The Kaletta Statuary Company once dominated the religious sculpture and furnishings business in St. Louis from their shop on a stretch of the 3700 block of California Avenue in Gravois Park. In fact, if you go into any Roman Catholic church in St. Louis built before the 1950s, you’ll probably see some of their work….
Month: November 2021
5100 Block of Cabanne Avenue
I’ve looked at a little bit of Cabanne Avenue in between Union and Kingshighway boulevards before, but I decided to take a look at another section of the street between Clarendon and Academy avenues one Saturday morning. The housing stock is in great condition, with just a few abandoned buildings. It is more ornate than…
5300-5400 Block of Maple Avenue
I’ve actually photographed the houses above and below before, back when I looked at Maple Avenue in April of this year (last photo), but they were on the other side of a street closure, which are common throughout this part of the city. I’d looked at Maple another time, way back in December of 2015,…
Cabanne Castle and Vernon Avenue, West of Union Boulevard
Update: Renovation had continued in August of 2022 when I went by again. As I noticed back in April of this year, the Cabanne Castle was undergoing a gutting and presumed rehab. A building permit for $2,000,000 had been pulled in February, and hopes were high. When I drove by recently, it seemed like work…
5,000th Post: The Ruins of the Freie Gemeinde
None of my friends who live up north around the St. Louis Place and Old North St. Louis neighborhoods told me they were terribly surprised when the old Freie Gemeinde went up in flames on a bitterly cold night a week ago. It suffered a partial collapse way back in 2013, and when I checked…
North Nineteenth Street Between Branch Avenue and Angelrodt Street, West Side
I was driving somewhere else when I spotted this row of houses on North Nineteenth Street, on the far south side of Hyde Park. I don’t think I’ve photographed them before. The house below looks like it might be seeing some rehabbing. I hope so. There are some very old houses in the neighborhood, such…
Shaw Place, Revisited
Due to the giant no trespassing signs written in gold lettering, I had to look at Shaw Place, laid out by Henry Shaw himself, from the public right-of-way. The eight houses, designed by George I. Barnett, were originally intended as rental properties to generate income for Shaw in his Lafayette Addition. Their style was meant…
Early Houses in Northern Carondelet
I’ve looked at the super rare Carpenter Gothic house before, but there are also other extremely unique and very old houses located in the northern reaches of Carondelet that date back to the earliest days of the then-independent city and may even predate the Civil War. The first tow houses are located right on Michigan…
Frank W. Choisel Residence, Carondelet
This house, which I suspect is one of the earliest examples of the Second Empire style in St. Louis, was the home of Frank W. Choisel, editor of the The Realty and Builder Record, which published information on new buildings being built in St. Louis. It is a critical source on the built environment in…
Germantown, Montgomery County, Ohio
I drove into Germantown, Ohio from the east, and was greeted by a row of beautifully restored houses from the Nineteenth through early Twentieth Centuries Orangish-red brick was used to build Italianate style houses along the main road into town. Many houses have been restored, and its proximity to major Ohio cities (it’s actually in…