Mullanphy Building Foundation Complete

The new foundation for the south side of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home has now been completely poured. This consisted of a completely new foundation for the south wall, and a concrete cap for a portion of the east wall. This will now allow the masons to come in and place concrete block up both the north and south sides. The scaffolding will be going up very soon. The walls will eventually receive face brick, but the focus right now is just getting the openings closed up.

The Mullanphy Preservation Effort has made great progress, but we still are in need of a lot of assistance. To find out how you can help out or just to find out more about The Mullanphy Emigrant Home head over to www. savemullanphy.org. You can also see pictures of all the progress that has been made so far on our Flickr page in the Mullanphy Set.

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Mullanphy Building Demonstrates It’s Not a Lost Cause

The first part of the actual foundation wall for the Mullanphy Emigrant Home was poured this morning. When completed, masons will be able to start laying the concrete block that that will form the structure of the new walls and close up the openings. Face brick will eventually be placed in front of the block.

Head over to Savemullaphy.org to find out more about the building, the stabilization project, and how you can help out with the community driven rebuilding process. You can also see photos of all the prior work at the Old North Flickr page.

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Mullanphy Foundation Begins to Rise

The footing for the new foundation on the Mullanphy Emigrant Home was poured today. Next up is the foundation wall and the concrete blocks to close up the openings on the north and south ends. Visit our Flickr Page to see more pics from today and see all of the progress that has been made in the last year.

Even with all of the work that has been done we are as much in need of your donations as ever. $63,000 has been raised so far, but that still leaves a large gap between what we need and what we have. If you would like to make a donation to the effort, or just learn more about the Mullanphy Emigrant Home and the incredible effort to save it from total collapse, visit savemullanphy.org.

North Market Place Homes peaking through.

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Mullanphy Emigrant Home Wins "Best Of" Award

The Mullanphy Emigrant Home has won the Best Lost Cause in the annual Best of St. Louis edition of the Riverfront Times.

While far from an actual lost cause, here is what the RFT had to say.

The Mullanphy Emigrant Home

www.savemullanphy.org

Built in 1867 to house the Mullanphy Traveller’s Aid Fund, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home has played many roles during its 140-year history: schoolhouse, warehouse, motorcycle repair shop, cause célebre. The building’s most recent turn came on April 2, 2006, when a fierce storm collapsed its south wall. The landmark’s imminent demise prompted a small knot of historic preservationists to launch a campaign to try to save it. But on March 31 of this year, a second storm further damaged the building, sinking portions of the north and east walls. Still, the preservationists have, well, persevered. They now estimate that it will cost $350,000 to repair the walls. Fundraising efforts had raised $57,000 at last check. The good news: The west wall appears to be holding up. For now.

Now we will just wait for our award check. Oh, that’s right, there is no award check. Well, we certainly could use a few checks for Mullanphy (although the RFT article is already out-of-date, since our contributions now total $63,000). If you would like to make a donation to the cause, or just learn a little more, head over to http://www.savemullanphy.org/. And every dollar we collect for the cause will make it that much more likely that the Mullanphy building will be recognized as the “Best Comeback” in the RFT’s 2008 “Best of” awards.

By the way, we would argue about the winner of the Best View of Downtown, but we won’t hold any grudges.

Congratulations also go’s out to Old North’s Michael Allen.

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Mullanphy Building Foundation Starts Construction

Construction has started on the new foundation for the south side of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home. The unstable stone foundation is being removed, and a new concrete foundation is being poured where necessary. This will allow masons to lay a concrete block wall to close up the openings on the south and north sides.

As a reminder, we are very much still in need of your donations to help stabilize and rebuild the Mullanphy Emigrant Home. Visit www.savemullanphy.org anytime to make a tax deductible contribution through PayPal, or just click the link on the right column. To see more pictures from today and the past year, visit our Flickr Set.

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Mullanphy Concert

Another concert to benefit the historic Mullanphy Emigrant Home effort will be held Friday, August 17, at 8:00 pm. The concert will feature The Bearded Babies, Red-Headed Strangers, and The Monads, and will be held at the Tin Ceiling, 3159 Cherokee (corner of Compton and Cherokee). You can get in the door for a mere $7.00, and all proceeds will go towards further stabilization and rebuilding of Mullanphy. Even if you can’t make the concert, you can learn more about the Mullanphy Emigrant Home and make a tax-deductible donation anytime at www.savemullanphy.org.

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Summer in Old North

View of downtown from a well over 100 degree Mullanphy Emigrant Home.

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Mullanphy Timeline

This “collage” was put together to send out with an update letter that will be going to everyone that has donated to the Mullanphy Emigrant Home stabilization effort thus far. Pictures range from the original building as it was in the 1870’s to the work that was done up to just a few days ago. If you would like to contribute, visit www.savemullanphy.org.

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Summer in Old North

Been a while for this. Today’s pictures cover the neighborhood from the southern tip to the northern edge.

Old piece of machinery in one of the buildings on the 14th St. Mall.

The Arch sneaking between two new homes in North Market Place.

Flowers in front of a new home.

Setting up scaffolding to relay a brick wall on N. 19th St. This is a renovation of another LRA property.

Mullanphy Building after debris clean up. Visit www.savemullanphy.org to find out how you can help preserve the Mullanphy Emigrant Home.

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Rebuilding Mullanphy

Some work has resumed on the Mullanphy Emigrant Home. The south wall is being deconstructed so foundation repairs can start. A new foundation will eventually be poured on the south wall to support the new concrete blocks that will be layed to close up the wall. The bricks are being taken down one by one and put onto pallets along with the bricks that already had fallen. These bricks will be saved and used along with “new” used bricks to rebuild the wall. The north wall will not need a new foundation, and concrete blocks can be set on top of the existing wall.

Your contributions to the stabilization and rebuilding effort still are very much needed. Original estimates for rebuilding the damaged walls alone amounted to approximately $350,000. Visit http://www.savemullanphy.org/ for more information on how to contribute and more information about the historical significance of the Mullanphy Emmigrant home, or you can just click the PayPal Button on the right side of the blog. You can also track the fundraising progress on the Mullanphy Meter.

Below are pictures of the work taken on July 16, 2007.

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