Daily Dose of Blairmont 163

• 3021 N. 20th Street (Union Martin LLC, May 2008, $80,000)

May 2008

Standing back-to-back with the houses lining beautiful St. Louis Place Park, this ought to be a valuable little building.

Instead, it stands with its context totally stripped away. An entire block of houses on nearby Wright Street has been obliterated due to Blairmont's wanton negligence. Vacant since 2005 but in surprisingly good condition, the house joined the Blairmont ranks only a few days after these photographs were taken.



June 2002 - photograph by Kevin Kieffer

Links:

• 3021 20th at the city's Geo St Louis 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?