Neighbors upset over derelict home owned by Belleville attorney who grew up in it
The derelict condition of a once-stately brick home at West Main Street and Juanita Place has the owner facing criticism by neighbors and legal action by the city of Belleville.
The subject came up Monday night at a City Council meeting. Neighbor David Orlet asked what was going on with the two-story brick home, which was condemned more than a year ago.
“It’s been vacant for 25 years and falling apart, and now graffiti is being sprayed on part of it,” he said.
After the meeting, David Orlet and his wife, Jayne Orlet, described the historic home at 8300 W. Main St. as an eyesore that is running down the neighborhood and its property values.
The Orlets and other neighbors have been complaining to city officials, the two alderwomen for Ward 8 and the owner himself. They’re wondering why more isn’t being done to solve the problem and whether a less-prominent owner could have avoided scrutiny for so long.
“It’s just a mess,” said Jayne Orlet, who lives four doors down on Juanita Place. “The whole neighborhood is upset about it.”
The home is owned by a trust administered by George E. Marifian, a retired attorney who lives elsewhere in Belleville. He didn’t respond to requests for comment through Mathis, Marifian & Richter, the Belleville law firm he co-founded in 1984 that also has offices in Edwardsville.
Marifian grew up in the West Main Street home with his Armenian parents and siblings and wanted to keep it in the family, according to neighbors and Scott Tyler, the city’s director of health, housing and building.
Steve Thouvenot, the city’s building inspector, put Marifian on notice on Oct. 11, 2022, by sending a letter describing the home as “unsafe.”
“This property will be reinspected in 30 days,” Thouvenot wrote. “If no progress has been made, our office will turn this matter over to the City Attorney for condemnation.”
City goes to court
The city of Belleville filed a petition for demolition on May 22, 2023, in St. Clair County Circuit Court. It asked a judge to allow the West Main Street home to be torn down and require Marifian to foot the bill if he didn’t come up with a plan for making needed repairs and follow through with it.
“(The home is) structurally unsafe, damaged and dilapidated, and dangerous to the neighborhood,” stated the petition, which was prepared by Lloyd Cueto, one of the city’s attorneys.
Marifian is representing himself in the case.
Tyler said the city agreed to try and help save the home after Marifian promised to install a new roof and make other critical repairs to avoid further water damage and other deterioration.
“It’s a cool house, so we’re doing everything we can to keep it from getting torn down,” Tyler said. “On the other hand, we need George Marifian to work with us. He put a roof on it (last fall), I’ll give him that, and he spent a substantial amount of money, but he’s got to keep going.
“Our end goal is ... We either want the house to get fixed by George Marifian or bought by someone else and fixed. We don’t want to tear it down. However, if they wait too long, we’re not going to have a choice.”
On Dec. 11, 2023, Joe Werner, the city’s assistant building commissioner, sent Marifian a letter stating that the home’s condition was still in violation of housing codes and that he needed to do the following:
Repair the soffit and fascia overhangs.
Address the debris left in the front porch/patio.
Tuckpoint as required.
Cut the overgrown invasive vegetation from the entire property.
Repair the back porch ceiling.
Jayne Orlet said she complained to Ward 8 Alderwoman Kara Osthoff about the home, and Osthoff told her that property owners have rights under the U.S. Constitution that must be protected.
Osthoff declined to be interviewed for this story. She emailed the following statement:
“I have been in contact with the Orlets. This issue predates my election to the City Council, but as it stands currently, that particular property has been addressed at the Housing Committee and is moving through the process.”
Ward 8 Alderwoman Nora Sullivan didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Suburban living in 1920s
The home at 8300 W. Main St. was designed and built in 1923 by Fred Blumenkamp, president of Illmo Lumber Co. and Illmo Oil Co. in East St. Louis, according to Bob Brunkow, historian for Belleville Historical Society.
Notable features included stained-glass windows, French doors that opened onto the wrap-around porch and a porte cochere, an overhang that allowed people to exit vehicles in the circle driveway under cover.
In the 1920s, Blumenkamp and other well-to-do East St. Louisans were moving to what is now West Belleville for suburban living, Brunkow said. The first nine holes of golf at St. Clair County Club had been completed in 1917.
The Blumenkamp home was later purchased by George E. Marifian’s parents, George and Shamrig Marifian. Both were survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, a 2005 obituary for Marifian’s mother stated. The couple had four children.
“Shamrig supported her husband in the operation of their dry cleaning business in East St. Louis and Belleville and, following his untimely death in 1959, continued the business with her elder son,” the obituary stated.
The couple also were co-founders of the Armenian church that later moved from East St. Louis to Swansea.
St. Clair County recorder of deeds records show that ownership of the West Main Street home went into the Juanita Main Land Trust in 2019. George E. Marifian is trustee.
Susan Adams, whose late husband grew up in the neighborhood with Marifian, said she understands why someone would be sentimental about a childhood home, but it’s hard for neighbors who keep up their properties not to resent the situation at 8300 W. Main St.
“I confronted George about it (three years ago),” said Adams, who has lived on Juanita Place for 27 years. “I was very nice. I was just curious as to why he hadn’t done anything with the house, and he said he didn’t want anyone else living in his childhood home.
“I really don’t understand that. Why would he want to keep the house vacant and destroy it? You would think he would want someone to move in and keep it up and make it beautiful.”
Door to the neighborhood
The home at 8300 W. Main St. stands just west of the Juanita Place subdivision entrance, which has brick arches on either side. The main street also is named Juanita Place.
Cele Struckhoff, who has lived on the street for 29 years, said many visitors ask, “What’s with the house on the corner?”
The home’s soffits are rotting, and bricks are falling off its chimney. A trench-like area formed when the wrap-around porch collapsed is now filled with scrap wood, broken clay roof tiles and tall weeds. Tyler said Marifian told him it was being cleaned to make way for new concrete.
Cream-colored paint peels from the home’s exterior trim. Vandals recently spray-painted graffiti on garage-door windows. On Monday, a basement door was partially open.
“There have to be animals living in that house,” Struckhoff said.
One piece of good news is that squatters haven’t moved into the home, according to Tyler. He often sees buildings in Belleville damaged beyond repair within months when people are tearing out fixtures, starting fires and filling buckets with human waste.
Tyler said he believes the West Main Street home still can be renovated, noting that Marifian or a new owner would need to replace old knob-and-tube electrical wiring and do work inside on floors and plaster walls and outside on windows, soffits and the porch.
Neighbors see that as positive news.
“We don’t necessarily want it torn down,” Struckhoff said. “We would love for someone who cares about the property to rehab it, if that’s possible, and move into it so it could be the showcase house that I’m sure it used to be.”
