(btw - I spent some time in this neighborhood the other day and really, really like it. As the buildings 'settle in' and show a little age and the trees get bigger it will look all the nicer.)
That this neighborhood has been transformed at all is truly remarkable.
In 1972, I rented an apartment in a converted house on Westminster Place between Boyle and Newstead. The landlord told me to never, ever walk north of Westminster Place of east of Boyle, and in 18 months of living there, I never walked the 100 feet north to Olive. By then, Gaslight Square was nothing but strip joints and dive bars. There was a methadone drop-in center on Boyle, just south of Olive. Every morning the junkies would congregate in the doorway waiting for their fix. Sarah and Olive was and open air drug and prostitution market. The residential streets east of Boyle, Westminster, McPherson and Maryland, were filled with boarded up buildings, trash and abandoned car filled vacant lots. The occupied buildings were what could only politely be called slums. Eventually, the blight began to get to stately single family homes on McPherson west of Boyle, all the way up to Taylor Avenue. Several homes on those blocks were boarded up and abandoned and eventually torn down.
I know a lot of you don't like the present development on Olive, and yes, I would have liked to have seen more street level retail with upper level residential, but it didn't happen. What is there now is a tremendous improvement over what it was just 35 short years ago.
Hopefully there will be soon! It looks like the Selkirk building pictured below will have two separate retail spaces. I've heard rumors of a restaurant, but as far as I know, no tenants have signed a lease yet.
steveinphila wrote:I know a lot of you don't like the present development on Olive, and yes, I would have liked to have seen more street level retail with upper level residential, but it didn't happen.
I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for more street-level retail. There are plans for three more condo buildings - hopefully at least one of them will have some retail space.
I made a point to drive up Olive today, since the barricades are gone. I gotta say, this neighborhood is really starting to look good. I'm not crazy about some of the architecture, but overall, it's quite a nice street. Once the trees grow a bit and people settle in, it should be great. Nice to see the spill-over starting to hit the surrounding streets.
update re: selkirk building ~~~ one tenant is already moved into the apartments upstairs. they look just great! the other 10 or so are still for lease. rumor has it the owner of jazz at the bistro has signed a lease for use of 1/3 of the bottom level and will be opening a jazz/supper club. i do know the ACLU is already moved in to the space that faces whittier.
Please god let that not just be a rumor. Nothing says class more than a really good Jazz club. There are not nearly enough of them in town.
It's funny to hear that someone moved into an apartment in Selkirks. My old boss used to buy things there when it was an auction house, and I spent a great deal of time in there when it was Opera Theatre of St. Louis' prop storage.
Any chance the new houses look like this??? I found this on Suburban Lou's thread about STL streetcars. Simply amazing. Makes me want to invent a time machine. My parents reminisce about going on dates to Gaslight Square. I find it funny to hear them say that they hung out at the Playboy Club. Too bad thats not still there.
So I had to venture all the way out to the Family Arena in St. Charles last night. My girlfriend got her dad tickets to see the Smothers Brothers. Two little old ladies behind me told me that they saw the Smothers Brothers in the early 60's in Gaslight Square in a basement venue opening for Phyllis Diller! I said that I wished they were playing in Gaslight instead of the G-D, F-ing Family F-ing Arena. (not an exact quote). They were horrified!!. I told them that the area was starting to come back along with much of the city as well and they were pleased to hear it. Would have been nice to pick their memories of the area. They probably haven't been back in 30 years.
I saw President Bush at the family arena. That place makes me want to puke. I honestly thought I was surrounded by people in that scene in Borat, when he's at the evangelical church... awful...
Laugh-In...???...Hell, I remember when Jack Paar was host of Tonight, which by the way, I very well remember hearing Jack introduce the Smothers Brothers when guests, adding that they'll be appearing or just got back from appearing somewhere in Gaslight Square.
I noticed a sign for a new building at the Northwest corner of Olive and Whittier. I think it's called Lumaire or something. Anyway, it looks like a very handsome building. Not at all like most of the stuff that has been built in Gaslight Square. This is more like what they should have been building all along, IMO. Maybe somebody out there could post a photo of it?
saaman will be building another high density building on the corner opposite this building as well. i personally like the mix of the buildings we have now as well as the new ones coming online.
This is becoming a dense neighborhood - great to see something like this area developing at the 'margins' of the CWE and Midtown. Maybe parts of ONSL would be well served by some similar development . . .
agreed! ive also learned that Saaman has plans to build 9 more units (probably in two separate buildings) in the 4000 block of washington (between sarah and vandeventer). development is contagious!
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