|
 |
Botanical Heights:
McRee Town lifts itself to
HIGHER GROUND
|
By James Nicholson
On plates 91 and 92 in Camille Dry’s locally-treasured Topographical Perspective of Saint Louis (published in 1875), Shaw’s Garden (now the Missouri Botanical Garden) overlooks fields and farmland. Only two houses stand on McRee Avenue.
Shortly after the turn of the last century, what we now know as the McRee Town neighborhood was developed as housing for the employees of the nearby Liggett and Myers’ Tobacco Company. During the 1960s, the construction of Interstate 44 demolished significant portions of the neighborhood and divided what was left. A remnant (including the birthplace of Shelly Winters) became stranded on the south side of the interstate. The area left standing north of the highway experienced a brief renaissance in the 1970s with the advent of the extremely popular Bernard Pub, which never reopened after a small plane crashed on its roof.
That image proved symbolic for McRee Town, which deteriorated into a morass of absentee landlords, drug dealing, gunfire and prostitution. Residents were forced to flee rather than invest in the neighborhood (home ownership fell from 34 percent in the 1970s to 4 percent in 2000).
An attempt to revive McRee Town by making it an historic neighborhood failed when only one application for historic status was received in over 20 years. Home loans and auto insurance became impossible to obtain. The disinvestment in the neighborhood continued.
Re-enter the ever visionary will of Henry Shaw, which earlier had prevented a highway from running through another of his bequests to St. Louis, Tower Grove Park. Shaw mandated that the Garden’s trustees should husband the surrounding areas to ensure they remained “pleasant and attractive” to visitors. The Garden District Commission was formed in December 1998, funded by the Danforth Foundation, to facilitate communication between the Garden and its four surrounding neighborhoods. Resident perceptions and problems were addressed, and McRee Town became the focus of discussion.
Starting in 1997, former Garden Deputy Director Jonathan Kleinbard initiated two and a half years of community planning. According to Garden District Executive Director George Robnet, the Garden “never made its agenda a secret”—the goal was to stabilize and revitalize McRee Town.
Information was collected from residents. Neighborhood planning sessions, which began with some 45 participants, grew to attract over 200. Urban planners were hired to discuss with businesses and block units what was needed to stabilize the area. Ultimately, a plan was developed to split McRee Town in half: The solid housing and business stock in the western half would be rehabilitated, while an entirely new neighborhood would be developed in the eastern half.
Robnet stresses that residents who had to relocate were paid fair market value for their property, as well as moving expenses, relocation fees and inspection fees. “Home ownership opportunities were created for residents with a vested interest in the community,” he says. “Tenant benefits were great enough (for some) to become home owners.”
In the area to be rehabilitated, two-family flats will be turned into single units, four-family flats will be converted into townhouses, and passive green areas will be created. The residents themselves dictated that the new neighborhood, called Botanical Heights, should maintain the character of the original McRee Town.
 Classic urban designs were used on the interiors and exteriors of some of the Botanical Heights’ homes. |
|
The developer of Botanical Heights, McBride and Son Homes, took the assignment seriously. Its architects were driven around the neighborhood to photograph existing home styles. A classic urban streetscape was created utilizing alleys and green space. Two series of housing styles were designed. The upscale City Series replicates traditional St. Louis housing motifs with all brick exteriors and interiors, featuring, among other amenities, first floors with 10-foot ceilings, arched doors, oak staircases and hardwood floors. The
alternative Heritage Series combines brick with siding, provides an interior less geared to historical authenticity and allows potential owners to dictate individual levels of upgrades.
Chris Ferrari, McBride’s area manager for the development, points out that the Garden pushed for designs which would meld seamlessly into the area, and that McBride “purposefully did not move County houses into the project.” The brick selections, he says, are not standard for contemporary developments, but are of a style “more common in the City (and are the style to be used in the new ballpark).”
| The upscale City Series home features 10-foot ceilings, arched doors, oak staircases and hardwood floors. |
|
Instead of vinyl siding, McBride is using hardy planking in colors which coordinate with the rest of the Garden District. “We went to great lengths to make the exteriors blend with the neighborhood,” Ferrari says. “Botanical Heights is the first neighborhood developed by McBride in the City, and we were impressed with the City’s and the Garden’s commitment to the redevelopment area.”
Robert Herleth, the new deputy director of the Garden, points out that the Missouri Botanical Garden wants to be a good neighbor. “The vitality of the Garden is clearly linked to the vitality of the surrounding neighborhoods,” Herleth says. “Area-wide redevelopment projects of such scope demand significant monetary support.”
Herleth says he is very pleased with McBride’s commitment to the revitalization effort. “We want it to be a success for both McBride and the Garden District, as well as for the Garden,” he says.
Good neighbors, it seems, make good neighbors. Buyer interest in the project has come from the immediate neighborhood, the City, St. Louis County and Illinois. The residents of the Garden District, the Missouri Botanical Garden and McBride and Sons have combined to make Botanical Heights a model urban community just blocks away from, among other noteworthy entities, the Saint Louis University Medical School.
Henry Shaw would, no doubt, be pleased. |
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
