along with historic tax credits,” explained Vogt, who
said prices started at $95,000; while most have been
below $250,000.
Lucas Delort, a 25-year-old graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis, bought a rundown, 1912
Tudor Revival-style house to restore — with the help of
his contractor father — in the Gravois Jefferson Streetcar Suburb Historic District in 2014.
They purchased the 2,400-square-foot home for
$50,000, have put $60,000 — and countless hours of
sweat equity — into the rehab and figure they’ll spend
another $8,000 before the project is finished.
“I always knew I wanted to buy and renovate a house,”
said Delort, who is getting his degree in social work
and economic development. “Once I learned that this
was a national historic district, I applied for the his-
toric tax credits, which makes it more affordable for me.
I may even restore another home in the area after this.
I could have gotten another house for less than $30,000,
but this one is unique and worth it.”
He moved in April of 2015 before the home’s kitchen
was complete and now has several roommates.
“It’s been an experience,” he said. “But I like the neighborhood, which is slowly being redeveloped. I’m just
one block from Cherokee Street, which has a lot of art
studios. And there are a number of good Mexican restaurants around here, too.”
In Kansas City, homeowner Rachel Nugent said she
recently completed a renovation of her house using the
Missouri historic tax credit program. She lives in Squier
Park, a small turn-of-the-century neighborhood developed as a streetcar suburb just east of Troost Avenue in
Midtown, Kansas City.
She described Squier Park as a working-class/middle-income neighborhood that “had witnessed the effects
of decades of disinvestment in the area. It is filled with
large and modest houses that are in need of a little (or
a lot of ) TLC. Our house wasn’t eligible for individual
listing, so we got the whole neighborhood listed in the
National Register.”
She said a core group of neighbors invested in their
properties and worked hard to maintain the neighborhood over the years, but she called it a “constant
struggle.” The historic tax credit available to all the
contributing properties in the district is now one more
tool neighbors can use to help bring this neighborhood
back to a thriving community.
“The availability of substantial, affordable historic
homes coupled with this financial incentive to fix them
up has attracted young families to the neighborhood.
Millennium Restoration
and Development Corp.
redevelops homes for all
income levels. These photos
illustrate the restoration of a
1909-built bungalow, originally
constructed for the working
class in the Tower Grove East
neighborhood in St. Louis,
which remains affordable
housing, today.
BEFOREBEFORE
AFTER
AFTER
