Any interest rising in the restoration of this fantastic property?

Good question. Not sure of really anything going on with it.

It's now owned by speculators organized as "Blairmont LC." The registration of Blairmont was done by the CT Corporation System, so no one can find the names of the real partners. Blairmont is actively buying vacant buildings and lots in Old North St. Louis and St. Louis Place. Some northsiders managed to track down Blairmont's agent, Harvey Noble at Eagle Realty, but he's not the owner.



Someone knows who Blairmont is, though, because the St. Louis Public Schools sold Howard School (2333 Bentonin St. Louis Place) to Blairmont in 2004 for $60,000.

Manor with murky ties to Twain is a mess

By Jake Wagman

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

11/24/2005



The house at 1849 Cass Avenue









"I don't know anything that mars good literature so completely as too much truth."



- Mark Twain





Tom Sawyer - your services are needed on Cass Avenue.



If Mark Twain were around today, he could use the guile of his signature character to spruce up Clemens House, a decaying St. Louis mansion associated with the great American humorist. The manor is in desperate need of a fresh coat of paint, not to mention a new roof, windows, porch and facade. The disheveled lawn could use some attention, too.



"It's kind of spooky," said Sean Moore, who lives across the street.



The manor is really only marginally connected to Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens. But the latest push to preserve the house has all the ingredients of a Twain satire: fuzzy history, urban decay, religious orders and dueling lawyers.



Citing neglect, lawyers for the city have sued the owner of the property.



The lawsuit, filed last month, also calls the Clemens House a "historically significant" structure, in part because of its association with Twain.



That's where the history gets murky. To paraphrase the man himself, the reports of Twain's relationship to the house have been greatly exaggerated.



This much is generally agreed upon: The house was built around 1860 by James L. Clemens Jr., a wealthy merchant known as a ladies' man in frontier-era St. Louis.



He was also, it is agreed, related to Twain, although there are conflicting reports of exactly how. The lawsuit, for instance, says Clemens was Twain's uncle. Other accounts put Clemens as a distant cousin.



"I had heard brother-in-law," said Fifth Ward Alderman April Ford Griffin, who represents the area.



Not really, Twain experts say.



"You could say he is a second cousin once removed. Not quite a third cousin," said Victor Fischer, an editor at the Mark Twain Project at the University of California at Berkeley.



Twain's father, John Marshall Clemens, and James Clemens had the same great-grandparents, Fischer said.



There is scant evidence that Twain ever stayed at the house. Or whether he even met his St. Louis cousin. One 1855 letter discussed a meeting between the two where Clemens tried to dissuade Twain from becoming a steamboat pilot. Not only did Twain take the job, it also became a great influence on his later work.



That hasn't stopped the house - architecturally significant in its own right - from being one of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis' most endangered sites.



"It's a magnificent example of a kind of architecture that has almost completely disappeared," said Kate Shea, director of the city's Cultural Resources Office. "We would be foolish to lose the last one."



When Clemens died, the property was sold to nuns who built a chapel on the grounds. In the 125 years since, the property has been owned by a Catholic charity, a Baptist missionary and, beginning in 2002, the Universal Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation.



Left unoccupied, city officials now complain that the front of the house is buckling, sagging and separating from the original house. There are gaping holes in the roof. Water has weakened the foundation, "creating a danger that the walls of the structure will crumble or cave."



As winter approaches, the danger could increase from trespassers lighting fires inside to keep warm, the lawsuit says.



The city wants the owner of the property to secure the home immediately, then either maintain it or sell it to someone who will.



But exactly who owns the house now is just as muddled as its Twain connection. The suit names Blairmont Associates Limited Co., which bought the property this year.



Property records show that Blairmont has purchased dozens of properties in the city over the last few years, including many in the Fifth Ward. Blairmont's lawyer, Stuart H. Goldenberg, would not say who is behind the company.



Judge David Dowd has set a court date on the case for Thursday.



Meanwhile, the house looks more like the setting for an Edgar Allan Poe story than anything from a Twain novel. Clothes, shattered glass and a broken bench litter the backyard. The front porch is fraught with decaying wood. A sign on the front door warns visitors to stay away.



Moore, who has a clear view of the mansion from his front window, said it reminds him of a haunted house.



In other words, a perfect hide-out for Tom Sawyer - whether Twain slept there or not.

[/img]

It's for sale. Bidders should attach their offer to a helium balloon, let it go and hope that there is a strong far westward wind that will carry it to the offices of Blairmont Associates LC.

so what is the current status of the home? there are blue tarps across parts of the entrance portico and plastic orange mesh blocking off the lower area of the front porch. is the owner attempting to "protect" it now that it's up for sale, or has someone else bought it? and is there any news on the cast-iron pediment that was stolen last winter?

Does anyone know where I can find some architectural blue prints of the Clemens Mansion and Chapel? I am a grad student doing my arch thesis project on the Clemens house, and I can't find/ get ahold of anyone who has some floor plans, sections, etc.

I have received some historic data and pictures of the site, neighborhood, and some interior photos from the historic society... but again, nothing having to do with actual plans. If anyone could help me out, that would be fantastic, and greatly appreciated... or if anyone knows a contact name, that would also be appreciated.

Thanks, Nicole

try this link:

http://aad.archives.gov/aad/fielded-sea ... tf=F&bc=sl



File unit: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) Database Files, September 1997 (Part 1), 1933 - 9/24/1997

in the Series: Index to the Sites and Related Documentation in the Historic American Buildings Survey / Historic American Engineering Record Materials, created ca. 1980 - 1997, documenting the period 1933 - 9/24/1997 - Record Group 515 (info).



MO0273 MISSOURI ST. LOUIS Clemens,James S. ,House Walsh,Patrick St. Louis, Missouri 0 8

Thanks so-ill,

I have actually been on the HABS site and found that file already..and they only have text files and photographs....

Thanks for your help though!!!

nic

this house continues to rot, getting worse by the day. someone should do something!

Sorry, I'm all tapped out at the moment.

It's still owned by Paul McKee right?



Because that's basically a death sentence.

thought it was owned by blairmont?

if i had 180k, i would SO buy it.

Looks like McKee might have purchased the Clemons Mansion years ago and has plans to revitalize it as perhaps a museum. The article also talks about the Chinese reading Mark Twain novels and having interest in the history. Interesting with all the talks of the Chinese Cargo hub being initiated by McKee.



http://www.stlbeacon.org/development/cl ... per_mckee_

When developer Paul McKee would meet with Chinese business executives as part of one of his major local initiatives -- a major hub for trade with China -- the first thing they often brought up was one of Missouri's most famous sons: Mark Twain.

"I couldn't figure it out," McKee said, "so I finally asked someone I know, and he said that many people in China learn English by reading Mark Twain novels."



Hence, it's no surprise that a central focus of what is McKee's largest project -- a massive redevelopment of north St. Louis -- should be the 151-year-old mansion built by Twain's relative, James Clemens Jr.



McKee and other area leaders have talked about turning it into a museum, a community meeting place or some other type of site that could return the property to its former glory.



The Clemens mansion, at 1849 Cass Avenue, is frequently cited as an example of how McKee has let many of the properties he has bought in north St. Louis get run down from lack of attention. It sits on a large, weed-infested lot right in the middle of new residential construction.



It was included on this year's list of the area's most endangered properties put together by the Landmarks Association of St. Louis. (See earlier Beacon story on the Landmarks list or read a Built St. Louis post on the Clemens mansion.)



Built in 1858, it was the scene of parties that reportedly included the governor of Missouri as a guest -- and maybe the owner's relative, writer Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain, though no one seems to know that for sure. In 1885, it was sold to the Sisters of St. Joseph, who added a chapel directly to the east 11 years later.

Over the past 60 years, it has been used by various social service agencies, but the property has been vacant, boarded up and abandoned for several years. McKee says he bought it about four years ago as one of the first parcels he acquired in the area. Two buyers were interested in the property, he said, but both deals fell through.



McKee said he aimed to preserve the property and had much of the ornamental iron work removed and stored. Meanwhile, the roof of the chapel collapsed a year ago. A large weed grows out of the roof of the main building, graffiti decorates a wall at the rear entrance and the lot stands out like an overgrown eyesore in the middle of a neighborhood that has already seen its share of reconstruction and rebirth.



"That house needs to be saved if we can," McKee said recently after a presentation for his large-scale redevelopment project in north St. Louis. "But we can't save it overnight."



Saving the building is one thing. What it would become is another question -- one that may be answered by the impression of McKee's Chinese contacts who seemed to think that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn sprang to fictional life right around the corner.



McKee has discussed the redevelopment concept with Robert Archibald of the Missouri History Museum, Peter Raven of the Missouri Botanical Garden, David Fisher of the Great Rivers Greenway and others. He sees it as a place to showcase the sustainability concept that he says is central to his north St. Louis complex, with gardens, a walking path and a place for those in the neighborhood to gather.



He also envisions a possible way to pay for it: federal stimulus funds. What he needs to do, McKee said, is get the physical dimensions of the building, then put the project together. It's very early in the planning stages, he said this week, but it's also a "very high priority."



"The trick is to get it put together as quick as possible so we can know what it would cost to do all that," McKee added.



"The reason I think that something should happen sooner rather than later is that the neighborhood around there is very stable. I think it could be a place for people to meet people. Economic diversity and intersections are very, very important to the project."



Archibald, who said he has visited the property a couple of times, is attracted by its history, not only with the Clemens family but as a convent. He notes that though the chapel may be beyond repair, the original house, which features busts of a female figure along the cornice, appears to be salvageable.



He noted that it is the only building remaining in the area that has the scale and the land available to serve the purpose that McKee envisions.



"It's a gorgeous house on a gorgeous lot," he said, "sitting where you don't find anything like it."

"That house needs to be saved if we can," McKee said recently after a presentation for his large-scale redevelopment project in north St. Louis. "But we can't save it overnight."



Saving the building is one thing. What it would become is another question -- one that may be answered by the impression of McKee's Chinese contacts who seemed to think that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn sprang to fictional life right around the corner.



He also envisions a possible way to pay for it: federal stimulus funds. What he needs to do, McKee said, is get the physical dimensions of the building, then put the project together. It's very early in the planning stages, he said this week, but it's also a "very high priority."

I see he's a comedian now. I live a few blocks away from the edge of his planned development, so I stand to gain a lot in terms of property values, but this sort of crap really rubs me the wrong way. He's had the deed and the means to rehab this place for years, but he chose not to.



It reads like he just discovered he owns this place.

The Clemens House, McKee's ownership and his neglect of the house have been known to city attorneys for awhile.



I get the impression, though I can't say for sure, that they were told to back off by people up (way up) the food chain.

^ True.



Can someone get a l-o-n-g measuring tape and get the dimensions of the building so that it can be saved!?

I'm also getting the feeling that he's flat broke or very near it. If he can't even do this project without public funds, I seriously doubt his ability to stay afloat while waiting for the rest of the money to become available.

UrbanPioneer wrote:


?

Several reasons.



1. Stock market has lost ~40% of it's value in the last year. So unless McKee pulled out last year or shorted everything, he's lost a ton of money.



2. Any real estate he had is worth substantially less.



3. Banks aren't lending to anything but low risk anymore (harder for him to float or refinance his outstanding debts) and they are cutting back on available credit, especially for land developments.



4. His sudden need for the money to start flowing almost immediately (of which the local, state, and fed aren't good at)



5. His need for federal funds to pull off even this restoration.



1 and 2 above show me he has substantially less assets than he had when he started this acquisition process.



3 tells me there is a good chance banks won't loan to him because of 1 and 2.



4 tells me he needs to get the ball rolling very quickly because he's over leveraged. If he wasn't why would he be worried about sitting on this project indefinitely? All the properties cost him is annual taxes and any fines his company has to pay for upkeep.



5 tells me he doesn't have the cash or credit available to fund a 2 million dollar restoration, which in the scope of the overall project, he should.



There is a common occurrence with wealthy individuals. They got rich by using other people's money. There isn't anything wrong with that, but the risk is high in an economy like this, especially when related to real estate, and that is where the majority of his wealth came from.



If I am wrong about this, private banks (local banks would be an even bigger positive) will be joining him, but so far it doesn't look like that is the case.

Heh, w.t.f. are you talking about? It sounds like you don't want the property improved. Whereas citizens in other areas fight for public subsidy, you fight to keep it out. Really smart, dude!