The two beleaguered four-family flats owned by out-of-town slumlords on DeSoto Avenue in College Hill have been torn down, which considering their condition, I was not surprised. Their owners may have never even seen them in real life (yes, people from around the world buy property in St. Louis sight unseen). You can see them off in the distance in the third photo in this post from March of 2019 and in the first photo from a month earlier.

Update: There has been further collapse as of the spring of 2022 (sixth photo).

The infamous abandoned nursing home at Grand and Blair is not doing well; an older service wing along Blair has collapsed, showering bricks into the alley. Across the alley, there is a very nice house, abandoned unfortunately, which is rendered all the more difficult to market for ownership or rehabbing by the continuing deterioration of its institutional neighbor. I assume that full demolition of the nursing home will be the eventual fate of what had been a richly historic location for serving the elderly for over a century. It is a large parcel of land, at that.

Further south into Hyde Park, the beautiful Greek Revival duplex on the western end of North Park Place has seen a collapse. It is not fatal, and there has been some wonderful rehabbing going on in this immediate area. I hope someone is inspired to buy this house and fix it soon. It is a textbook example of water damage at work.

There is some great news in Hyde Park, however; the beautiful remnant of what had been a long row of houses now has the lights on; I have been photographing this building below for years, including as recently as July of 2019 (fifth photo down), and it makes me so happy to see it saved. I was sure it was a goner, and it shows that with enough hard work individuals can save these amazing structures.

Update: The houses below were gone by late January.

Which brings me to these three houses below, which are being demolished, sadly. Unfortunately a buyer could not be found for them in time.