Heading south of Juniata on Oregon towards Wyoming looking at the east side of the street, we see more of the houses that make Benton Park West such a distinctive neighborhood. We see more of the standard red brick houses, some paired up as duplexes, and they are in good shape overall, and show the…
Month: October 2020
Oregon Avenue Between Arsenal and Juniata Streets, Benton Park West, Fall 2020
Heading south on Oregon Avenue towards Juniata Street, we go through what was once the St. Louis Commons, an area of Karst Topography that was pockmarked with sinkholes, quarries and other rugged uneven land. As we can see from the Compton and Dry Pictorial St. Louis from 1876, Oregon was cut through late compare to…
Oregon Avenue Between Crittenden and Arsenal Streets, Benton Park West, Fall 2020
St. Wenceslaus Roman Catholic Church might not get as much attention as other churches in the city, but it often plays a role in fallen police officers’ funerals, as it sits on the east side of Oregon Avenue across from Kutis Funeral Home. It is in the English Gothic Revival style, and is the second…
Arsenal Street Between Oregon and Nebraska Avenues, Benton Park West, Fall 2020
Update: I revisited the block in May of 2022, going east to west. Arsenal Street in between Oregon and Nebraska avenues is an interesting mix of houses and businesses, some of which have a long history in South St. Louis. First up is an old florist’s shop, which once had coolers in the basement. It…
Pestalozzi Street Between Iowa and California Avenues, Benton Park West, Fall 2020
On Pestalozzi, we see the other side of that Civil War era building we saw on Iowa, and then we proceed down Pestalozzi, which is an interesting mix of housing forms, as the dominant streets in the neighborhood are the north-south streets, so most buildings face them. But there are the occasional multi-family buildings facing…
Iowa Avenue Between Crittenden and Pestalozzi Streets, Benton Park West, Fall 2020
Cutting down Crittenden Street, we come across the longtime former home of Southside Early Childhood Center, which is now located at Jefferson and Russell. They have been helping children for generations in the City. The rest of the block is an eclectic mix of houses that tend to the early Twentieth Century for years of…
Texas Avenue Between Arsenal and Pestalozzi Streets, Benton Park West, Revisited Fall 2020
I realized that my previous visit to the two blocks of Texas Avenue between Arsenal and Pestalozzi in September of 2019 (Crittenden cuts through there, but it’s practically just a glorified alley in Benton Park West) did not do this incredible stretch of street justice. In fact, the corner storefront, above and below, right on…
Former Burger Chef, Arsenal and Jefferson
Just to the north of the beautiful street wall of Nineteenth Century buildings lining South Jefferson north of Wyoming, a parking lot appears. A keen eye will see that faded but still visible paint, including a yellow arrow can be seen in the cracked and deteriorating asphalt. Then, like at Pompeii, a ceramic floor appears,…
Macklind Avenue Between Oakland and Manchester Avenues
I found myself wandering up Macklind Avenue north of Manchester Avenue, and there’s a unique group of post-World War II light industrial buildings. I’d love to know the story behind the two anachronistic doorways that flank the two sides of this first building. This building obviously dates earlier, probably to the 1930s. This, of course,…
Grant School
I could have sworn I’d photographed Grant School before, and I may have, but I can’t find it now. Nevertheless, it’s a great example of first, a pre-Ittner/Milligan school in St. Louis, and secondly, a perfect example of how an old school building can be renovated into apartments. Tower Grove East is a stable neighborhood…