Many of my longtime readers probably know by now that major arteries such as Gravois or North Florissant were widened due to a bond issue passed by voters back in the first decades of the Twentieth Century. Amazingly, Gravois Avenue… Continue Reading
I went back to the Greater Ville in July to see how the neighborhood was faring since I had walked its streets back in the winter of this year. I knew that violence had flared up, and that the area… Continue Reading
Howard Street is almost completely abandoned, as I had seen in May of 2017. In the background, you can see Madison Street, where I met Dan, way back in December of 2013. I do find some interesting little gems, like… Continue Reading
Land speculation has arrived in the neighborhoods around the new spy agency, and if history has shown us anything in America, land speculators have rarely had the interests of the general public in mind. I first photographed the house above… Continue Reading
Heading east down Washington Street from downtown Belleville are a whole ensemble of amazing houses, such as the one seen above, which has been carefully restored. I like this little Romanesque Revival cottage sitting back from the street; it is… Continue Reading
So this corner tavern has quite the history. The infamous Thomas Venezia, after serving time for the racket he was running over in Washington Park in the 1990s, ran a bar here back in the early 2000s, until he turned… Continue Reading
South of downtown Belleville is an interesting mix of houses, with everything from brick foursquares you might see in Tower Grove South, to below, old Second Empire houses that would fit in down in Carondelet. Some of the best Italianate… Continue Reading
Just north of downtown Belleville are a cluster of beautiful Italianate houses, many of which have been adapted for other uses over the years, as is common as the commercial core of a city grows into nearby residential areas. There… Continue Reading
The Roman Catholic Church of St. Charles Borromeo dominates the northeastern part of town away from St. Charles’s downtown. There are more beautiful examples of Second Empire and Italianate houses and apartment buildings lining Fifth Street, which is wider through… Continue Reading
The architecture of St. Charles is interesting, because it follows the same styles as St. Louis, but yet expresses them in a different way, more akin to small towns. For starters, the lots are not long and skinny like the… Continue Reading