The long-suffering College Hill neighborhood hasn’t been in the news much, but it was wracked with violence a while back.
There is a lot of abandonment, and then you come across a duplex like the one above, built in the 1960s, but now under renovation after a fire, perhaps.
Update: See the house above in the winter of 2019 and February of 2021. I revisited the house in the winter of 2023.
A very rare wood-frame, half flounder house hides in the thick underbrush, above.
Down in the College Hill Valley, as I call it, there are still some buildings still occupied, such as this storefront church above.
Update: See this above cluster of houses in the winter of 2019.
And then there is this large pocket of wood frame alley houses, still hanging on.
Update: See this church in the spring of 2018 (second to last photograph) and the winter of 2019 (last photographs), February of 2021 and May of 2022.
The old Lutheran Church is stylistically Romanesque, but its massing and steeple form is more Gothic, a common mix in St. Louis.
I really like that top double house. It looks like it actually has somewhat of a roof, has a solid foundation and masonry, still retains some of an interior, and is more than just a brick shell. Unless it is collapsing in the back, it would be a comparably “easy” restoration (along with the half flounder). It even still retains some windows that can be repaired. Some true urban pioneer would do well restoring either of those buildings (though with the vacant lots in North St. Louis, those urban pioneers are almost rural pioneers).
Are there any urban pioneers renovating houses in north city? I haven’t heard about them, but I hope there are, with all of those beautiful house waiting to be saved.
I do not think there are many that far north, but if someone wants to become one, College Hill and the two houses I mentioned would be good opportunities. There is so much great architecture in the northern half of St. Louis that needs to be restored. Several neighborhoods, if they were in a nice coastal city instead of St. Louis, would be second to none in architectural and real estate values.
No, I haven’t seen any evidence of rehabbing. There is the church that an enterprising man has resurrected. There was a P-D article about it a few months ago; unfortunately, their search engine is so terrible I can’t find it now.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/hope-and-rebirth-at-an-old-church-in-college-hill/article_e3847825-c066-59db-b979-e34b7e76c19c.html