Along East Grand Avenue (it switches at North/West Florissant Avenue), the houses are more elaborate, and they were originally homes to the more well-to-do, the fronts covered in stone shipped in by rail from new quarries south of St. Louis.
Month: March 2019
College Hill in the Snow #27: Adélaïde and Warne Avenues
I’ve been bringing people up to Mount Grace Convent for years, and this house is out in the strange triangle out in front, and I just realized it has really gone downhill. I’m afraid it is abandoned now.
College Hill in the Snow #26: Zealand Street at College Avenue
There are many well-maintained streets, such as Zealand Avenue (second photo), in College Hill, where we saw homeowners sweeping their sidewalks out in front of their bungalows. Update: The house below has now been properly secure (last photo). But there is also abandonment, sadly, such as this stately house below, which we thought was occupied back…
College Hill in the Snow #25: North Twentieth Street
Update: See the street again in the late summer of 2019. Moving north, the street grid changes, and there are a series of north-south streets that break up the dominance of the east west streets, as well as some north-south streets that continue up from the south. There are also more “one-off” houses that are…
College Hill in the Snow #24: Our Lady of Perpetual Succor
The Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succor burned long ago, but the many buildings of its campus are still standing, showing what a large presence the congregation was in the community. The parish is now closed, the territory part of Most Holy Trinity in Hyde Park, like much of the North Side…
College Hill in the Snow #23: 2000-2100 Blocks of Linton
We met a homeowner in one of those HUD houses, as we call them, who’d lived in the neighborhood for forty years. We talked for a while and discussed the house next door, with a mysterious terracotta coat of arms above the door. The man thought it was related to a Jewish group, but I…
College Hill in the Snow #22: 1400 and 1900 Blocks of Linton
Linton Street has some occupied and abandoned buildings, and like many streets affected by the curve of the Mississippi River, had its 1500-1800 blocks squeezed out. But then there are beautiful four-family apartment buildings with sun porches that gleam in the snow, such as the one below, challenging the difficulties of getting a home improvement…
College Hill in the Snow #21: Lowell School
Lowell School, designed by Rockwell Milligan, opened in 1926. It is now a charter school. I’m teaching a two week class on March 26 and April 2 at OASIS Clayton about the history of brewing in St. Louis. Breweries I’ll be discussing will include Anheuser-Busch, Lemp, Falstaff and others. To sign up, click here and…
College Hill in the Snow #20: Rear of 3800 Block of West Florissant Avenue
Much like in the ruins of Medieval Rome, trails have begun to form into new roads in between the ruins of a once much larger city. Perhaps in a thousand years this footpath in the snow will be a major avenue. I’m teaching a two week class on March 26 and April 2 at OASIS…
College Hill in the Snow #19: 2100 Block of DeSoto Avenue
Update: I revisited the house above in the winter of 2023 (second photo). Then, as we approached West Florissant Avenue, we hit a patch of wood frame houses, including several that are in the Italianate style. As I’ve said many times before, there had to have been some sort of industry out in the countryside,…