Heading east on Fifth Street from Easton Street (named after Rufus Easton, the founder of Alton, his son’s name), we see some very early housing. We then angle onto the diagonal Court Street, which mysteriously exists for only about three blocks. We then hop onto Fourth Street as we head out of town. I really…
State Street and Environs, Alton
Working my way around on Mill Street over to Carroll, I saw some of the wide variety of houses on the steep slopes of the bluffs to the west of downtown Alton. Below is looking up William Street. Finally, I turned up State Street, which is the main artery up to the bluffs above the…
Alby Street, Alton
I made it back out by the Henry Watson House, this time with the sun out, but now with a pesky overhead wire in the way! I had photographed it way back in January of 2009 on a cloudy day. Apparently the house was damaged by fire. Watson owned two quarries; I wonder if one…
Downtown, Alton
We’re going to swing back through Alton for a few days. Like Hannibal, Quincy or even Cairo, and a bunch of other towns, I can’t help but imagine that except for a few twists of fate, Alton could have been the center of a metropolitan area of two million people, or at least maybe a…
Alton Steel, Incorporated
Alton Steel is an interesting story that is a twist on the standard narrative of a legacy company going out of business, leaving behind a massive ruin for decades. It is actually the employee-owned successor company to the historic Laclede Steel Company, founded in 1911. When it went broke, it was owned by the Akin…
Demolition and East Alton
Learning that the Citizens’ National Bank was going to be demolished, and hoping maybe I could coax some important architectural elements from the crews working there, I headed up to East Alton on a recent Saturday. East Alton is an interesting town, with parts from the Nineteenth Century but also with clear signs of a…
Lemp Avenue Between Pestalozzi and Lynch Streets, West Side
Heading north past Pestalozzi Street, we see this interesting Italianate row, which has six front doors, indicating that it was once a series of flats. But then the street wall goes back to three story Second Empire houses, which is typical for this area. Along with two story versions. This house below on the right…
Lemp Avenue Between Arsenal and Pestalozzi Streets, West Side
I could have sworn I photographed this stretch of Lemp Avenue before, but apparently not. It’s a beautiful stretch of mostly Second Empire houses, with a few other styles thrown in. Crittenden Street, which is much narrower and actually ceases to exist in Tower Grove East, passes through here. It was always practically an alley….
Utah Street Between Missouri and Wisconsin Avenues, North Side
Wow, things sure have been changing along Utah Street in Benton Park! The corner storefront above, which had been baby blue for a long time, has been rehabbed. Amazingly, the ghost sign was preserved when the presumably latex paint was removed. Great job! And this little duplex, when I wasn’t paying attention, was rehabbed a…
It’s a Good Thing Bad Taste Isn’t a Crime
I’ll fully concede that this four-family had already been screwed up for years before the current rehabber bought it, but that does not excuse what’s happened to this long-suffering property in the last six months. Cheap crap that will fail when the next unsuspecting owner years from now owns it makes my blood boil. The…