ST. LOUIS – A woman on a mission to beautify South St. Louis got an ugly wakeup call. Friday night, Sarah Ulrich woke up to the sound of gunfire. Saturday morning, she saw the damage. A bullet has shattered her glass door.
"It's very discouraging, disheartening, kind of heartbreaking,” Ulrich said.
She boarded up the door and covered it with a black curtain. Sunday, she made a black wreath and placed it in front of the curtain-covered door.
"You know, like the Victorian wreaths," she said.
For Ulrich, it wasn't just a door. It was a piece of St. Louis history.
"It's an old door from the 40s," she said. "It came from Hesselberg Drug Store. All the interior was going to go to the dumpster, and so was the door, but we ended up buying it."
On the other side of the door are dozens more items Ulrich and her husband have salvaged and stored in an area of her home known to her neighbors as the Deco Fortress. She says the door was an attraction.
“People liked seeing it, whereas a lot of stuff maybe in the neighborhood doesn't look so optimistic,” she said.
On the side of the building, there is yet another bullet hole. Someone fired shots in December last year. While Ulrich copes through art, she knows more needs to be done.
"Somebody needs to come up with a comprehensive plan because it's like chaos down here," she said.
There is a police surveillance camera about one block away from the building. Ulrich hopes the footage will help lead to an arrest.
