ST. LOUIS – A car was caught on camera slamming into a glass art studio near Lafayette Square. The terrifying ordeal has left the owners of the small, family-owned business truly picking up the pieces.
The façade of the building was built in the 1880s displaying artistry on the outside and the inside.
“The beauty of the glass brings something that I feel like no other medium can bring,” said Elias Preston, co-owner of Preston Glass Art Studio. “Glass has a magic to it.”
The Preston Glass Art Studio has been creating and restoring custom glass pieces off Chouteau for almost 20 years.
However, on Thursday morning just after 6 a.m., in a matter of seconds, everything came to a crashing stop. A driver allegedly fell asleep behind the wheel and crashed into the building, missing oncoming traffic by only a few moments.
The driver suffered minor injuries, and no one inside the glass studio was hurt, but the damage is significant.
“It was a pretty serious crash, they ran right into the light pole in the front, and yeah, pretty scary,” Preston said.
The vehicle finally stopped on the sidewalk at the end of the block but only after sideswiping the entire side of the building, leaving lots of damage.
“There’s now a gap maybe three inches or so, and we have a crack going up all the way from the ground floor to the third floor as well,” said Ray Preston. “So we’re going to have all the structural engineers come out, take a look, the insurance company, it could be a while before we get everything back to the way it was.”
Ray, who lives upstairs, and his nephews that run the studio below, were cleaning up the mess.
Now, they are worried about the cost and time to fix the building.
“She’s a tough old girl, and she can survive,” Ray said.