Burned MRH Family Dentistry Scheduled for Demolition This Week

Donna Clifford is on a mission.

She drove to Maplewood from Florida with her daughter Brenda Lacy. They arrived on Thursday.

Clifford owns the house at 3004 Sutton Boulevard that was .

“I had a good cry again,” said Clifford after seeing her house for the first time since then.

She moved to Florida after the fire, and put the lot on the market. She had an offer in an hour and a signed contract in 30 hours. An architect bought the lot and plans to build a home.

The old house has to be demolished before a new one can be built, and Clifford is working to salvage as much as she could before that happens. The demolition is set to happen at about 5 a.m. on either Tuesday or Wednesday.

(Updates to this story will be posted on Maplewood-Brentwood Patch Facebook.)

Her son, Charles Clifford, said the house is made of  “good German brick” under the siding, which is why so much of it still stands.

Mother and son reminisced as they salvaged. The roof may be mostly gone, but the Cliffords can still tour through much of the house.

A pile of bricks now swallows a . A corner of a chair he and his father sat in to watch St. Louis Blues hockey games peeks out from the pile. What’s visible is strangely unburned.

A backgammon board, the remains of a “lovely bathroom,” a varnished door and an antique bookcase are some of the pieces that brought back memories for the Cliffords as they picked through what's left.

The waiting room of , with its magazines, pamphlets and furniture, is charred and water-damaged.

Donna Clifford uncovered a carved fireman and fire truck. She’ll have a drawing, and give them to two of Maplewood’s firefighters.

Clifford said said she'll watch her house come down.

“There’s got to be closure,” she said. "It’s like a death in the family."

Patch was invited on one of the Cliffords' trips through the house. You can see some of the photos here and the rest on the Maplewood-Brentwood Patch Facebook page.