Always question why there’s an old stone wall along a major roadway in St. Louis! I was doing some research on a gentleman whose death was recorded in the “Deaths Outside of St. Louis,” but yet he was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery the next day. He clearly did not die very far away from the…
Author: Chris Naffziger
Family Farm, Deer Creek Township, Illinois, March 2023
I woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground, which I was not expecting at this point in the season; apparently the same thing happened in St. Louis. It was very, very cold out, to say the least. But the sky was clear and blue in the morning.
Downtown Lincoln, Illinois
While there is the typical suburban sprawl on the edge of Lincoln, I was impressed by the overall strength and health of the downtown area of the city. There is little loss of the street wall around the courthouse square, and there is even a little theater district! There are two restored theaters, and rather…
Downtown Civic Buildings, Lincoln, Illinois
Oh no, they pulled a Chambord on me! But anyway, the Logan County Courthouse, constructed in 1905, is a beautiful building, nonetheless. It is relatively unadorned, and seems to be constructed out of yellow limestone or sandstone. Like many palaces in Europe, the first floor possesses rusticated stonework, while the upper stories features polished finish….
North Union Street and Environs, Lincoln, Illinois
Union Street forms the boundary between the two major street grids of Lincoln; to the east is the diagonal street grid which is oriented to the major train line that stretches between St. Louis and Chicago, and to the west is a street grid which is oriented to the cardinal directions. Union Street is oriented…
Around Lincoln College
The neighborhood around the former Lincoln College is filled with beautiful houses, in a relatively restricted number of styles on the northeast side of Lincoln. There are a huge number of houses in the Italianate style. As well as an abundance of immaculately restored Queen Anne style houses such as the one you see below….
Former Lincoln College
On literally the exact day I visited the former MacMurray College in Jacksonville, a victim of declining enrollment and financial troubles, Lincoln College in Lincoln, Illinois announced it would be closing, as well. It’s a similar story as befalls others small colleges, though there’s a criminal twist to Lincoln College: it was a victim of…
Former Lincoln State School
The second I saw the distinctive buildings on the south side of Lincoln, I knew exactly what I had just stumbled upon on my tour of the Central Illinois city that my family has driven by hundreds of times, but never visited. This is the former Lincoln State School, which has gone by numerous other…
End of Winter 2023 Odds and Ends
The old Soulard Branch of the St. Louis Public Library has had several uses over the last decade besides the commercial space facing 7th Boulevard. There was “The Library” and then “The Archives.” They’re both gone. Below, in McKinley Heights, I still can’t believe that Second Empire house below is sitting vacant; the property values…
Morgan Ford Between Gannett and Chippewa Streets, Bevo
Crossing over Gannett Street as we head north on Morgan Ford Road (one of the few thoroughfares to preserve such an appellation in the city), we see more of the wide variety of building stock of Bevo. While there is a preponderance of wood frame housing in the neighborhood, on major streets due to their…