Renaissance MAY 2024

6 - The Soulard Renaissance - MAY 2024 Neighborhood Fabric: 112 Sidney St., Industrial Survivor By Jay Gibbs The structure at 112 Sidney St. was built circa 1855 to 1860, for industrial manufacture. This old industrial build- ing in the Koskiusko neighborhood, east of Soulard, has been in the news recently; more on that at the end of this article. The building, about 165 years old now, is altered but still identifiable. It is surrounded by mostly much- younger commercial buildings. The whole Koskiusko area is protected from the mercurial Mississippi by the city’s modern concrete flood wall system, one block east. At publication of Compton and Dry’s Pictorial St. Louis 1875 , 112 Sidney housed the Thonssen & Pfirrman Bil- liard Tables and Frame Factory. Later the firm enlarged and was renamed A.E. Schmidt, which continued to op- erate in this building for nearly another 125 years. At the end of the 20th cen- tury, A.E. Schmidt relocated to a more modern facility in South St. Louis, where it still operates to this day. Meanwhile, after lying fallow for a short while, 112 Sidney was purchased by an enterprising couple who reimag- ined and renovated the first story as a banquet venue, and who also simultane- ously transformed the top story into a commodious residential loft space for themselves. This loft was featured on the Soulard Restoration Group’s Holiday Parlor Tour a number of years ago; tour guests were treated to spectacular vistas of downtown’s skyline and sweeping views of the mighty Mississippi. Comparing the 1875 drawing of 112 Sidney to its appearance today, one can see that it has been somewhat altered, yet is still recognizable. But look closer. In 1875 the building stood four stories tall, yet it’s one story shorter today. What gives? Did Messieurs Compton and Dry make a mistake? The answer is more prosaic. The mystery is solved by looking closely at the 1875 drawing. Notice how Sidney Street is drawn with sloping earth on either side. At that very time, the City of St. Louis was in the process of elevating, block by block, the whole street grid there, raising same about 10 to 12 feet, using fill-dirt brought in from else- where. This was to ameliorate the pre- dictable annual flooding that plagued this low-lying part of the riverfront. Imagine how gargantuan this earth- moving effort was, by remembering that most digging in that day was done by hand, and most local material trans- port was handled by horse-drawn dray wagon. You can even see in the drawing how the raised Sidney Street isn’t yet backfilled right next to 112 Sidney — I guess they were waiting for the billiards company to brick up those soon-to- be-buried side window openings! The upshot is that the erstwhile bottom story of 112 Sidney is now underground, ef- fectively relegated as basement. I mentioned that this building has In an enlarged detail of Plate 15 from Pictorial St. Louis 1875 (a.k.a. “Compton and Dry”), here is 112 Sidney St. at the corner of Sidney and Main streets. Its original first story, visible here, was soon buried underground. The nearby resi- dential row houses also depicted are all long gone, replaced by industrial uses. Public Domain, originally appeared in Pictorial St. Louis 1876. been in the news. That’s because Sts. Peter & Paul Services’ homeless shelter is slated to move there, relocating from its longtime location in the basement of Sts. Peter & Paul Church. Thus, 112 Sidney, a rare surviving pre-Civil War- era industrial structure, is finding itself fulfilling yet another purpose after 165 years. Such is the adaptive-reuse poten- tial of historic buildings.