Friday, January 16, 2009

A Crooked Little House


I PASS THIS HOUSE every few weeks or so in St. Louis. So, one day last week, I stopped and walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. No one answered. So, I took a couple of pictures to share with you. I think the house is Art Deco style, but it is really plain and boxy. I am torn as to whether this is sorta cool, or a real affront to an original example of Deco-style architecture. It sure catches one’s attention.

I remember this house as far back as the late 1970s, and to my memory, it did not have the tilted addition. This “add-on” was built, to my memory, in the 1980’s. It’s too bad no one was at home, because I wanted more information and really wanted to see inside. If I get more information, I’ll report back.

9 comments:

Tony Renner said...

where is it?

John Foster said...

It's on Sappington Road, between Big Bend and Adams, near Ursuline School.

Linda Davick said...

This is too good to be true.

Charlee said...

This house is straight from a fairy tale. Wonderful!

skweeds said...

I am so glad I found this post... I used to drive by this house ALL THE TIME when I lived in Kirkwood. I left St. Louis 3 years ago and I really miss seeing this house all the time.

When I used to pass it at night and the blinds/shades were open in the one sideways room, there was a giant map on the wall, I can't remember if it was a map of the USA or a map of just Illinois or something... Any guesses?

Anyway, thanks for posting this... I LOVE this house!

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

This was an addition built by Bob Moore Construction. I was the lead carpenter on the project. The owner (I believe was a retired teacher or professor) wanted this built onto his existing house. He got the idea or inspiration for the design was from a mineral called pyrite that he had found.
When my boss asked me and 2 other helpers to build the addition it was a challenge because the interior wall of the addition was level, plumb and square but the outside was at a 9 degree angle (if I remember correctly. So for example when we boxed in the windows the bottom of the window around 10 inches and the top was only around 4 inches.
From the inside you would not really know that anything was different because the interior walls and floor are all level, plumb and square.
The project was fun but it was actually more difficult to build it "wrong" than to do a normal level, plumb, square building.
Across the street was a golf course with on of the holes in view of the house and you should have heard the comments from people watching us build it! Anything from, "You can tell they don't know what they are doing" to "Look at that! Those guys have got a hell of a problem!"
All in all it was fun.
I have since moved from the St. Louis, Mo area to the East coast and I heard that Bob Moore Construction is no longer in business. (not because of this project)
He actually received a lot of publicity because of this.
It's quite a conversation piece!

Unknown said...

Update....I am the lead carpenter that built this crooked house addition for Bob Moore Construction.
Someone just told me that Bob Moore Construction is still in business.
Sorry for any misinformation.

Also thanks for all the nice comments about it.
It's nice to see that people enjoy something you've done.
Take care everyone!

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