The Saving of Woodside Part 2

In the year 2000, shortly after the Jehovah’s Witnesses purchased Woodside and the .8 of an acre underneath it, they applied for a permit to demolish it.  Our newly formed Historic Preservation Commission denied their application mainly on the strength of the arguments put forth by some of the area’s leading preservationists.

Most of the credit should go to Esley Hamilton, historian of St. Louis County and Kris Zapalac, Historic Preservation Specialist for the St. Louis area working for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.  They prepared the application to the National Register of Historic Places.  If you haven’t read this you should do so.  It’s a fascinating tale of the Rannells family, the original builders of Woodside.  You can find it here. http://www.dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/06000861.pdf

Meanwhile after the Witnesses were denied permission to demolish, they sued the City of Maplewood.  As I am not now nor have I ever been an official of the City of Maplewood, I was not privy to the proceedings. 

This dragged on for four years until finally the city prevailed.  The city officials quickly arranged a compromise with a local developer and the property was split.  The developer built the condos in what was formerly the side yard of Woodside.  The City of Maplewood acquired the building around August of 2004.

It was at that time that then Mayor Mark Langston invited myself and Marty Fisher to join him in an effort to restore the building.  First to go was a carport-like structure on the eastern side of the building.  Then we removed drywalled partitions, firewalls, and industrial radiators from Woodside’s nursing home days (1938-75).

In early 2005, Mayor Langston created a 501(c)3 whose mission was the restoration of Woodside.  He installed himself as president and me as vice-president.  To make a long story short, we obviously did not succeed in restoring Woodside.  I resigned from that organization at the end of June 2006.

Councilman Greenberg has detailed much of what has happened since concerning Woodside in his two letters to the Maplewood Patch.  Ben Ellermann, in his reply to Councilman Greenberg’s first letter, has suggested some possible reasons why nothing has happened to date.  He lists restrictions that the City of Maplewood has asked potential buyers to agree to and then he states,” If the City of Saint Louis had been this strict in the 1970’s and 1980’s, large portions of Soulard, the Central West End, and Lafayette Square likely would not have been carefully renovated by owner-occupants over the course of several years.” I agree with Mr. Ellermann except I would say many years instead of several

Properties such as Woodside will never do well using a cost/ benefit analysis approach.  Neither would the two homes I have renovated in Maplewood.  The last one done for my son cost me $95,000 by the time I was done with it in 1994.  I’m fairly certain that no house in Maplewood had ever sold for that much.  Other folks may have had that much in their homes but no one had ever gotten it back out of them.

Woodside, same as my two houses, needs an owner who cares more about living in an historic home than making an immediate profit.  I’ve no doubt whoever eventually takes this project on will experience a tremendous amount of good will from all of us who strive to preserve and promote our local history.