On the afternoon of January 22, another fire broke out in the former St. Augustine’s, but this time it was apparently in the other end of the church, towards the front doors. The damage from the previous fire in the sacristy and apse was severe.
It’s hard to tell how much damage occurred because the building has been at least nominally secured again, and I wouldn’t be caught dead going inside anyway at this point. The property has now passed into the hands of the Land Reutilization Authority as of mid-December of 2023.
As a friend remarked, unless someone wins the lottery and has a lot of cash to blow, it seems like there is little chance at this point of the church being saved.
Chris, wasn’t there a man and woman who were renovating the church for a community center, whatever became of that plan, if I recall there was some grant money involved.
There was, but basically trespassers kept breaking in and stealing and vandalizing the church so badly that it couldn’t succeed.
If this place goes down I give up on anything good ever happening in st louis…it’s over.
They tried so hard…this is so sad. I actually wrote to the mayor back when they were asking where to spend all the money they had…