Era ends as historic Lansdowne Towers public housing in East St. Louis comes down

A piece of history is coming down.

Demolition began this week in East St. Louis on the Lansdowne Towers public housing complex, which date back to the 1960s.

East St. Louis Housing Authority Executive Director Mildred Motley said demolition crews will take down all four buildings. Work on the first began Tuesday.

Motley said more than $30 million would be needed to repair the buildings.

“Two are coming down first and then at a later time another one will be torn down,” she said. One of the Lansdowne Tower buildings still has tenants in it and will be torn down at a later time.

She said the buildings that are vacant now became vacant at different times. The Rukavina building is still occupied.

The first two became vacant in May or June of 2017, Motley said,. The wrecking ball began taking down Brenton Towers first.

The Starnes Building, Motley said, located at 2401 Waverly Ave. became vacant in June or July of this year.

The first three Lansdowne buildings were built in 1967. The Starnes Building was built in 1969.

“There was a total of 365 units in all four buildings.

This story was originally published October 4, 2019 at 10:54 AM.