Waverly Place, just off Lafayette Avenue, is one of the more interesting private streets in Lafayette Square, and in the city in general. It is also, after Vandeventer Place (which was annihilated), perhaps one of the most devastated by demolition,… Continue Reading
I went by the Theophile Papin House on the last Saturday of June. It’s being demolished. It’s sad, but honestly, it had been so heavily altered that it wouldn’t really have been feasible or worthwhile to restore it back to… Continue Reading
I took a look around Chouteau’s Landing a couple of Saturdays ago, and I still marvel at the stunning buildings that fill the area. Particularly after looking at Dubuque’s revitalization of its former industrial core, I wonder why that rebirth… Continue Reading
The old Jesuit St. Stanislaus Semimary is perhaps one of the oldest and most historic buildings in St. Louis County. When it was first built, it was far out in the country, and as the aerial photograph below demonstrates, was… Continue Reading
Richard W. Lemen, Northeast Corner of Compton and Gravois, c. 1930, Lemen Streets and Sewers Collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public LibraryIn my dreams I have this fantasy where I win the lottery, and among other things, I… Continue Reading
This power plant is no longer standing; it was being demolished when I walked by in the afternoon. It was not the largest power plant in the world, but it sure seems huge when I was standing near it. Back… Continue Reading
I had always glanced down Nicholson Place while traveling down Lafayette Avenue, and had foolishly believed that the sadly truncated little street surely contained little history and few historic houses. After digging a little, I discovered I was dead wrong.… Continue Reading
The block of Lafayette Avenue across from the park between Mississippi Avenue (formerly Park Place) and Nicholson Place is short, but it is packed with history. Sadly, Number 2 on Compton and Dry’s Pictorial St. Louis, the house of John… Continue Reading
We’ll first take a look at these nice houses on Dolman above, which would fit in well in Soulard, but then we turn right onto Lafayette Avenue, which has changed dramatically in the time when it was first settled before… Continue Reading
Here we go again; more crumbling infrastructure has to be torn down and replaced; in Baby Boomers’ lifetimes we are now going on the third bridge in some parts of St. Louis, such as the Grand Viaduct. Interstate 44 has… Continue Reading