Daily Dose of Blairmont 202

• 2532 W. Dodier Street (Union Martin LLC, September 2008, $85,000)

August 2003 - photograph by Kevin Kieffer

I'm sure Paul McKee Jr. wants to get this little frame house occupied again as soon as possible. After all, an arson spree devastated much of his property elsewhere on this block, and no upstanding developer or wise builder would want to see historic brick buildings lost to fire. That's throwing resources down the drain. You don't have to be a rich developer to see that, right?


March 2007


May 2008


"Thou shall not steal!! Exodus 20:10 In Jesus Name, You shall not Steal!!! Exodus 20:15 In Jesus Name! Jesus Loves You & Forgives You!!! Repent of your sins and die SAVED."

Links:

• 2532 W Dodier 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 104

Welcome to the 2500 block of Dodier Street, in the JeffVanderLou neighborhood. Here is an entire block laid to waste by Paul McKee's absentee shell companies. Arson and brick rustling have destroyed every building on the block's western end... except for one holdout, a profitable business that has refused Blairmont's offers of buy-out. Now they find themselves surrounded by a ghost town, a landscape of devastated architecture, buildings smashed by the hammer of McKee's speculatory schemes.

The southern half of the block, west to east:

• 2566 W. Dodier Street (Sheridan Place LLC, March 2007, $85,000)
  
• 2560 W. Dodier Street (Larmer LLC, April 2008)
  
• 2554 W. Dodier Street (LRA)
  
• 2546 W. Dodier Street (Blairmont Associates Ltd. Co., August 2004)
  
• 2540 W. Dodier Street (privately owned - not pictured)
  
• 2538 W. Dodier Street (privately owned - not pictured)
  
• 2534 W. Dodier Street (VHS Partners LLC, November 2005, $38,000)
  
• 2532 W. Dodier Street (privately owned - not pictured)

2566 W. Dodier - May 2008. Burned in the May 2008 arsons.


2560 W. Dodier - May 2008. Destroyed by brick rustlers.


2546 W. Dodier - May 2008. Destroyed by brick rustlers.

The northern block, east to west:

• 2515 W. Dodier Street (privately owned)
  
• 2517 W. Dodier Street (N & G Ventures LLC, May 2006, $65,000)
  
• 2525 W. Dodier Street (Larmer LLC, April 2008)
  
• 2527 W. Dodier Street (privately owned)
  
• 2547 W. Dodier Street (Larmer LLC, April 2008)
  
• 2549 W. Dodier Street (Clarence Machine Company)
  
• 2559 W. Dodier Street (Sheridan Place LLC, May 2007, $75,000)
  
• 2561 W. Dodier Street (Sheridan Place LLC, May 2007)

2517 W. Dodier (left) - May 2008


2525 W. Dodier - May 2008


2547 W. Dodier - May 2008. Burned in the May 2008 arsons.


The besieged commercial building, at 2549 W. Dodier - May 2008


2559 W. Dodier - May 2008. Destroyed by brick rustlers.


2561 W. Dodier (left) - May 2008. Burned, date unknown.

Blairmont also owns most of the vacant lots between the surviving buildings.

Links:

• 2525 W Dodier 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 29

• 2534-2536 W. Dodier Street (VHS Partners LLC, November 2005)

August 2003 - Photograph by Kevin Keiffer.


March 2007

This mid-block storefront building, long since converted to full residential use, is a reminder of the diversity once inherent to the city. Someone once ran a business here -- perhaps a small grocer or other store, giving local residents an easy place to shop. Corner stores and mid-block businesses were once common throughout the city; now they have all but vanished in many neighborhoods.

And now, with Blairmont having bought the building, even the reminder that such diversity can exist may be destroyed.

Update: Note the 3-story mansard roofed building in the background. That's 2546 Dodier, owned by Blairmont, and destroyed by fire over the first weekend of May 2008.

May 2008


June 2002 - Photograph by Kevin Keiffer.

Links:

• 2534 Dodier at the City Assessor's database
  
• Aerial view from Maps.Live.com
  
• More on Blairmont