Darst-Webbe, which like many housing projects in the United States, is spoken about as a single complex today, but like Pruitt-Igoe on the Near North Side of St. Louis or Cabrini-Green in Chicago, was really two different projects originally. It was built on the grounds of the neighborhood annihilated in the 1940s between Soulard and Lafayette Square just south of Clinton Peabody. The famed firm of HOK seems to have been the architect.

The Joseph Darst Apartments, opening in 1956, were made up of four 9-story buildings with 645 units, and the Anthony Webbe Apartments, opening in 1961, were made up of two 9-story, one 12-story and one 8-story tower with 578 units. I think it goes without saying they were a failure, along with all the other pie-in-the-sky Modernist white savior complex projects from the mid-Twentieth Century.

Years ago, I found an out-of-date community website put together by residents where they said something to the effect, “You probably thought Darst-Webbe was crumby and run-down, and needed to be demolished. We thought so, too!” The complex, which sometimes is lumped in with with the Peabody Apartments, was razed in 1999.

Probably my most vivid memory of Darst-Webbe was with my family driving up Tucker on our way to a Cardinals game and watching a group of boys beating the crap out of somebody in one of the upper floors’ breezeways.

The entire complex was swept away, and in its place were three story apartments based off historic models.

In this case, the apartments are based off the schoolhouse of St. John Nepomuk, just across Tucker, which you can see here. We’ll see how long they last.