The Building Can Physically Disappear
This is not a figure of speech. City building inspectors have described the method, and 3 arrests made by a short-lived 2008 task force produced no prosecutions: a vacant building is set alight, the fire department's hoses knock the mortar loose and bring walls down, and clean brick is collected afterwards. Others back a vehicle into walls to loosen them. Buildings left with their walls peeled away are called dollhouses locally.
The activity has concentrated in north side neighbourhoods since at least the mid-2000s and has moved between them as targets are exhausted; one preservation researcher documented around 60 buildings hit in a 3 year period. The full position is on our page covering historic credits, brick and condemnation.
What Should I Do First After a Fire Here?
Because the Walls Are Most of the Value
Housing here dates largely from the 1880s through the 1920s. Missouri's rehabilitation credit is 25 percent of qualified expenditures in St. Louis and has operated since 1997, with credits carried back 3 years or forward 10. The city required brick construction after the fire of 1849, and brickyards were producing more than 20 million bricks a year by 1839.
In a brick building a sound shell removes the demolition, carries the structure, and is what makes the property eligible for historic credits at all.
Lose a wall and you do not simply lose brick. You lose the shell, you likely lose the credit eligibility with the fabric, and a rehabilitation becomes a rebuild on a cleared lot. That is a different project at a much lower price, and it can happen over a single weekend.
Does Insurance Cover Brick Theft?
We publish no assessment of theft risk for particular addresses or streets. Activity has shifted between neighbourhoods over the years and current conditions are a matter for the police and for people on the ground rather than for a website.
And Condemnation Runs on Its Own Clock
The second reason not to wait. Where a fire causes significant structural damage the City's Building Division can begin emergency condemnation proceedings under its emergency provisions, which lets it act quickly where a structure poses an immediate safety concern.
An owner deciding slowly is therefore exposed twice: to the building being stripped, and to a process that can take the decision away entirely. Neither is a reason to accept a poor offer, and both are reasons to reach a decision rather than drift.
North City in Context
Where the same brick stock carries far less exposure, see our page about the south side brick neighbourhoods. Where values are high enough that securing is routine and the questions are different, see our page for a district of substantial historic housing.
North City Questions
Part of a Wall Has Already Gone.
Then get a structural assessment quickly, because what remains may or may not be stable and the answer changes both the value and the safety position. Secure whatever is left in the meantime.
Is Boarding It up Worth the Cost?
Against the value of a masonry shell, almost always. It is a small spend protecting the largest single asset on the site.
Will You Buy a Partly Stripped Building?
Yes. It affects the figure substantially because it affects the shell and the eligibility, and it does not stop us buying.