Benjamin Anderson won’t get to develop the long vacant Euclid School, a dream he’s held ever since moving to the Fountain Park neighborhood in 2018. On Tuesday, the Board of Education for the Saint Louis Public Schools voted to spend $1.3 million to demolish the 136-year-old building, once again rejecting Anderson’s attempt to rehab it.
It was in 2023 that Anderson first put in an offer to buy the place for $200,000, only to get “ghosted” by the school board. He never gave up hope, though, and when he learned the school board had greenlit the building for demolition, he went public with his interest. (Noting that the board was planning to spend more than a million to demolish it, he lowered his offer to $1.) The board gave him just two weeks to show proof of financing and a plan—but he provided both to board members (and also posted both, along with letters of neighborhood support, online).
And so Tuesday’s 4–2 decision probably should have been insulting: They’d rather spend money to destroy the place than let him buy it?…