Saint Louis Mayor Jim Conway has announced the formation of a new 18-member task force to develop guidelines for historic preservation in the City.
The Special citizens’ Task Force on Historic Preservation is being asked by Mayor Conway to focus on buildings and neighborhoods, and to come up with ways to evaluate which are historic, which need to be preserved, and how this might best be accomplished.
“We know that Saint Louis has a rich heritage,” Mayor Conway explained, “but we have no workable templates to apply to a specific building or neighborhood. There are degrees of history, and questions of social values to be considered.”
Questions of preservation versus removal have vexed many persons in the community recently, the Mayor noted, and have uncovered internal conflicts in some City ordinances and regulatory powers.
The 18-member Historic Preservation Task Force will be headed by William Harrison, Sr., an industrial realtor and former banker who served 10 years on the old City Plan Commission, five of those years as chairman.
Harrison has also been active in the Landmarks Association of Saint Louis.
The Task Force will have approximately 3 months to accomplish three main assignments, Mayor Conway said:
(1) to develop ways to identify historic buildings and districts, and ways to protect and maintain them;
(2) to develop an organizational model for keeping track of historic preservation needs;
(3) to write a model City ordinance which would regulate historic preservation efforts.
The Historic Preservation Task Force, which has advisory power only, consists of the following members in addition to Harrison:
Robert Brandhorst, administrative assistant to Board of Alderman President Paul Simon;
W. Phillip Cotton, Jr., architect ;
Charles P. Derleth, Jr., president of the Soulard Restoration Group;
William J. Keyes, Saint Louis administrative assistant to Congressman Richard A: Gephardt;
Gerhardt Kramer, member of Kramer & Harms, Inc., architects;
Kenneth D. Oestreich, preservation planner with CDA;
Edward M. Peek, associate city counselor, law department;
Sam Ritchie, community development specialist for the University of Missouri’s Extension Center in Saint Louis;
Donald C. Royse, member of the SRT architectural and planning firm;
Edward A. Ruesing, executive director of Downtown Saint Louis, Inc.;
John Scholz, curator of the Eugene Field House and toy museum;
JoAnn Smith, a citizen-researcher experienced in the formation of the Visitation Park and Ville historic districts;
Lynn Springer, assistant curator, Saint Louis Art Museum:
Carolyn Hewes Toft, vice president of Landmarks Association;
Robert A. Vol[ending damaged in source], building commissioner, City of Saint Louis;
David Wilderman, resident and rehabilitation contractor of the Soulard area;
John J. Wuest, vice president, March Mercantile Bank.
Originally published in The Paper, February 1978.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: One member’s surname is partly damaged in the source; a marker is retained.
Original source: SD_Times1978_02.pdf, printed page(s) 1; PDF page(s) 1.
