Tag Archives: st. louis

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: an Urban History examines the story of the post World War II Pruitt-Igoe urban renewal project in St. Louis through the eyes of those who lived there.

An excerpt from the film’s website:

Completed in 1954, the 33 11-story buildings of Pruitt-Igoe were billed as the solution to the overcrowding and deterioration that plagued inner city St. Louis. Twenty years later, the buildings were leveled, declared unfit for habitation.

What happened in Pruitt-Igoe has fueled a mythology repeated in discussions of many urban high-rise projects. Violence, crime, drugs and then establishment of rehab centres—like the very famous legacy healing center. That’s how the the story goes, plagued the housing project from nearly the beginning as it became a “dumping ground” for the poorest city residents.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth tells of a declining city; a suburbanizing nation; a changing urban economy; a hope for the future; and residents who fought back in their own ways, refusing to be passive victims of these larger forces aligned against them.

The documentary has two goals. One is to inform and enhance the ongoing debate over public housing and government welfare programs. The film uses Pruitt-Igoe as a lens through which a larger story about affordable housing and the changing American city can be viewed. It untangles the various arguments about what went wrong in Pruitt-Igoe and dispels the over-simplifications and stereotypes that turned Pruitt-Igoe into a symbol of failure. Second, the film illustrates how conclusions are dangerously and erroneously drawn when powerful interests control debate.

Wikipedia – Entry on Pruitt-Igoe

Gateway Community Hospital

Gateway Community Hospital

An excerpt from Savage Inequalities by Johnathan Kozol on the medical facilities available to East St. Louis residents in 1990.

East St. Louis-which the local press refers to as “an inner city without an outer city”-has some of the sickest children in America. Of 66 cities in Illinois, East St. Louis ranks first in fetal death, first in premature birth, and third in infant death. Among the negative factors listed by the city’s health director are the sewage running in the streets, air that has been fouled by the local plants, the high lead levels noted in the soil, poverty, lack of education, crime, dilapidated housing, insufficient health care, unemployment. Hospital care is deficient too. There is no place to have a baby in East St. Louis. The maternity ward at the city’s Catholic hospital, a l00-year-old structure, was shut down some years ago. The only other hospital in town was forced by lack of funds to close in 1990. The closest obstetrics service open to the women here is seven miles away. The infant death rate is still rising.

As in New York City’s poorest neighborhoods, dental problems also plague the children here. Although dental problems don’t command the instant fears associated with low birth weight, fetal death or cholera, they do have the consequence of wearing down the stamina of children and defeating their ambitions. Bleeding gums, impacted teeth and rotting teeth are routine matters for the children I have interviewed in the South Bronx. Children get used to feeling constant pain. They go to sleep with it. They go to school with it. Sometimes their teachers are alarmed and try to get them to a clinic. But it’s all so slow and heavily encumbered with red tape and waiting lists and missing, lost or canceled welfare cards, that dental care is often long delayed. Children live for months with pain that grown-ups would find unendurable. The gradual attrition of accepted pain erodes their energy and aspiration. I have seen children in New York with teeth that look like brownish, broken sticks. I have also seen teen-agers who were missing half their teeth. But, to me, most shocking is to see a child with an abscess that has been inflamed for weeks and that he has simply lived with and accepts as part of the routine of life. Many teachers in the urban schools have seen this. It is almost commonplace.

There is some hope for current East St. Louis residents as the area is now served by the Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital. In a city where the median income is ~$26,000/household I doubt most residents have the luxury of having health insurance. A national health care option would have greatly improved the quality of life in the area, but the healthcare reforms passed this year fall short of offering such an option.

Gateway Community Hospital

Gateway Community Hospital

In December 2009 my grandmother passed away and the funeral was in St. Louis. I had some time before the service to drive through East St. Louis. Passing by the Gateway Community I noticed how easily it would have been to gain access through the ground level windows. By the time I returned in March 2010 a fence around the perimeter of the hospital had been erected. Plastic now lined the windows on the eastern wing and it appears that asbestos abatement is underway. In the parking lot was a pickup truck with a security guard keeping a close eye on us as we encircled the hospital on foot. It was a bit of a let down, as I had scheduled my day around exploring the hospital. News reports indicate that this former hospital building is indeed coming down. I was glad to get a few shots of it before it is completely gone.

Gateway Community Hospital

Image Source

Research:

Ecology of Absence – Gateway Community Hospital

Ecology of Absence – Photos of GCH

KMOV – News broadcast on GCH

BND – Article on demolition

Peter Hauptmann Billboard

184X

Count the number of advertisements you see the next time you walk down the street in any metropolitan area. Try your best to count every single little bit of advertising space you can. This mental exercise can become overwhelming in a matter of minutes. Americans are bombarded with advertising at every turn in urban spaces. This isn’t the case in East St. Louis. Pictured above is one of the few standing billboards in East St. Louis.

184X

Peter Hauptmann (1839 – 1904) was a major player in the tobacco industry and St. Louis bigwig during his time. The Peter Hauptmann label was one of wealth and prosperity. This bulletin board advertised a brand of whiskey the company produced called David Nicholson 1843 Bonded Whiskey (source). By the looks of this sign however, Peter Hauptmann’s time has long since passed us by. Poverty has driven advertisers completely out of East St. Louis. With median household income of only $26,000 (2008 – source) most residents of East St. Louis have no discretionary income. East St. Louis is not in some third world country located in South America, Eastern Europe, or Africa. East St. Louis is in the heart of the United States of America.

This map shows the long shadow cast by the billboard. When navigating cities it is important to get your bearings by picking landmarks. When in East St. Louis I used the Peter Hauptmann billboard as one such bearing.

Research:

Find a Grave – Peter Hauptmann

Google Books – Emil Harms: Peter Hauptmann Company Vice President

Google Books – The Southwestern Reporter: State vs. Kosky

Peter Hauptmann Company – 1892 Advertisement

Ecology of Absence – 1843

The New York Times – June 19, 1897 Tobacco Trade Secrets

History of the National Cigar Company – Acquired Peter Hauptmann Company in the 1960’s.

Jonathan Kozol – Savage Inequalities

East St. Louis demographic statistics

Murphy Building in East St. Louis

Murphy Building Stairwell

The Murphy Building stands within a stonesthrow of the Spivey Building. If you look closely in top photo above, you can see vegetation growing in the brickwork. Getting up to the higher floors now requires an explorer to exit a second story window and walk up a rickety steel fire escape, as the main stairwell has crumbled into the ground floor. I did not have the stomach climbing out onto the fire escape.

MURPHY BLDG.

As you can see from this photo the Murphy Building has a beautifully adorned entrance. Vandals have already taken some of the mason work from the higher floor. There isn’t much that remains inside from the time the building was in operation. It is easily accessible, though you will need a flashlight to navigate your way through the basement as no sunlight shines in. The beauty shop, which must have been open for business after the main Murphy Building closed, is accessible through this way.

Murphy Building Facade

Research Links:

Built St. Louis – Murphy Building Photos

Ecology of Absence – Murphy Building

Panoramino – The Majestic Theater and Murphy Building

Flickr Group – East St. Louis

Flickr Search – Murphy Building

Spivey Building in East St. Louis

Spivey Building

Whenever you mention that your driving into St. Louis, Missouri people reflexively joke, “Don’t get off the highway too early. You don’t want to end up in East St. Louis.” My natural response is “Why?” The answer people give to that question is that the city is riddled with crime, it looks dirty and there is a good chance you’ll get shot. I then ask if they have ever actually set foot in East St. Louis and predictably the answer is “no.”

If you take 55 into St. Louis, Missouri you have to pass through East St. Louis, Illinois. Because the highway has to span the mighty Mississippi River it goes up quite high. On the road the most notable structure in East St. Louis is a lone 13-story building towering over all the rest. This is the Spivey Building, which in many ways embodies the history of East St. Louis.

Spivey Building

Allen Spivey constructed the building in 1929 that bears his name. The Spivey Building was meant to be a symbol of prosperity in the growing wealthy city of East St. Louis. At the time the location was prime real estate. It was located in the very heart of downtown, stood next to a theater, and was a short distance away from all the major shopping venues. Jobs in East St. Louis were plentiful, cars were beginning to fill the streets, and East St. Louis was home to about 75,000 people with money to spend. The city would peak at just over 82,000 residents according to 1940 census data.

Der fliegende Schädel

Despite Spivey’s high expectations for East St. Louis, the tides of fortune took a turn for the worse. A combination of of racial tensions in the mid-1900’s, white flight, corrupt politicians, manipulative corporations and dwindling tax base turned East St. Louis into what it is today. The Spivey Building was caught in the middle of it all.

The perimeter around the building is fairly secure. Sources who have been inside say that there isn’t much that remains. Vandals have long made off with anything of value. Talks of renovating the building have gone all but nowhere.

When I think of the Spivey Building, I cannot help but be reminded of Langston Hughes’ poem entitled “Dream Deferred.”

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

Research Links:

Ecology of Absence – The Spivey Building: The Death of a Dream?

Ecology of Absence – Spivey Building Secured, Damaged

STL Streets – Video inside the Spivey Building

Built St. Louis – Photos of the Spivey Building

Sketching St. Louis – Artistic rendition of the Spivey Building

Time – 1989 article on East St. Louis

Urban St. Louis – 2005 article about the building’s demolition

Emporis – Spivey Building

4th of July on top of Spivey

Wikipedia – East St. Louis