urbanSTL

It's heartbreaking and exhausting. Even the fancy metal board-up systems don't seem to be a match for the squatters/arsonists, as we saw in the RWX downtown. Can we fence in vacant landmark properties and house the surliest stray dogs there, in some kind of a symbiotic arrangement? JK, but maybe not...

PD update:

"The city Parks Department said the house was supposed to be vacant but was being used recently by homeless people."

"Authorities said the home sustained extensive damage to the rear and moderate damage inside. The cause of the fire is under investigation."

Does this happen other places? Squatters got into a house inside the city park and set a fire in it? Are squatters just going to burn down all of Carondelet/Patch? I am just absolutely confused how we allow this. We lose buildings to these squatter fires at a ridiculous rate it seems, especially in this same area.

This is incredibly sad and dejecting.

I live in Holly Hills on the north side of the Park. A neighborhood group (Friend of Carondelet Park) has been working for the last 10ish years to "save" the Lyle House. They raised a decent amount of money to that end, but unfortunately could never cement a concrete plan with buy-in from all the relevant parties (City Parks dept., park advisory board, special business district, neighborhood associations, etc.). 

Seemingly nobody had the final say on what could/should be done, so instead homeless vagrants decided for us. Very sad, and very St. Louis.

Very sad and very expected. You would think they could have used the money to secure the building until a better plan was in place to restore it. But I guess not.

I have never understood why that building wasn't a more prominently featured part of the park. 

I always thought it would be a nice space for a small city museum, maybe for Carondolet, or for the house itself, or for the park or something else. 

They did take some steps to secure the the two buildings. Electric has been disconnected, water shut off, and entry points sealed. As someone noted upthread, its hard to really keep out people determined to get in. That said, it appears from the photos the fire may have started in the gangway between the two buildings.

There were two main, competing proposals: create a public museum for the area/park, or rehab to spec and sell or lease to a commercial venture, e.g., coffee shop or even a B&B. Either would have been a heavy lift. The former seemed more feasible, but there was a concern about funding operations and maintenance. Parking was an obstacle for either scenario, and both were cost-prohibitive.

I was just on Maple Place in West End and it was hard to see the DeHodiamont house through all the brush and trees but I think it came through the storm okay, give or take. I thought I was walking outside the tornado zone but there's a stripe of damage in West End and both Maple Place and West Cabanne saw some uprooted trees and some roof damage with other blocks south seeing some isolated damage. I didn't make it further north than Maple so I don't know if it continued but everyone was out working in their yard on Maple Place so I decided I'd be back another day rather than take photos.