“St. Louis Patina is a field trip to the hidden corners of St. Louis that many of us have never visited or noticed even though they’re right in our own back yard. Updated almost daily with great photos and researched articles on forgotten landmarks, St. Louis Patina is a love letter to the dwellings, structures and architecture that define our city.”
From The 2012 Riverfront Times St. Louis Web Awards
“Chris Naffziger has a blogging routine. It begins when he wakes up each Saturday morning and asks himself, ‘Where do I want to explore today?'”
From Best Architecture Blog: Chris Naffziger, St. Louis Patina
“St. Louis Patina is a warning, a call to arms, a shame-on-you directed at all of us. Its message is simple and important, and Naffziger sums it up best: ‘Let’s start ripping down prejudice,’ he says, ‘instead of tearing down buildings.’”
From “On St. Louis Patina, Chris Naffziger Blogs the City’s Beauty and Blight”
The Story behind the Genesis of this Site
I grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis; the city was that strange place twenty miles away from my home that I only visited on the weekends, and then it was really just the central corridor of St. Louis and the standard tourist attractions, give or take a mile to the north of Highway 40 or a mile south of Interstate 44. I realize now that as a child I was for some reason a die-hard Modernist (though of course I didn’t know what that was at the time). When a crumby old building was torn down and replaced with a shiny glass box designed by HOK, I got all excited. I even drew pictures when I was ten years old of run-down Victorian period boarding houses sitting next to gleaming, Mies van der Rohe skyscrapers (I’ll have to dig them out some day); the message was clear when I was young: old is bad, new is good. Even more bizarrely, I remember anxiously awaiting the demolition of the final blocks of downtown for the Gateway Mall in the late 1980’s. That sad, forlorn building housing a Kentucky Fried Chicken standing in the way of the completion of the Gateway Mall was my enemy as a child: dirty, run-down, poor and obsolete.
What happened to that young Modernist child? Well, quite frankly, I grew up and headed off to college at Truman State University. Kirksville, the home of the university, is not what I would call a wild and crazy town, but it had the best run-down Victorian Period houses you can find anywhere in the Midwest. What had once been professors’ houses one hundred years ago were now where students packed into slum like conditions to save money and have a social life outside the teetoling confines of the university. The first week I was in college I realized that I wanted to one day live in one of those run-down, historic houses. The summer after my sophomore year, my dream came true; I moved with my friends into a rambling, decrepit firetrap one block from the university at 515 S. High Street.
515 S. High St., Kirksville, Missouri, Fall 2000(?)
While the house certainly could have gone up in firecode violation flames any night I lived there, I fell in love with living in an historic house those final two years of college. 515 S. High may have had seventy year old wiring, rats and hornets, a furnace that worked for only one year, but it had the remnants, scattered here and there throughout the house in bits and pieces of beautiful millwork, large, light flooding windows and solid wooden panel doors that would be the envy of any carpenter today. Rather interestingly, the portions of the house built one hundred years ago were in better shape than the shoddy 1950’s addition at the back of the house. It dawned on me; the craftsmanship of the past rivals or often surpasses the cheap, flimsy construction that has dominated the American built environment for the last fifty years.
Logan Circle, Washington, DC
I left college and headed off to grad school in Washington, DC at George Washington University. I soon discovered that our nation’s capital boasts some of the most amazing, and most banal, architecture in the country. My tastes, as I grew older, began to change. My love for the adolescence of American architecture, the Victorian Period, grew as I walked down some of the most beautiful streets in America. The neighborhoods of Logan Circle, Dupont Circle, Columbia Heights, Capitol Hill, Adams Morgan and Kalorama Heights feature the best in what America has offered over the last two hundred years of American architectural history. Washington, DC also offers the worst of what American architecture has to offer, summed in the name of a single thoroughfare: K Street. Perhaps best described as Modernism run amok, the twenty blocks of K Street through downtown Washington show how ugly, and dispiriting, bad architecture can be. I realized over the course of late 2000 into early 2001, that I was beginning to gravitate towards the humanly scaled, eclectic and playful architecture of the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries and away from what I then saw as the cold, Brutalist, “Darth Vader” experience that pervades much Modernist architecture.
The summer of 2001 turned out to be a watershed in my development of my love of the architecture of America’s past. Through shear coincidence, my industry’s national convention was held in St. Louis, and I found myself in the unique, and fascinating role of being a tourist in the very city I grew up in. But was it the same city? The “city” I grew up in was West St. Louis County, literally twenty miles from Downtown St. Louis. Never, in the eleven years before college that I lived in St. Louis had I once simply strolled the streets of Downtown. What I found, quite frankly, amazed me: I still remember wandering into the lobbies of the Union Trust, Security and Chemical Buildings. One of my most distinct memories is buying a Coke from the Walgreens in the now-destroyed Century Building.
The Chemical Building, Downtown St. Louis
Years later, after initial forays into the city while home on vacation from Washington, DC, I slowly realized that St. Louis was where I should return to eventually. I came back in December of 2006 and found that the old St. Louis I remembered was still here in bits and pieces, but yet a new and exciting, and to be honest, an old and exciting, St. Louis had grown up in the ten years that I had been gone. In May of 2007, I began the St. Louis Patina Blog, and despite one moment where I lost my motivation to continue, I’ve never looked back.
How the Site is Organized
I have tried to break away from the standard, late 20th Century designations and borders. I still have North St. Louis and South St. Louis sections, but I also created a Central St. Louis section of this website. I believe this city needs to get over the tired idea of the city consisting as a north and south half, when the reality is much more nuanced.
I also took the liberty to gerrymander the boundaries of neighborhoods to reflect a more historical and realistic approach to the way neighborhoods exist as urban villages interacting with each other. I apologize if your neighborhood was edited out of existence, or if you feel like you don’t live in the neighborhood I say you do. For example, I consolidated the Dogtown neighborhood into one, cogent whole, ignoring the three or four smaller neighborhoods that the city claims to exist. Talking to people who grew up in Dogtown, no one ever called their neighborhood Clayton-Tamm or any of that nonsense. Likewise, I admit to not knowing a lot about large portions of the city; I just have never been down the streets of a vast majority of the city. The purpose of this site is to celebrate and explore in an honest manner the architectural and human accomplishments of the city, and to rail against the forces who are attempting to destroy them in a vague, senseless attempt to turn the city into the suburbs.
Also, I do not abjectly hate the suburbs of St. Louis, and see in them many triumphs of great architecture and occasionaly great urban design. Other portions of the site feature the good and bad of all parts of the St. Louis area from Chesterfield to Webster Groves, from Granite City to New Town St. Charles. Finally, as a break from the St. Louis area and to form comparisons and contrasts, other cities I have visited in extensus such as Chicago and New York are featured. If you have something to contribute to this site, such as photographs of your favorite buildings that you would like to see on my website, feel free to contact me about the possibility. Likewise, if you have an essay or memories you’d like to share about growing up or just moving to St. Louis, I would love to put them on my site. Conversely, I do not want stories about how your beloved neighborhood went downhill when “those people” moved in; my website seeks to address the failure of America’s urban core in the last sixty years, not to assign blame to one racial, ethnic or economic group. In truth, everyone in America has dropped the ball over the last half century in regards to this nation’s cities, and everyone will have to work together to restore their greatness.
Chris Naffziger, Originally Written Fall 2008, Revised Early 2012, links added April 2019.
Also featured in St. Louis Place and Lafayette Square
Dear Naffziger: I used to be able to get RSS new feeds of St. Louis Patina. I’m beggin’ please add the WordPress rss widget. I don’t use wordpress, or I’ld offer to do it for you. Honest! Keep up the great work. You easily have the best St. Louis ‘blog I can find on the ‘net.
Will work on that, Mark. Thanks for reading!
Mark, I think RSS has been enabled.
You need to let me like you on Facebook.
Hello. I stumbled upon your blog when looking for a totally different thing on the web: goats. It is very impressive the work you have made about your town / city. I am only familiar with St Louis from the news and from literature but I still found the blog very interesting and informative.
Best regards from Iceland.
Thanks! I’m always happy when people from other countries see what St. Louis has to offer.
Awesome site. I am so saddened when these wonderful old buildings are destroyed. I live in Texas, and have been taking pictures of places as I find them… my criteria – they must be abandoned!
Hi Chris, Thanks for the blog. I stumbled onto it yesterday and intend to follow your future posts. Great pictures and background stories.
Chris, I am a Master’s in Pulbic Policy Administration student at UMSL researching the Benton Park neighborhood and its surrounding nieghborhoods of Soulard, Benton Park West, Gravois Park,Marine Villa, McKinley Heights, and Fox Park. I would like your permission to include a few of the pictures you have posted on this blog site in my paper as they do a great job of representing the architecture of each neighborhood. I enjoy photography as well, and you have done great work! Thanks Sue.
Sure, provided you give me credit: Chris Naffziger, Saint Louis Patina.
Thanks
Great site! Glad to “meet” another STL blogger!
As a former St. Louisian I’m always interested in old St.Louis buildings. I grew up off Skinker and Delmar, Lived in The CentralWest End ,Laffeyette Square, and,Soulard before moving with my family to Amana Ia.in 1985. Old houses rule and it’s too bad the hard work preservationists did in the 70s and 80s was for naught. Too much has been torn down and destroyed. Keep up the good work. Charlie
I am greatly enjoying your blog that I stumbled onto while trying to find pictures of Cherokee Street. I think what you have captured is wonderful…giving the reader such a great panoramic view of such a grand city. I found it ironic that you were moving back to St. Louis to begin your journey the exact year that I was, with a heavy heart, moving away to Kentucky (for my husband’s job) and to a super tiny city, Danville, for my job. I will say that I miss St. Louis so much, but do enjoy the wonderful houses in our picturesque town. Thanks again for letting me relive my 19 years spent in St. Louis….perhaps I can make it back there someday to live once again!
Just today I read of the demolition of Blumeyer Housing Project. Wanting to know more, I googled, and the next thing you know I’m reading nostalgia by Chris Chris mentioned some old stuff in DC . . . Columbia Heights . . . I lived on Wyoming Avenue in Columbia Heights for two years during WWII . . . . now I got nostalgia
R M Kraus
Akron
Have you ever encountered Half Street in Dogtown? It mainly consists of a fading sign on the side of a building. Local historian Bob Corbett says this; “HALF STREET Current since 1912. This curious little street runs north from West Park just east of Hampton, and only runs two blocks. As best I can tell there are no homes which face Half Street and thus I would guess no street addresses.” I’d love to know more about it. The easiest way to find it is to look just east of where Hampton crosses Manchester.
Will have to check it out! Thanks.
Enter next to 5905 West Park.
Are you on facebook? I would love to follow you!
Yes.
I’m so glad I stumbled upon this! I grew up in N. County/St. Charles area. Sadly, I now live 72 miles down 44, in Cuba. It sucks. Before I moved here, I was living in Soulard. I miss my city so much. This made me feel connected. Great blog and thank you!
I’m so glad that a friend sent me your site. I think it is great.
Thanks for a great blog. I hope I haven’t responded before., older ex st Louisian.
I grew up around Delmar and Union Blvd. We left in 1991 to go to the North Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.
Love a lot of your articles. I was an in house architect for the SLPS for almost 20 years from 1986 thru 2003. Rehabbed almost 120 schools and spent nearly $750 million. Probably know a lot about Wm. B. Ittner and his school bldgs. and the rehab costs. Everything continued on until Vince Schoemahl was elected to the SLPS Board and started selling properties and bldgs.to his friends around Grand Center. The A/E Dept. saw it happening and tried to stop it. We were all layed-off and paid off $50,000 to be quiet except me. I wouldn’t take it for I wanted St. Louisians to know the real story. Then I worked for an outside architect for SLPS in 2010 for 3 years and got to meet the new Bldg. Dept. It was run by a ex-history teacher who told us not to “talk shop” during our construction meetings because he didn’t understand the construction terms. If I can give you some historical and some nuts and bolts info just email me.
I think one of the saddest things is the loss of great architecture in St. Louis. I’d love to see a picture of the exterior or interior of the old Aratas billiard room on Olive just west of Grand.
Fanfreakintastic! http://www.laurenwhitneyphotography.com I love learning, thanks for this website – my husband is from St. Louis and when we visit – all I want to do is explore!
Thank you, Lauren! I really enjoyed looking at your photography!
Chris, I have added your link to our neighborhood Web site. Thanks!
http://westminsterplace.info/history.shtml
Hi Chris, Saint Louis Crisis Nursery here. May we have permission to use your picture of the old Deaconess Hospital on our new website? Our first Nursery location was in Deaconess. I would include your copyright tag on it. Thanks.
Jane, you’re more than welcome to use my photos. I didn’t realize that was your first location!
Hey Chris,
I really appreciate this blog, discovered it a few years ago and occasionally check back in. Though I’ve never been to St. Louis I always keep an eye out for jobs there since I found your blog. I grew up in DC and live in Philadelphia, and always imagine St. Louis as the Midwestern counterpart/equivalent to Philly.
All paths some how lead back to you! I came across your slp site and emailed you to thank you for your efforts just recently. This morning I found myself researching about how and why so many architecturally amazing houses fall in to disrepair, especially places like St Louis. First article I find and read all the way through, just happened to be written by none other than ‘Chris Naffziger.
You are so talented, and your passion for these places is admirable. If only everyone felt this way.
I continue to drive through many lost and forgotten towns that are now merely just former shells of what they once were. It’s incredible sad. I find myself either wanting to move in to each and everyone of them or try and save them alll.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Thank you, Anneke!
Hi! I am a writer for the Magazine for the Route 66 Association of Missouri. I am interested in wringg an article for our Association magazine about the Krey Packing Company. My niece works for the Missouri Historical Society and she is trying to find information, but if you have information on the history of the company or if you could pass on contact information as to someone who might I would appreciate it. Thank you, Kip Welborn, Route 66 Association of Missouri.
10/19/20 I googled hospital records of Deaconess and came up with the followingApr 24, 2012 · Records are stored at St Alexius Hospital in St Louis, MO. Reply · February 14, 2019. Chris Naffziger. So far I am still unable to find who might have records now. I had polio in 1949 and wonder what was in my chart. Are you able to help me?
Paying for anchor text
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Hey, The living quarters for Merck Pharmaceuticals are actually ruins and are in the woods. Theres a stag/patio type structure there too thats new.
Hello, I saw your Irish SIG briefing from the St. Louis Genealogical Society. Very interesting. Thank you! I am researching the Sappington Family; the brick Sappington House in Crestwood claims to have been built in 1808, and I find that unrealistic. Maybe started in 1808, but completed? I’ve read that some of the downtown brick buildings weren’t built until 1811 or later.
Could you point me to a source or give me direction on where to look for early STL brick? Thank you.
Yes, that seems way too early. I have documentation the Sappington Family being active that early in St. Louis County, but not the house being complete. I do have a great resource–a lecture from just last week–but I don’t think it’s been put up online yet, which it will soon.