North Third Street, Laclede’s Landing

What’s there to say about what’s left of North Third Street in Laclede’s Landing? First of all, to exit the parking lot, which is currently the only way to get out of the neighborhood and onto Third Street on the south side, you have to walk out into traffic lanes because there is a fence…

North Second Street, West Side, Laclede’s Landing

Starting way up by the casino, there is this large rock sitting here. I have no idea what it is doing. Below, I thought it was a smart idea to put a dog park under the western approaches of the MLK Bridge since in general modern engineers do not like buildings constructed under spans anymore….

North Second Street, East Side, Laclede’s Landing

We’ll first look at the east side of North Second Street, heading north. The two buildings on the right are the Greeley and Cutlery buildings, respectively. Back in 1980, the two buildings were shabby, looked abandoned, and the Cutlery Building was still sporting a fire escape like something you would see in the Lower East…

Clamorgan Alley, Laclede’s Landing

Clamorgan Alley is not the historic name for this alley, which cuts between the 700 blocks of North First and Second streets. But it received that name because Jacques Clamorgan once owned this land, and in a famous court case, after giving the land to his slave, Esther, in an effort to avoid creditors (something…

North First Street, Laclede’s Landing

We come up the steep incline and reach North First Street, where the above photograph captures the street in 1968, right before the grand plans for redevelopment had begun. Interestingly, old fashioned street lights had already appeared. Below, on the southwest corner, a plaza that appears to still be incomplete replaced the vacant lot where…

Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard, Laclede’s Landing

Not much is happening down along the Levee anymore. There are so many streets blocked off or closed permanently, as in the case of Washington Avenue, removed in the recent Arch renovations, that it is increasingly difficult to impossible to even reach the riverfront. But it is worth it to see the Eads Bridge and…

An In Depth Look at Laclede’s Landing, Fall 2022

Laclede’s Landing has been in the news a lot lately, and while I’m not going to wade into the controversy that’s been going on concerning crime, homelessness and whatnot, I thought it was time for me to revisit what is perhaps one of the best known neighborhoods in the region. When reviewing old posts, I…

Bavarian Inn, More Progress

I had been wondering why there had been no activity at the old Bavarian Inn site for a while. After sitting vacant for a long time, there had been rapid renovation work earlier in 2022. But now, in the last couple of weeks, the new windows have shown up, and the building and renovation is…

Massive Redevelopment, The Grove

Ah yeah, so Vista Avenue has changed a bit since I first looked at it back in August of 2014 when the Grove was still at the cusp of a major redevelopment explosion. The affordable housing above was just about complete in June of 2018, but things sure have changed. Basically all of the old…

Neoclassicism and Beyond, Paris

Moving along now so we can get back to St. Louis, here is a smorgasbord of Paris buildings that have broader implications on world architectural history, including here in the Gateway City. First up is the Madeleine, which was originally built by Napoleon to glorify his reign, but was then converted into a church. It’s…