2 weeks Ago By By Austin Huguelet St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS — Mayor Tishaura O. Jones on Wednesday announced plans to demolish part of the old City Workhouse, which could free up space for abandoned animals, derelict vehicles and other city services.
A news release said that demolition of the jail, long derided by activists as dirty and inhumane, will begin by Dec. 16 and next steps will be formally announced at the beginning of next year. The release said plans are being developed for an animal shelter, which could alleviate crowding issues at the current Midtown site , and additional space for the city’s often overstuffed tow lot .
Satellite photos show dozens of beat-up cars have already been parked on the property. Conner Kerrigan, a spokesperson for Jones, said a plan to put tiny homes on the site for homeless residents also remains under consideration. Jones spent years campaigning with activists to close the workhouse, which they derided as a sweltering, rat-infested disgrace rife with abuse.
She emptied the facility as mayor, transferring its inmates to the downtown City Justice Center in June 2022. And on Wednesday, she said it was time to eradicate much of it. “Our community deserves better than to see the facility continue to stand as it did,” Jones said in the release, “so I am pleased that we can now move forward with the demolition.
” The city said the “vast majority” of the Workhouse would be demolished, including the guard towers, former women's quarters, the main building, the men's quarters and the entrance building, where the much-photographed “Medium Security Institution” sign sits. The only buildings that aren't on the demo list, yet, Kerrigan said, are smaller "pods" behind the main buildings. Meanwhile, the administration's tiny home idea remains controversial.
Community organizers and activists, with whom Jones once campaigned to close the jail, don't want anyone living there. A plan drawn up by activists, at the mayor's request, said the site’s environmental concerns, sordid history and out-of-the-way location on the industrial north riverfront meant no one should be living there unless there’s nowhere else for them to go. That plan also called for the complete demolition of the Workhouse, the erection of a memorial marker for those held there, and a new community resource hub elsewhere on the North Side.
Aldermen are set to hold a hearing Thursday on a resolution calling for the full adoption of the activists' plan . Alderman Rasheen Aldridge, of downtown, is the sponsor. The city is indeed working on the marker: Jones asked anyone interested to submit concepts, drawings, designs, poetry or written descriptions for a memorial mark on the city website at stlouis-mo.
gov/government/departments/mayor/initiatives/msi/msi-public-idea-submission.cfm . Ideas will be evaluated with the help of the Regional Arts Commission, the Missouri History Museum and the Griot Museum of Black History, among others, the release said.
The deadline for submissions is Nov. 1..
