I sit on Millionaire’s Row

I sit on Millionaire’s Row,
what’s left of it,
my German accent barely noticeable,
the cries from parades of grief
moving through my doors
now calmed. I sit
in a magnificent silence,
the only sounds
the chips of mortar chisels,
the grunts of thieves of brick,
the rustle of architects’ paper,
whispering redevelopment,
murmuring tear-down. 

Photograph: The Winkelmann mansion in 2009, by Preservation Research St. Louis. To see its current condition, please visit St. Louis Patina. The mansion was built in 1873, by a “new money” German wholsesale grocery merchant named Bernhard Winkelmann. Between its glory days in the 19^th century and the near-destruction today, it served as a funeral home.