There’s some good news to report for a change, since it seems like it’s been a lot of bad news lately. A log cabin, that was literally stolen and thankfully recovered, has been rebuilt in the new Village Green Park in Wildwood a decade after its theft. The Essen Family were longtime settlers in West…
Osceola Street Between South Spring Street and 37th Street
I then cruised down Osceola Street, where I saw something surprising: an abandoned house. It is a rarity in what is other a very healthy neighborhood. It’s also a neat little house. Much of the blocks on Osceola are the sides of houses since they primarily face the north-south street, but we have some nice…
Taft Avenue Between South 37th and 38th Streets
Turning onto Taft Avenue from Grace Avenue, we see more of those more modern housing configurations. The houses above are breaking away from the red brick two bay wide facades with side front doors, as you can see above. And of course, now there are Gingerbread houses popping up. But of course, remember that these…
Grace Avenue Between Osceola Street and Taft Avenue
Crossing over Osceola Street, we’re immediately struck by the ages of the houses that we see. That’s because this is the Jones and Miltenberger Subdivision laid out in March 28, 1876. You might recognize the Eugene Miltenberger name if you follow my Lemp content; he along with two others owned and subdivided the land where…
Grace Avenue Between Meramec and Osceola Streets, Dutchtown
I’ve become intrigued with the so-called South St. Louis Suburb, a giant swath of area platted on July 14, 1858 by the surveyor Salomon (anybody have any information on him?). It was deep in the conutry, far from where the City and consisted of dozens of blocks on either side of South Grand Boulevard, itself…
Intersection of Gravois and Spring Avenues
I was sitting at the light at South Spring Avenue and Gravois Avenue and caught these buildings lying along the north side of the latter. It’s a reminder that Gravois used to be a pedestrian oriented street, before houses were torn down and replaced with parking lots for fast-food restaurants. Unfortunately, due to the noise…
St. Mark’s, Six Months After the Fire
I thought I would check up on how the former St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church was doing six months after the severe fire that struck in the depths of winter. The answer: not very good. There has been little change other than the dramatic growth of plants, trees and other vegetation up the sides of…
Crunden-Martin, Advanced State of Demolition
Crunden Martin, which was gutted and partially destroyed by a fire back in November of 2025, is now being demolished in earnest. Demolition had begun back in June. In fact, by the time you see these photographs, much more of the buildings will be gone. I suspect they didn’t save any of the iconic letters…
Old Potters’ Field Interment, Mount Lebanon Cemetery
Thirteen years ago, Toby Weiss of BeltSTL and I looked fruitlessly for the location of the reinterment of the St. Louis Potters’ Field, moved to Mount Lebanon Cemetery in 1950. This time, I came up with the ingenious idea of simply calling the cemetery on the phone, now owned by Alexander-White-Millen Funeral Home, and a…
End of Corpus Christi, Jennings
“That’s weird,” I remarked as we headed up Jennings Station Road to check up on the old factory on Xograph Avenue, “we should be seeing an old church I check up on occasionally.” After our visit to Xograph Avenue, we came back to the site of the former Corpus Christi Church, which I first visited…