Rott School Buyer Wires Building with Alarms and Cameras

The new owner of Rott School at 9455 Rott Rd. said this week he has the 80-year-old vacant building boarded up and wired throughout with alarms and surveillance cameras.

"Every bit of the building has been vandalized over the years and is very unsafe to be in. It sat relatively unsecured over the years," new owner Anthony Garavaglia said in an email to Patch.

The building was sold to Garavaglia early July by former owners CCND, LLC, a property management arm of Duffe Nuernberger Realty.

Garavaglia lives near the landmark building and said he originally considered building houses to sell but that could "very well change." 

He pointed out he is a local builder, and so will likely develop the property himself. It is three acres and zoned for single-family houses.

At one time, a plan to convert the school into condos was floated out there, but the city nixed it.

Garavaglia was unwilling to reveal the purchase price. When it is filed in public record as required, Patch will post it.

Until recently, the property had a lien against it for non-payment of back taxes by the former owners. The property was to be seized in August.

The Rott School is listed with the National Register of Historic Places, according to 2005 documents found online with the U.S. Department of the Interior National Parks Service.

In many cases, listing on the Registry provides incentives to avoid razing the building, but does not necessarily prevent it from demolition.

A 2007 media release described Garavaglia as a Sunset Hills resident and graduate of Purdue University in construction engineering management, with certification in "green" or LEED methods. He was hired by Trumpet Builders, LLC, worked ten years with Alberici Constructors, Inc. and HBD Contracting, Inc., according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch release.

The Rott School property was sold by its school district in 1984. From 1976 until the early 2000s, the school was known as the Judevine Center for Autistic Children, according to National Register documents

Since that time, it has been vacant and vandalized.