(light music) - [Narrator] It stood in the way of a major development, but these folks said, don't tear it down.

And they didn't.

How and why the mid-century modern Shanley Building in downtown Clayton survived.

It's called chinking.

These church group volunteers were filling in the gaps of an old log, one-room schoolhouse being rebuilt at Faust Park and maybe helping to fill in the gaps of our knowledge of local history.

- What I've always told my folks is when you have a black pastor, every month it's black history month.

- [Narrator] And 74 years ago this week, Harry Truman was sworn into his first full term as president, but before he took the oath of office, his good friend St. Louis, rabbi Samuel Thurman, made some history.

It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(upbeat music) - I'm Brooke Butler.

If you've lived in St. Louis long enough, you've seen plenty of buildings go up, plenty torn down, and others which have survived.

The Wayne Wright building, the old post office, Union Station.

But those are landmarks.

There have been and continue to be battles over individual buildings not so famous.

Not so prominent.

And it's often a question of progress or preservation.

We'll talk more about that later, but we begin with a story about one of those buildings and one of those battles.

- Honk for the Shandley.

- [Brooke] A few years ago a group of architecture enthusiasts gathered to protest the demolition of this beloved historic structure, the Clayton DMV.

(upbeat music) Okay, so it doesn't look like much, but this is actually considered one of the first modernist designs in the entire Midwest.

Referred to as the Shanley Building after the doctor who commissioned the design to be built in 1935, the award-winning structure was groundbreaking for its time.

So when put in that context, it seems more reasonable that people stood outside in the cold rain to spread awareness of the building's significance.

And it worked.

Well, maybe it wasn't all due to the posters and T-shirts, but nonetheless, it's still standing, even amongst the multimillion dollar, mid-rise development being built around it in downtown Clayton.

- Bemiston Place is going to be 237 beautiful apartments, 10,500 square feet of really nice boutique retail on Central and 345 parking spaces underneath the building that you won't even see.

- Yeah.

- And most importantly, it includes the repurposing and renovation of the Shanley Building.

- [Brooke] Steve Brown with BalkeBrown Transwestern is the developer of Bemiston Place and was ultimately responsible for salvaging the Shanley Building.

- Isn't that exciting?

- Yeah.

- This is what $101 million will buy ya.

- Right?

- You're on camera.

- I had been following the project previously to us becoming involved.

A man named Fred Kummer had been attempting to build a high-rise condominium.

He was being met with much resistance for two reasons.

Number one, the building would propose was very tall, and more importantly his plan was to demolish the Shanley Building.

And after about a year of watching him, I came to the conclusion that there had to be a better way.

- [Brooke] So, keeping the Shanley was the first priority in rethinking the design of Bemiston Place, but the idea for how they would incorporate the building into the greater development was directly influenced by the events in 2020.

- We were just starting the Covid pandemic and there was all this talk about working from home.

And we've all been on the Zoom calls where you can hear somebody else in the kitchen or the dog in the background and people just didn't have enough space to work from home especially with apartments.

So, the light bulb went off for me when the pandemic hit and I saw the resistance from the city of Clayton, I saw the residents wanting to save this building and I said let's put all that together and give this new life to office space for all of the residents that live at Bemiston Place.

- Yeah.

- Converting the Shanley into office spaces actually better supports why the building was brought to life in the first place.

In 1933, St. Louis orthodontist, Dr. Leo Shanley attended the Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago.

He was inspired by the displays of modern homes and when he returned to St. Louis, he was scouting someone to design a similar structure for a new office space.

Enter Harris Armstrong.

Armstrong was a largely self-taught architect.

He apprenticed for some of St. Louis major architecture firms before receiving some career defining commissions in 1934, including the Shanley Building.

Considering the specific needs of Dr. Shanley, Armstrong took the modernist approach of form over function while incorporating the natural landscape into the structure.

In fact, even the parts of the building that don't seem significant were intentionally designed to support modernist ideals.

Something Rod Stevens with Holland Construction pays careful attention to in their refurbishing process.

- You know, paying attention in great detail, taking steps and working with the Historical Society and the architect to make sure we maintain the appearance and the aesthetics.

And so, a lot of meetings, a lot of discussions about details.

- So, do you have to use like any kind of special material or like how do you figure?

- Well, so the engineer comes out and makes a recommendation report and specifies the proper material.

When this was built, asbestos was not a thing, right?

It was a very popular building material.

So what you're seeing, the reason it looks as rough as it does is because there was lead paint, there was a lot of abatement.

So, it's been removed.

- Yeah.

- So, we had to get an engineer involved to use the right material to patch the haydite block, which is behind all this.

So, you do that.

- So, is this the front of the building or where?

- [Rod] Maryland, it would face Maryland.

- Okay, gotcha.

- Right.

- Am I wrong or should it not be facing the other way?

Armstrong's placement of the entrance was, of course, intentional.

Tucked back on the north side, the main entrance was through a long outdoor corridor of white stucco walls.

One was a thin protective half wall with steel joists for rainwater runoff.

The other had a long line of glass bricks to allow both privacy and thermal protection for the five exam rooms.

Because the plot of land was on a slope, Armstrong paid careful attention on how to allow maximum amounts of natural light.

The reception area carried in the exterior with a large wall of glass blocks and led into the waiting room that incorporates floor to ceiling windows.

That's not historic?

- That was just an unfortunate mishap during demolition, still have that, you know?

- [Brooke] But the glass bricks, are those like tricky to replace?

- There's a contractor that just specializes in that.

- Wow, yeah.

- So, we will hire him and he's already taken a look.

The fortunate thing and surprising thing is it's all still available.

- [Brooke] Not only did Armstrong design the building's unique layout, but he had furniture custom made that also reflected the minimalist design style that would soon become what is popularly known as mid-century modern.

All of this would lead to a 1937 silver medal award from an international modern design exhibit in Paris.

An award-winning style that propelled his other famous designs around town, such as the Magic Chef Building, the Ethical Society, and numerous characteristic homes.

- Yeah.

- And you know, it's- - Not the same.

- I think, I don't know if I've ever heard one person say "What a beautiful building."

- No.

- Not a whole lot of people think it's like- - We're not on tape, are we?

Yeah, no.

- Well.

- Oh yeah.

- Not everybody loves this building.

So, it's both appreciated and it's very underappreciated.

So my job is to prove the naysayers wrong that this really is a beautiful building so that everyone will appreciate it.

- [Brooke] This is a major struggle that architecture preservationists face.

The same group that were heavily involved in saving the Shanley, called modernSTL, have had similar efforts for other modern structures, but not all of their efforts have as happy an ending as the Shanley.

Do you think what you're doing here in preserving the Shanley Building should be done elsewhere?

There's a lot of other mid-century modern buildings at risk.

The Optimist Building, I believe on Lindell.

- Yeah.

- Are you hoping that other developers are, you know, following suit?

- Absolutely.

I think if we erase our history, it would be a mistake.

At the same time, I think we need to not save buildings just to save them.

We need to look at how can we give them new life?

How can we repurpose them, not just fix them up as a museum.

- Construction for Bemiston Place is scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2024.

Now, Jim Kirchherr for more about preservation around our city.

- Thanks, Brooke.

Who better to talk about preservation than Michael Allen who's a architectural historian.

I say preservationist.

That's a noun, right?

And a member of the city's Preservation Board which we'll get into because that's sort of the thumbs up, thumbs down part of the preservation debate sometime.

But let's talk about Shanley Building.

Brooke called it a happy ending.

Would you call it a happy ending?

- [Michael] Most definitely.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, quite a good one.

- How did it happen?

Is it an outlier in this process or do you see this as a trend or just one of those situations that just took a lot of work with the right kinds of people?

- Well, I think the latter.

I mean, Clayton doesn't even have a preservation ordinance so there's no tool like the one we use in the city to prevent this.

This is really sort of the perfect storm of opposition to the demolition, opposition to the previous high-rise plan, and then this really dogged group of advocates that just kept pushing and pushing and pushing.

Plus the right developer.

- Right.

- Nothing would've happened without that, let's be real.

- And you get this all the time because a lot of people, first of all, somebody said they didn't even know it was there.

They never noticed it and they wouldn't have missed it if it were gone.

So when it comes to preserving, it's not about necessarily what's the most popular building and if we're talking about the old post office, people would maybe rose up for something like that.

But this is like one of those questions like, well, who cares?

If people don't notice it and they don't care why so much work to preserve something like that?

- That's a great question.

I think that preservation often focuses on the first, the best, or the only.

Those often are not commensurate with public recognition, right?

The first modernist building in St. Louis County might not be something a lot of people know or understand, but I think what we also should consider is that a lot of buildings that we do take for granted, including the old post office, have been in the same position.

In the 1950s the post office downtown was the only block of real estate, completely vacant, building scene is ugly and tasteless, a second empire style, passe.

Here's where we can build a new high rise.

And you know, ironically, some of the modernists, including Harris Armstrong, came up with plans for that block.

The ferocity of those plans and their seeming inevitability led to a huge groundswell of support for saving that building, which then led to reconsidering the whole second empire style, Lafayette Square, St. Louis Place.

These houses now are taken for granted.

- Yeah, and this is a question of when the time has come to appreciate a particular building.

At some point they're just old, they don't fit modern needs.

So, it's not just a matter of what you like or don't like, I mean, you're a preservationist, right?

- Yeah.

- So it's not like, I like this one, we'll save it.

I don't like this one, let's not save it.

I mean, what else goes into those issues?

'Cause there are some buildings saved that I don't like, by the way, and some that have been lost that I did like.

- I could say the same thing even as a preservationist.

Yeah, expert sort of values don't really drive the outcome as much as sometimes we like to tell ourselves as experts.

So, anyone in my position will say, oh, it's important because it was designed by this or built in this year.

And that really, you know, it's interesting to professionals and historians and maybe to some of the public, but what it really comes down to is I think the kind of widespread love, the aura of a place just 'cause that's what happened with the Flying Saucer.

It's just so many people have public associations of going to the fast food restaurants that were there or just admiring the goofy round form of that building that it just it went from zero to 12,000 on a Facebook page, the likes to saving that structure.

- Yeah, I assume- - And most of those people couldn't name the architect and probably didn't know what year it had even been built.

- No, and again, in my mind, the Flying Saucer building was something that because of social media almost brought in a new generation of appreciators of architecture.

Even if it's a sort of a weird one off kind of a place.

But I wanna ask you about another, I think this has been settled.

The Engineers Club Building on Lindell which has all of these great old, you know, fraternal organizations and headquarters.

That's another building, I'll be honest with you, I drove by hundreds of times, never noticed.

But tell me how that went through.

This has been resolved.

- Mm-hm, it's been resolved.

I'm partly to blame, I guess, to some, or to praise for others.

I led the motion at the first time around on the preservation board to deny partial demolition of the building for they're gonna put a swimming pool behind the front wall.

That denial, I compelled the developers who still wanted to do the deal to come back and save the building as is which is what we wanted, which the majority of us on the board voted for.

- With something development going on around it.

Just like the Shanley Building - Right.

So, it's gonna be a multi-story, residential building.

So, the idea of density can be achieved there.

I mean that kind of a building on Lindell, there's a couple of these buildings on Lindell, they're kind of an uphill case to make to preserve sometimes because they represent a period when the Central West end had fallen into decline.

There had been a tornado in 1959, loss of population.

So, you're taking down big houses and bigger buildings and putting in these smaller, you know, some would say a little more autocentric kinda suburban style.

Beautiful buildings, but not so urban as the Central West end now with its rising sort of growth.

Really welcomes, I mean people in the West End, there's a huge demand for more housing, more shops, more buildings that hug the street, multi-level.

So in the case of The Engineers Club, there's enough land to build around it.

And some of the other cases we've lost a few.

- Yeah.

- And we'll probably lose more.

- Right.

- And we'll save others.

And you know, again, it's an inscrutable pattern maybe to the outside.

- We could be talking for a while, but a lot of this is progress and preservation.

A lot of it is the value of the building and the land under it.

So, this is an ongoing story and you're gonna continue to be involved and have these debates.

But Michael Allen, architectural historian, member of the City Preservation Board, thanks for joining us and giving us some perspective on this particular issue which is I think is really important in a city with such great old buildings.

So again, thank you for joining us.

- Thanks Jim.

- Our next story also happens to be about a building that's really old.

It's a story we've been following for some time because it's got a very interesting history.

And when it wasn't wanted or needed anymore, it wasn't torn down.

It was actually very carefully taken apart and moved.

And now it's being very carefully put back together.

In this case, with the help from some neighbors.

On a cold November morning, some folks came out to Faust Park to learn a new skill.

Something they'll probably never use again unless maybe they time travel back to the 19th century.

St. Louis County Parks', Jesse Francis, who does this sort of thing for a living, is overseeing the work.

- Got a great group of volunteers out here today and it is very, very cold.

I would not have shown up, but they did.

- [Jim] This group from the United Methodist Church of Green Trails in Chesterfield volunteered to work on the reconstruction of a one-room schoolhouse that was built to serve black students in what was the Chesterfield school district.

- And I guess our minister mentioned it.

We thought it was a good volunteer thing that we could handle.

- [Jim] The Green Trails Church is mostly white, but the pastor is not.

And yet, this was her idea.

- Oh yes, yes.

As soon as I told them the story and what I've always told my folks is when you have a black pastor every month is Black history month.

So, this isn't something we're just doing for a season or for a cause.

It is really something we're deeply rooted in, trying to bridge the gap between races.

So, it's very important to us.

- [Jim] After it closed down as a school, after desegregation, the building became somebody's garage.

Later it was donated, taken apart.

The pieces were stored at the Faust Park barn including a piece of blackboard wall that still had lessons on it.

It was hidden behind the garage walls.

And then when the foundation was laid, they started to put it all back together.

And by the fall of last year, the log walls and the roof were up.

And now the walls needed chinking.

Before mortar is applied the gaps between the logs are filled with scraps of wood.

- And so, they're here putting the chinking in between the logs, which is what they did originally.

We're using a lot of the original chinking that we've taken out and put in barrels.

- [Jim] This is the first building in the historic village at Faust Park tied to the African American community.

But this is also a Chesterfield story.

- 'Cause there's a history of black farmers, black families in Chesterfield that we want to spread, you know, spread throughout Chesterfield and let everyone know our history.

We have a rich history here and we should celebrate that.

- Since she's been our pastor, she's really helping us try to understand the diversity of the area, inclusion, and how we can reach out to other groups to understand each other and be in community together.

Yeah.

It's exciting to me.

Of course, I'm kind of a history buff.

- [Jim] This is really when two parts of the story come together.

It's not just the buildings that are important, but it's the stories they bring to Faust Park.

And yet getting that story told right means being true to the building, to the techniques, the materials, even the replacement pieces.

Still, it will have to meet modern day safety requirements that didn't exist in 1894.

Like being reinforced to withstand a tornado.

- Some things we've gotta do to this that nobody thought of in 1894.

- And you gotta pass inspection, right?

- That's true.

That's true.

We've gotta call 'em back and have it inspected and hopefully they'll like it and we can carry on 'cause I'd sure hate to take it down and start all over again.

That would not be fun.

- [Jim] The African American schoolhouse stands right next door to a 19th century school for white children, but this school too will have siding on the outside and new walls on the inside covering the logs and the chinking.

That's the way it was built and it's one of the reasons it survived.

- If you start exposing logs and you don't keep the weather off of 'em, they're going to rot faster.

So, part of the reason this school survived as long as it did is because they sided it very early on after they constructed it.

- So when you're done, will we not see any of this?

- We're going to leave a section inside exposed so you can see the chinking that this crew is doing today and then we'll do some dobbing, but you'll be able to see the interior wall section as it was when it was originally constructed, but it was covered up very quickly and they took the tongue and groove boards and painted black for the chalkboards so the kids could do problems all the way around the room.

- [Jim] The school should be completed by spring and things on this day were moving along just fine.

- We had a running bet about how many walls they would finish and I think they're gonna beat everybody's expectations.

So, it's a great day.

- Yes, to be a part of recreating this history.

I mean, this is history in the making.

It was history when it was originally built in 1894, but now it's being rebuilt and restored and we get to be a part of regenerating that legacy.

- Next, a little more history.

We're gonna take a look back at January 20th of 1949 for the first time the presidential inauguration was televised so people could sit at home and watch if they had a TV, maybe they could go over to the neighbor's house if they had one.

But there was one St. Louisan who just absolutely had to be there in person.

(upbeat music) - [Reporter] Crisp, sunshiny weather heralds the inauguration of the 32nd president of the United States.

- [Jim] This week, 74 years ago, Missourian Harry Truman was sworn in as president of the United States.

This would be his first full term after taking over the presidency after the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945.

But this wasn't just a big day for Missouri, it was a big day for St. Louis.

Truman had asked his old friend and fellow Mason, rabbi Samuel Thurman, to deliver the invocation before he took the oath of office, the first rabbi to ever do so.

Thurman had long been an important, even towering figure in St. Louis, and not just in the Jewish community.

He'd been chief rabbi of United Hebrew Congregations since 1914 and often spoke to Christian congregations.

Thurman was known as a dynamic speaker and although the picture quality of this early TV recording is not very good you can certainly hear from Thurman's prayer that he was not merely a speaker, he was a good old fashioned orator.

- Almighty and merciful God.

God, the Lord of all nations.

The hearts and minds of this nation turned to thee in this solemn moment in prayer and in gratitude.

- [Jim] Rabbi Thurman certainly did not rush through his moment.

This prayer went on for four minutes.

- Amen.

- [Reporter] The prayer was delivered by Rabbi Samuel Thurman.

- [Jim] Harry Truman was sworn in with his friend, St. Louis rabbi Samuel Thurman just off to the side.

This week in history in 1949.

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