The Marx Hardware Store has stood on 14th Street in Old North St. Louis since 1875, and it looks its age. A wood fire burns in the pot-bellied stove that stands on the worn sales floor. A fading portrait of President Grover Cleveland looms over the counter.

Andy Marx, co-proprietor, has seen a lot of change in the neighborhood over the past 25 years, but he's not sure what to make of what's happening now.

A block north of his store is a dreary reminder of the missteps of the past. In the 1970s, the city gamely tried to revive neighborhood businesses by sealing off a block of 14th Street and creating a pedestrian mini-mall. Today, most of the buildings that flank the weed-strewn mall are abandoned.

But a block south of the hardware store, North Market Street is a scene of hope and urban revival. Tumble-down row houses have been handsomely rehabbed. New houses are springing up on vacant lots, each evoking the brick architecture of the late 1800s.

One house now under construction recently sold for more than $200,000, a price that would have seemed absurd a few years ago. An old warehouse has been turned into apartments. Other blocks also are dotted with new construction. Across North Florissant Avenue, a suburban-style housing development has sprung up.

In the middle of it all stands Andy Marx, wondering which way the old neighborhood is going. "I know some policemen and firemen and postal workers that have moved in," he says, but he doubts they're ready for the full urban experience. "They're going to find out, when they go to barbecue hamburgers, that their barbecue is missing. Absolutely it's better, but the crime is still here," he says.

Old North St. Louis is a mixed neighborhood just north of downtown. It thrived in the late 1800s, and that era is preserved in the ornate brick visages of its old homes. Trouble came in the 1960s, and hung around into the 1990s as residents joined the city throngs headed for the suburbs. Old houses fell into ruin and were bulldozed into vacant lots. Median household income in the neighborhood's two zip codes is now half to one-quarter of the national average.

"We lost so many homes either to neglect or arson," says Jane Smith, a neighborhood resident since 1978. "In the early 1980s, we were out in the street at least one night a week because there was a fire."

Ms. Smith, one of about 1,500 residents of the neighborhood, could have left too. But she hung on because she liked her neighbors and the diversity of the neighborhood. And now, something remarkable is happening. Ms. Smith and her husband just bought one of the new three-bedroom homes on North Market Street. "I love it here. There's such a strong bond among the people," she says. "We can look at the panorama of the downtown lights at night. It's unbelievable."

Much of the impetus (and credit) for this revitalization effort came from three places: the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group, the super-charged community organization where Ms. Smith works; the non-profit Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance and the redevelopment machine of Mayor Francis Slay. Together, they assembled enough grants, tax credits and tax abatements to make synergistic redevelopment possible.

Government subsidies help reduce the risk for banks that finance the projects, and keep down the costs for home buyers and renters. New homes here generally sell for $156,000 to $192,000.

Subsidies prime the development pump, but they can't last forever. If the neighborhood is to survive and stabilize, it must attract developers willing to risk their own money and lure more residents and businesses willing to buy in. Old North St. Louis is not there . . . yet.

"It's like Soulard was in the 1970s," says Barbara Geisman, the mayor's development chief. "It's got the most important ingredient," she says: a strong neighborhood group committed to its rebirth.

The story of Old North St. Louis is just part of a broader picture of revival in the city. A few blocks south of Ms. Smith's new home, the downtown loft apartment, restaurant and retail boom continues, also aided by government subsidies. A decade ago, new home construction was rare in the city, and major rehabilitation efforts were rare. But last year there were 7,180 new homes and major rehabs in the city. Roughly 13 percent of the city's housing stock consists of new homes or homes rehabbed over the past five years.

Together, those facts are encouraging evidence that the city's long, slow decline has ended, and the revival has begun. spacer

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