- 2336-2336H North Market Street (N & G Ventures LLC, July 2006)
November 2007
"Isolated" is an understatement. This house is a true survivor, a rare structure left in the astonishing blocks around N. 23nd Street, an urban prairie where nearly everything has been swept away.
Yet this house remained, occupied as recently as 2005 or so, as can be seen clearly on the aerial view linked below.
Then came Blairmont.
Where did the windows go? Did the departing residents pack them up and take them with them? Or were they just living without any windows? Is that it? Or did the new owner deliberately remove them? Why would they do such a thing?
What's most frustrating is that there's no need for this sort of tactic. There are acres of vacant land around this site, block after block of nothing. Grass fields. Empty land. There's no need to even tear this house down to create more land. The open land is already there.
And so, there's definitely no need to be buying up lots and houses in thriving areas like Old North St. Louis -- areas that quite simply are not going to go away -- and then sitting on them or destroying them. As a development tactic, it won't work. It cannot work. There's no need for it to work! And it's criminally negligent and hostile toward the people who still live there.
- Links:
- 2336 North Market at the City Assessor's database
- Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
- More on Blairmont
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