Ever since a tornado tore through one of St. Louis, Missouri’s poorest neighborhoods, there are piles of bricks all over the place. 

It’s not just a debris problem. Bricks in St. Louis have a long and complicated history here – the darling of many historic preservationists and a good source of profit to just as many demolition crews. 

Producer Marina Henke spent a week in North City, tagging along with a brick layer who’s racing against the clock to build back homes. Can North City keep its bricks? Should they even try?

Featuring Natalie Hughes, RJ Koscielniak, and Rasheen Aldridge.

Produced by Marina Henke. For full credits and transcript, visit outsideinradio.org.

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LINKS

The STL Vacancy Collaborative runs a Demolition Dashboard, showing all approved and completed demolitions in St. Louis City. 

The 2011 documentary Brick By Chance and Fortune provides a more in-depth look at brick’s history in St. Louis, including its architectural variance. 

For a comprehensive social and economic history of St. Louis check out Walter Johnson’s The Broken Heart of America.

The apocryphal headline and its report of a struggling St. Louis still exists in the New York Times’ archives: In St. Louis Even the Old Bricks Are Leaving Town. 

In 2017, the podcast 99% Invisible took a closer look at St. Louis brick theft.

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