Another one of Paul McKee’s buildings went up in flames on Tyler Street. I realized I had photographed the building way back in February of 2016 (last photo) as well as June of 2019 (second photo), and now it is completely ruined. It doesn’t matter if it was arson or accidental, the end result is…
Month: April 2022
Mount Airy Missionary Baptist Church
Update: The wall that made up the air dome screen was destroyed by the tornado of May 16, 2025. I learned an interesting story about this church and its parking lot at the southwest corner of Marcus and Maffitt in the Greater Ville neighborhood. If you look closely, it becomes obvious that the large white…
Shenandoah Arch Replaced
Back in January of 2020, I featured the four-family on Shenandoah Avenue whose front porch was later demolished due to structural problems (it was almost certainly not original to the building). Lo and behold, it has been completely rebuilt, which is great news, as it added a lot of character to the Tower Grove East…
Charles Gordon Knox House
Why does the loss of the Culver House matter so much? Because I hope I’ve conveyed over the years just how rare examples of the residential fabric of Grand Center are, preserving the historical record of the neighborhood that grew up in the years after the Civil War. The Charles Gordon Knox House is just…
Culver House Under Threat
Update: Demolished as planned in July of 2022. You might have heard in the news about the expansion planned by the St. Louis Symphony, which will add new wings out the east and south of the original building built as the St. Louis Theater. Not mentioned is the demolition of the Culver House, which I…
Renovation of the Old Bavarian Inn
Update: See the progress of construction in the fall of 2022. There’s some great news at the long dormant and abandoned, and frequently vandalized former Bavarian Inn restaurant at the southeastern corner of Arsenal Street and Minnesota Avenue. The rehabilitation will return a restaurant space and outdoor patio to the old storefront facing Arsenal, and…
Jerseyville, Jersey County, Illinois
Jerseyville, the county seat of Jersey County, is out in the country north of St. Louis, but I still lumped it in with the Metro East due to its proximity to the city. The courthouse, the third one on the site, was designed by Henry Elliott of Chicago. Erected in 1893, which the front façade…
Carrollton, Greene County, Illinois
South on U.S. Highway 67 from Jacksonville is the county seat of Greene County, Carrollton. It’s fascinating to see how quiet and rural the countryside of Illinois becomes when you get away from the major arteries, whether they’re the interstate or railroad, and quaint towns appear on the old highways. It is only sixty miles…
State Street Historic District, Jacksonville, Part Two
Moving along down east back towards Central Park in Jacksonville on West State Street, we encounter the August Ayers House, constructed in 1857. That date of construction makes it an incredibly early example of Italianate architecture. Moving along, the Italianate houses are humbler, but I can’t help but notice that the house below has a…
State Street Historic District, Jacksonville, Part One
West of the courthouse and Central Park, Jacksonville dazzles the visitor with the West State Street Historic District, which is one of the best preserved clusters of Victorian Period houses in the Midwest. It is fascinatingly similar to Maine Avenue in Quincy, which is just a short drive from here to the west. The first…