- Steve Patterson

Four Decades Since First Demolition At Pruitt-Igoe

Forty years ago today the first of Pruitt-Igoe’s 33 high rise towers was leveled by implosion. Today most of the site remains vacant and overgrown.

ABOVE: The steeples of St. Stanislaus Kostka are visible through the overgrowth on the former Pruitt-Igoe site.

I first walked the site over 20 years ago, it was easier to traverse in 1991. Amazing the site can sit vacant for a longer period than the buildings did.

Here are a couple of short videos you might find interesting:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYrMUcT1jP4

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVpN6Wl7Qm0

- Steve Patterson

St. Louis Prosecutor George Peach Charged 20 Years Ago Today

A year and a half after I moved to St. Louis a huge scandal broke — 20 years ago today:

The chief state prosecutor for the city of St. Louis, who has spent most of his 15 years in office crusading against obscenity, pornography and prostitution, was charged today with a misdemeanor offense of patronizing a prostitute.

[snip]

Since being elected as circuit attorney in 1976, Mr. Peach has led a fight to rid St. Louis of pornography and prostitution. In the 1980′s he was responsible for closing the city’s major pornographic book and video stores. Last June, he endorsed changes in city ordinances that would make jail mandatory for prostitutes, pimps and customers who are second-time offenders. (New York Times)

Peach was busted three days earlier, on Tuesday March 10, 1992, in a hotel in St. Louis County. In the days immediately following his arrest on the misdemeanor charge local officials were debating if he should resign or run for a 5th term as prosecutor.

ABOVE: AP story from 3/15/92, click to view article

A January 2004 story in the Post-Dispatch recounts many the sorted details including more criminal activity:

In an eight-month Post-Dispatch investigation in 1992, reporters disclosed that Peach financed his extracurricular activities with cash from a confidential city checking account he controlled. He also took money from a fund set up to aid crime victims. (Full story — highly recommended)

A number of years ago an independent hollywood company began raising money to produce a film about Peach’s downfall, myself and many others donated money to help get the film made:

Heart of the Beholder is a 2005 drama film that was written and directed by Ken Tipton. It is based on Tipton’s own experience as the owner of a chain of videocassette rental stores in the 1980s. Tipton and his family had opened the first videocassette rental stores in St. Louis in 1980. Their business was largely destroyed by a campaign of the National Federation for Decency, who objected to the chain’s carrying the film The Last Temptation of Christ for rental.

The film won “Best Feature Film” awards at several film festivals. Critic Ryan Cracknell summarized the film, “There’s no shortage of material for writer-director Ken Tipton to work with here. That alone makes Heart of the Beholder a film of interest. It is in many ways a politically charged film as it touches on issues of freedom of speech, religious beliefs and all out fanaticism. Still, I didn’t think it was charged with enough balance and I think a large part had to do with the film’s inconsistent pacing.” (Wikipedia)

As one of thousands of uncredited producers I got the film on DVD, but here’s the trailer:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onnQwK8DhA4

You can order the DVD here or you can watch the entire film online, view chapter 1, do not watch at work! The film is also available for instant streaming on Netflix.

I recall a video store on the south side of Olive between Compton & Grand, now part of Saint Louis University’s campus, that closed in the early 90s. I only visited the store once, not sure if it was one of Ken Tipton’s Video Library stores or not.

- Steve Patterson

2617 Olive Older Than It Looks

The other day I noticed a nondescript little building I’d driven past hundreds of times but never payed attention to before. This day I was a pedestrian and it caught my eye.

The one story building at 2617 Olive is easy to overlook, halfway between Sam Light Loans and AT&T, it just disappears. From across Olive the storefront caught my eye.

Cast iron? At home I looked it up on city records and it says it was built in 1883! A 1907 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows the building as being 3-stories in height and having a stone front, one of a group of eight such storefronts.

The point? None other than I found it interesting.

- Steve Patterson

Biondi Threatened To Move Saint Louis University Medical To St. Louis County

The presentations were completed and the Planning Commission had asked questions of Saint Louis University representatives about their appeal. Don Roe, Director of the St. Louis Urban Design & Planning Agency was discussing procedures with the members of the Planning Commission and Saint Louis University President Biondi got up and spoke for an additional two minutes — saying if the demolition of the Pevely office building isn’t granted he’ll move the medical center to St. Louis County.

ABOVE: The former Pevely Dairy at Grand & Chouteau

Biondi shouldn’t have been allowed to speak at that point — anyone else in the room would have been silenced immediately. But what he said was a very clear threat –don’t overturn the Preservation Board’s decision and we’ll abandon the city like every other catholic hospital in town has done before us!

Sorry for the poor audio:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub8u2khAo3c

“What I forsee, if you don’t approve our request, is that we would have to shut down our medical school and find property in west county,” noting that 35 years ago, Maryville offered up land for the university to move west. Earlier, Biondi cited the school’s record of renovating and restoring historic buildings and also highlighted the law school’s impending move to downtown. (KMOX)

The Planning Commission voted to reverse the the Preservation Board and allow demolition of the corner office building with the condition a permit has been issued for construction of the new project.  They reversed the Preservation Board and allowed demolition of the historic smokestack without any conditions. They modified the Preservation Board decision on the milk plant and garage to allow demolition to proceed at once on those.

- Steve Patterson