Historic Preservation

American historic preservation is unique. We value an exacting maintenance of form and materials. It's often an all or nothing. This isn't without reason, but it leads to interesting challenges in a city like St. Louis, where sometimes perfection can be the enemy of good. Requiring exacting standards can sometimes prevent investment. Ultimately, historic preservation guidelines are a local issue as neighborhoods set standards. In St. Louis, the result is sharp edges between neighborhoods such as Lafayette Square and Peabody Darst Webbe and between Soulard and Kosckiusko. It would seem that a graduated preservation standard could go a long way toward creating a better city - though that's a topic for another post.

Next week's City of St. Louis Preservation Board agenda aptly highlights the various challenges of historic preservation in St. Louis: high-end yoga clothing retailer seeks to add flash to a Central West End storefront, vinyl windows installed without permit, proposed demolition and reconstruction of the Swedish Society Building and a covered patio structure in historic Soulard. There's a little of everything this month.

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It was an evening in March 1930, and a crowd had gathered at a prestigious gallery in the United States. On one wall were works by Paul Cezanne and on another works by Seurat, Segonzac and Derain. On that evening, this was the center of the art trade in a world thrust into economic depression. And the world’s modern masterpieces were on display.

And they were for sale. All of them.

The location was at the northeast corner of Locust and Tenth Streets in downtown St. Louis. Art dealer Arthur A. Kocian stood watch as collectors and gawkers eyed the paintings that hung at the Noonan-Kocian Art Company, 923 Locust Street.[1]


{923 Locust in 1955 - even though the gallery had moved across the street and a modern storefront added, framed paintings can still be seen in the second story window}

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{13 homes on the 4400 block of Gibson Avenue in St. Louis have been renovated using historic tax credits}

A group of Missouri legislators working to dramatically reduce the historic tax credit are asking if we really want to spend this much money on old buildings. Considering that other primary goals include creating jobs, attracting businesses, and garnering a competitive edge on surrounding states, the answer is yes, we do want to keep an incentive that revitalizes historic buildings in Missouri. At its heart, the program is less about preserving iconic historic buildings and more about leveraging investment in the older, unique neighborhoods and core downtowns that define and anchor our communities statewide.

The historic tax credit is an economic development incentive that has created 43,000 jobs, nearly $7 billion in direct private investment, and effectively returns vacant and underutilized buildings, usually in depressed areas, back to re-use and property tax rolls. The Senate’s hell-bent desire to reduce the historic tax credit by over 50% is therefore quite incongruous with its stated effort to harbor a statewide environment of strong economy-boosting opportunity. Their argument is that all tax credit programs need to be cut. But not all tax credit programs are equal, and the historic tax credit has been well-documented as our best economic development and job creation incentive.

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In the wake of Saint Louis University President Father Lawrence Biondi's announcement that he will step down, it will undoubtedly be remarked as a matter of faith he helped transform Midtown and the SLU campus, and while much has been built over the course of his 25 years at the helm, much has been needlessly demolished. It's worth accounting for what has been lost, and each building below was replacd with an empty lot. Biondi Before an After:

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