I think one of the more interesting aspects of the built environment in St. Louis is the number of churches we have lost not due to neglect and disinvestment but rather due to rapid growth. I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the earliest churches in St. Louis that…
Missouri Avenue Between Albion Place and Park Avenue, Lafayette Square, Revisited
Crossing over Albion Place, we are still in the large Funkhauser Addition, at least until the last few houses before we reach Park Avenue. As can be seen above, there was nothing built yet in 1875, and the only features present was what looks to be a farmhouse and a small grove of trees and…
Missouri Avenue Between Lafayette Avenue and Albion Place, Lafayette Square, Revisited
I looked at Missouri Avenue on the west side of Lafayette Square back in September of 2019, but I felt like it was such an interesting stretch of street that I’ve split it up into two posts. Up first is a house I looked at all the way back in April of 2008.; it was…
The Former St. Mark’s After the Fire
It’s bad. Fire struck the former St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church at the northwest corner of Page Boulevard and Academy Avenue in the evening of January 23, just as the city was facing a major snow storm. Looking back at previous visits I had made, the first time in July of 2018, then in November…
Rex-All Warehouse Glow Up
As I was driving down Kingshighway from Bellefontaine Cemetery to the former St. Mark’s, a blinding white object to the right caught my attention. The old Rex-All Warehouse, which I’ve looked at before back in June of 2011 and November of 2018 (fifth through seventh photos) has received a “glow up” as the kids say…
Bellefontaine Cemetery, Snow in January 2025
I usually try and make it up to Bellefontaine Cemetery after it snows, and the roads were in great condition inside its gates, so I drove around and took a few photos.
Montgomery Street Fire, Old North
Only hours after I had posted on January 22 the good news that these houses were being rehabbed, a fire broke out and severely damaged this row of houses. I do not know what the future holds for these houses. Sometimes it feels like North St. Louis just cannot catch a break.
Yahn Dam, Weldon Spring
That strange concrete structure we saw two days ago is the spillway that Theodore Yahn built for what was going to be an earthen dam, which would have filled in a valley. It was never completed, so this stairstepped monolith remains in the woods.
Heck-Roth Cemetery, Weldon Spring
The Heck-Roth Cemetery was located just off the road we looked at yesterday. Like many of the old cemeteries we’ve looked at in the Weldon Spring area, it was for family, and relatively small, though this one is even smaller than usual. The easiest gravestone to read was that of Mathilda Roth, wife of William.
Old Railroad Spur and Quarry, Weldon Spring
We’ve been looking at the former farmsteads and cemeteries around Weldon Spring that were bought up and demolished for the federal government’s armaments plant during World War II and after (we recently discussed the processing of uranium in the area). This time, off lower Hamburg Road, we found some evidence of an old railroad spur…