Jim Good to hear from you Gary ----- Original Message ----- From: "JAMES O BRASHER" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2005 2:37 PM Subject: [MO-STLOUIS-METRO] What I Found In STL Last Week >I wasn't going to say a word but I stumbled across a St Louis site today >called "Ecology Of Absence," that had this message: > > Re-roofing the projects > > The St. Louis Housing Authority is remodeling the low-rise Clinton-Peabody > housing project south of downtown. Part of this redesign includes the > ludicrous addition of hipped roofs to the formerly flat-roofed buildings > of the project. Some of the new roofs are in place, and the result is not > pleasant. The buildings, once very modest and modern, now sport > distracting hats. The point of the project eludes me. What do new roofs > have to do with the lives of residents? If anything, they degrade the > Clinton-Peabody project further through pure bad taste. > > My other question is concerning the hipped roofs: Are they supposed to > emulate those on the City Hospital? I can't see any other connection with > the surrounding Near South Side, on which the hipped roof is not unusually > prevalent. > -------------------------------------- > I too had occasion to travel to St Louis last week on a genealogy > expedition in search of truth and enlightenment that was not totally > successful but some what revealing. > > For instance, I found another family residence had disappeared sometime in > the last two years that had been located near Grand and Chouteau. This > disappearance now leaves me with one final building where my family lived > in St Louis from 1870 until today, July 19, 2005. The address of that > building that is still standing is 1445 La Salle Lane. > > That final address is located smack dab in the middle of the Clinton > Peabody Projects, and when it goes my whole St Louis family history goes. > (One Hundred thirty five years of it.) > > The above message about the renovation is just not so. I was there last > week and what I discovered was an apartment complex that was as modern > looking as some of the higher class condominiums near where I live in the > southwest, in fact their appearance would rival the appearance of the > condominiums. > > Not many people remember that the Clinton Peabody Projects were built back > in the very early 1940s for servicemen's families who were waiting for the > return of their husbands and fathers who were away fighting in World War > one. My father was away when my mother finally lucked out in 1945 and was > able to move us into Clinton Peabody. > > Today there is no feeling of poverty in the area as there was in the 1940s > and 1950s, somehow there is a feeling of spaciousness that I can not begin > to explain. Truman Street still feels like Grattan Street, Chouteau still > feels like Chouteau, Park doesn't feel like Park, Fourteenth doesn't feel > like Fourteenth and City Hospital feels like Beirut, Lebanon. I even > started wondering where all the ghosts moved to from the hospital. I even > drove by Soulard Market and got caught in all the construction going on > down there. > > My final thought as I drove away from the area was about a sinister > presence that not everyone is aware of: > I asked myself, What happened to all the roaches that we constantly > sprayed for the whole time we lived in the projects from 1945 until 1960? > Did they get that final crawler or is his descendants still running around > there happily running to and fro annoying the present occupants? > > > ==== MO-STLOUIS-METRO Mailing List ==== > NOTICE: Posting of virus warnings, test messages, chain letters, > political announcements, current events, items for sale, personal > messages, flames, etc.(in other words - spam) is NOT ALLOWED and will be > grounds for removal. Consideration for exceptions, contact Kathleen > Burnett [email protected] > > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. > Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.9.1/51 - Release Date: 7/18/2005 > >