scheduled tribe. LOUIS (KMOV.com) — In a video that has been viewed more than 3 million times, Caleb Higgins outlines his plan to restore a long-vacant Victorian mansion in downtown North St.
“It was built in 1889 by Charles S. Brown,” Higgins said.
The home sits on St. Louis Avenue in the St. Louis Place neighborhood along a stretch that was once known as Millionaire’s Row. Many grand and luxurious houses survived, some in good condition, some collapsed.
This was the case when Higgins bought it in 2020 for $65,000.
“There were a lot of structural issues, a lot of tuckpointing in the back. We had some walls behind us that were starting to collapse,” he said.
The project has been over a year and they have stabilized the structure and are working on the very long goal of restoring it to its original glory. A process that he documents on his YouTube channel, Second Empire Strike Back. This makes reference to the unique style of architecture found in parts of St. Louis.
The building lay vacant for more than a decade after the foreclosure. It was one of more than 10,000 people across the city that sparked the debate: Demolish or Save.
“Everybody wants to jump in for demolition, it’s the easiest thing to picture. Building is a problem, let’s fix it. But the reality is that many of these properties can be saved, if not now, then later.” And we can only do so much to improve safety by stabilizing structures, keeping water out and people out,” said Laura Ginn, vacancy strategist for the St. Louis Development Corporation.
One of the funding sources to stabilize these buildings is Prop ns. It was passed by the city’s voters in 2017. It allocates up to $6 million annually to fix issues on city-owned, LRA properties. Large objects, such as a new ceiling or a missing wall, make properties more accessible to a rehab.
in the city so far constant 50 properties,
There are nine properties currently available for sale, all on the north side of St. Louis, with bids starting at $1,000 for some. They still need work, but the Prop Ns makes it a little less expensive. But the challenges are still huge.
As Higgins found, these buildings cost a lot of money to restore, and getting a loan for them is difficult, if not impossible. He wants the city to make it easier for people to buy these buildings in an effort to preserve as much of our city’s history as possible.
“I hope people feel the need to have a conversation to preserve history like this, to save these things,” Higgins said.
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