And while you’re in a shopping mood, you can show your support for Old North St. Louis in a couple of other ways. First, Amy Fontinelle will be donating to Old North St. Louis Restoration Group the profits from the sales of her new book, Disappearing St. Louis: A Photographic Story of the City’s Neglected Historic Buildings. Details about the book and information on how you can buy the book online can be found by clicking HERE to be taken to Amy’s website.

Although the focus on the deterioration of historic neighborhoods in St. Louis could be depressing, Amy notes that the neglect and abandonment can be reversed. One of the cool aspects of the book is that it provides some good “before” views of buildings in Old North that have indeed been rescued from decades of neglect. In fact, Amy notes that since the photographs were taken, some of the buildings have been restored. Because of ONSLRG’s commitment to preserving and developing these type of buildings, Amy decided to donate her profits to ONSLRG, which she describes as “a nonprofit organization that is successfully rebuilding a historic north side neighborhood one building at a time.”

Among the building’s featured in the book is the former Headhunter’s Hair Salon at 2712-14 N. 14th Street. Below is the way it looked when Amy photographed it in the summer of 2007:

And below is that same building nearing completion of its historic rehabilitation just last week:In addition to the online option, the book will be available for purchase at the 5th annual Rock ‘n’ Roll Craft Show this weekend (November 28-30) at Third Degree Glass Factory on Delmar between Union and Kingshighway.

Meanwhile, this evening, Art Co-op will host another one of their art exhibits & silent auction this evening at 7 p.m. in the old Parks Drug Store building at 2718 N. 14th Street (right on the corner of St. Louis Avenue). Purchases there don’t directly benefit Old North St. Louis, although it certainly will help send the message to artists and future businesses that ONSL is a good place to do business.Above: A view of Art Co-op’s last art exhibit and sale at the Parks Building last month.

If you don’t get a chance to meet them or see the building they’re rehabbing in person, you can visit the Severs’ website, http://www.3walls.net/ to gain some insights into who they are and some images of their phenomenal rehab project on N. 19th Street. In addition to sharing their experiences and lessons learned in the process of bringing a forsaken piece of real estate back to life, Heidi puts in some nice plugs for the neighborhood (”You have got to check out this community!”) and their new neighbors:

On that work day alone, 12, yes TWELVE! (I counted each one) different neighbors came over to introduce themselves and welcome us to the neighborhood. Seven of them, yes, 7!!!, stayed an hour to several hours working right along with us doing demolition and trash removal. Yucky, tiring, dirty work. What a way to say ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood’!

Long before their home is ready for occupancy, Heidi and Ben have established themselves as good neighbors, as well. They come out to neighborhood meetings and help out at neighborhood clean-ups (see Ben below helping clear a vacant lot this past May).The Severs are now part of a growing list of people who are redeveloping LRA properties in Old North and demonstrating how revitalization happens. We still have a good number of LRA buildings in Old North ready for new owners and ONSLRG has staff ready to help. Give Karen Heet a call at 314-241-5031 or send her an email (karen@onsl.org) to learn what’s available and how to get in on the excitement.