Daily Dose of Blairmont 57

• 2819 University Street (N & G Ventures LLC, November 2005)

February 2008

The Blairmont house is the gabled frame structure on the far right. The house next door is owner-occupied; two others are privately owned by persons outside the neighborhood.

Links:

• 2819 University at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 56

• 2515 Coleman Street (VHS Partners LLC, September 2003)

February 2008

Blairmont, apparently, has had a loooooong time to sit on this one.



It's a complete ruin, and has been so for quite a while. It's hard to tell if it was brick rustled, or if it just fell apart. (Both are common fates for Blairmont properties.)

Links:

• 2515 Coleman at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 55

Left to right:

• 2949 Montgomery Street (privately owned)
  
• 2947 Montgomery Street (Sheridan Place LLC, December 2006)
  
• 2945 Montgomery Street (N & G Ventures LLC, May 2006)

February 2008

I must apologize for the lack of a good introductory photograph of all three buildings. Sometimes the flabbergasting sight of a building destroyed by brick rustling just makes a body forget such concerns.





The thieves destroyed half of the privately owned building, completely annihilated one of the Blairmont buildings, and damaged a corner of the other -- just enough that its chances of recovery are now much dimmer than they would have been.


May 2005 - further collapse

Links:

• 2945 Montgomery at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 54

• 1827 Laflin Street (LRA)
  
• 1831 Laflin Street (MLK 3000 LLC, May 2007)

February 2008

In an unusual reversal of fortune, brick rustlers hit the left-hand house, owned by the LRA, instead of the brown-painted Blairmont building on the right.

It's doubly unusual since, with the windows gone and the building standing open and vacant, it's a fairly ripe target for attack.

Links:

• 1831 Laflin at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 53

• 1357 Leffingwell Street (Noble Development LLC, May 2006)

February 2008

Blairmont owns the house on the right. The others -- including the one in the background -- are property of the JVL Renaissance company.



Of course, the Blairmont one can be singled out as the one that's vacant and boarded up.

Update: It can also be identified as the one that the brick rustlers attacked.

May 2008

The building was demolished by October 2008.

Links:

• 1357 Leffingwell at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 52

• 2900-2902 St. Louis Avenue (Sheridan Place LLC, May 2007)

February 2008

This lovely Italianate house, with a stone front facade, is slated to be destroyed.





In the background can be seen the demolition of 2858 St. Louis, another Italianate building, and another Blairmont property.

Links:

• More on 2900 St. Louis at Random Talk
  
• 2900 St Louis at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 51

Continuing where we left off, here's the south side of 1900 Wright Street.

---

Left to right:

• 1912-14 Wright Street (Noble Development Co, September 2006)
  
• 1916 Wright Street (MLK 3000 LLC, February 2007)
  
• 1918 Wright Street (unlisted Blairmont company, February 2007)
  
• 1920 Wright Street (MLK 3000 LLC, February 2007)

August 2003

The ruined house on the right was rubble long before Blairmont came along, but they're responsible for what happened to the triple house next door.


November 2007

---

• 1924 Wright Street (Blairmont Associates LLC, October 2003)

This mansard-roofed house was one of Blairmont's earliest purchases. It was already vacant and deteriorating when they got it.

August 2003

They evidently did nothing to secure the building or prevent its destruction. By last year, it had been so thoroughly destroyed by brick rustlers that there was hardly anything left to photograph.


November 2007

A vacant, privately owned house rounds out the block. It, too, was destroyed by brick rustlers in 2007. The remainder of the lots are vacant and have been so for years.

Links:

• North side of 1900 Wright
  
• 1920 Wright at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 50

FIFTY! Fifty days of Blairmont! And, ladies and gentlemen, we are FAR from finished.

For this momentous occasion, I'd like to share my own photos of the most visible block desecrated by Blairmont's negligent ownership: the north side of 1900 Wright Avenue. I've been avoiding it so far, since it's been covered by other bloggers, but I think this is a good time to tackle it.

---

• 1941 Wright Street (Sheridan Place LLC, October 2006)

August 2003

Our first victim is the little attached house on the right. Like pretty much the entire block, it was occupied when I first came through in 2003 with my camera. It's not in great shape, but look! That's a brand new fence out front. Somebody lived there, and cared enough to sink a couple thousand bucks into a new fence.

Then... came Blairmont. In October 2006, the house was purchased, the tenants evicted, the windows removed. Soon it was full of hazardous waste. By November 2007, the little house was utterly destroyed by brick rustlers.


December 2007

Oh, but it gets worse! In December of last year, the brick vandals returned, taking out the corner of the magnificent row of townhouses next door.


January 2008

This was the kiss of death for this privately owned building, and the whole row has now been demolished.

• More on Victim #1 (1941) at Ecology of Absence, including the story of how Blairmont allowed it to be used as a hazardous waste dumping ground.

---

• 1929 Wright Street (Sheridan Place LLC, November 2006)

August 2003

It's pretty much the same story: occupied originally, bought by Blairmont, vacated, destroyed by brick rustlers.


November 2007

---

• 1923 Wright Street (Sheridan Place LLC, November 2006)

Architecturally, it's the least remarkable building on the block, a backdrop for the more handsome buildings that lined the street. It is notable for being an alley house, an increasingly rare commodity in St. Louis.


August 2003


January 2008

It is now the last untouched building on the block.

---

• 1921 Wright Street

August 2003


November 2007


January 2008

Like the big townhouse row at the west end of the block, this one got hit in the last weeks of December 2007. Merry Christmas, St. Louis, from Blairmont!

Tomorrow: the south side of the same block.

Links:

• More on the 1900 block of Wright at Ecology of Absence
  
• 1941 Wright at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 49

Left and right:

• 2514 Coleman Avenue (LRA)
  
• 2510 Coleman Avenue (Noble Development LLC, June 2006)

February 2008

Not to worry, not to worry! Blairmont owns the house on the right. The house on the left, with the fancy round window, is owned by the city through its Land Reutilization Authority. It is perfectly safe from being destroyed by neglect and then handed over to a private developer once it's gone! That could not possibly happen.



Therefore, there is no possibility of beautiful masonry work being destroyed and lost forever. NONE.

ALL IS WELL.

And if you believe that, I need to talk to you about this bridge I own.

Links:

• 2510 Coleman at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 48

Left and right:

• 2842 St. Louis Avenue (MLK 3000 LLC, February 2007)
  
• 2844 St. Louis Avenue (MLK 3000 LLC, February 2007)

February 2008

St. Louis Avenue is home to many commanding buildings, powerful designs tall enough to hold their own against a street that's much wider than it needs to be. This pair is a fine if common example.


May 2007

What they haven't been able to hold out against is Blairmont ownership, and the brick thieves that so commonly accompany that status.



Fortunately, most of the damage is confined to smaller rear additions, and it is not too late to stabilize and repair the main portion of the houses. Now, whether that'll happen on Blairmont's watch... that's another matter entirely.

The buildings are visibly unsecured, and of course, as usual, the attic windows are missing. Boy, those attic windows must really be worth a lot of money!

(I had briefly thought that, perhaps, the attic windows were missing on such buildings because they'd been punched out by metal thieves trying to strip the cornice and gutters, but a quick skim through my photographs shows no correlation between the missing windows and metal stripping.)

Links:

• On the same block:
  - A small cottage
  - A beautiful intersection, destroyed
  
• 2844 St Louis at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 47

• 2542 University Street (N & G Ventures LLC, April 2006)

February 2008

This two-story townhouse stands on a block in need of infill. Why couldn't that be what Blairmont brings to the neighborhood, instead of increased vacancies, missing windows and derelict properties?







Check out the aerial view of this house. See the gabled building across the street? That's a church. Or, at least, it was a church. Blairmont bought it too! They bought a church!

Links:

• 2542 University at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 46

Left to right:

• 2529-31 Hebert Street (MLK 3000 LLC, May 2007)
  
• 2527 Hebert Street (Blairmont Associates LLC, March 2005)
  
• 2525 Hebert Street (MLK 3000 LLC, February 2007)

February 2008

The assessor's database is a little goofy on this one, indicating two buildings when there's actually three. But the upshot is still the same: Blairmont owns 'em all.

The aerial view shows a van parked in front of one, indicating occupancy circa 2005.

Links:

• 2525 Hebert at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 45

From the right:

• 2507 W. Hebert Street (Noble Development Co. LLC, May 2006)
  
• 2509 W. Hebert Street (Noble Development Co. LLC, May 2006)

February 2008

"Noble" "Development". It's a joke, see? Two lies for the price of one!

Both houses were occupied before Blairmont got their mitts on them -- reference the aerial view linked below. They've since been stripped of window awnings, occupants, and attic windows.

The rest of the houses shown here? Owned by people who live on the block.

This is such a lovely yet typical north side block -- a diverse array of houses, distinct yet harmonious. If Blairmont really had noble intentions, if they really cared about the city of St. Louis, they'd actually do some developing -- renovate the houses, or at least do basic maintenance and get tenants in them again.

Links:

• 2507 Hebert at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 44

• 2547 Dodier Street (Dodier Investors LLC, August 2007)

February 2008

"Dodier Investors". Ha! This is a kind of "investment" that Dodier Street could do without.

This building was once twice as wide as it is now, a twin. Brick rustlers completely destroyed half of it, and left the remains as a dangerous and unstable ruin. They also annihilated an identical LRA-owned building next door.

Links:

• 2547 Dodier at the City Assessor's database
  
• Pre-destruction Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 43

From the left:

• 2743 Howard Street (Dodier Investors LLC, August 2007)
  
• 2741 Howard Street (Dodier Investors LLC, August 2007)

November 2007

Blairmont's got both of the foreground houses -- including the slate blue one with the beautiful row of brackets. The next two are owner-occupied. Three other houses further down this JeffVanderLou block are also in Blairmont's hands.

Does Blairmont plan to demolish all of this? After all the slash-and-burn "renewal" of the last fifty years, haven't we outgrown that kind of madness?

Links:

• 2743 Howard at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?

Daily Dose of Blairmont 42

• 2946 Montgomery Street (Sheridan Place LLC, December 2006)
  
• 2948 Montgomery Street (VHS Partners LLC, April 2005)
  
• 2950 Montgomery Street (Sheridan Place LLC, February 2007)
  
• 2952 Montgomery Street (vacant - MLK 3000 LLC, July 2007)

February 2008

This block lost two similar houses within the last couple of years (they're present in the Bird's Eye Aerial view linked below, but not in the standard Aerial view, taken within the last year or two.) Blairmont owns the land that one of them stood on.

The remaining trio were already a pretty raggedy looking bunch, and now under Blairmont's stewardship, brick rustling has taken off the side wall of 2946.

Links:

• 2946 Montgomery at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont:
  Built St. Louis || Ecology of Absence || What Can I Do?