Even on the most simple buildings, the beauty of St. Louis terracotta was used. Just look at the example above or below.
The building below is well known in Old North; I really hope a buyer can snatch it up soon and renovate it.
A reader contacted me about her house; sadly, it’s just a vacant lot now.
There was a very interesting show on CH9 on Aug 30 called “Brick by Chance and Fortune” . It was the history of brickmakers and brick layers in STL in the late 1800’s. There were “bricklayers” who on did the interior walls , sides and back of the buildings. “Front men” did decorations on the fronts and typically were English men who wore derbys.
Dee, that is in fact one of my friends’ movies. His name is Bill Streeter. He’s working on another one about St. Louis history.
I would be interested to hear more about Mr. Streeter’s next work – I bought a copy of his brick documentary, it’s excellent.
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I understand that Ol’ St. Louis brick is in high demand like old Chicago brick. That fact makes it a necessity to protect what is left. What I don’t understand is why the city doesn’t have some type of reclamation project going to salvage the brick if they insist on leveling everything. Or maybe someone is getting a kick-back for allowing it to happen. I know for a fact that a lot of that brick is ending up here in new subdivisions in the south.