Just about everyone in St. Louis has heard now that the new pope, Leo XIV, served his novitiate to become an Augustinian here in St. Louis at the now closed St. Henry’s/Immaculate Conception at the intersection of Longfellow Boulevard and Lafayette Avenue. I’ve looked at the church twice, once back in February of 2011, then…
Category: Central
Posts about Central St. Louis
Saint Louis Art Museum, Nighttime
I was up at the Saint Louis Art Museum almost until close and snapped these photos with the night sky behind it.
Spires, Skyscrapers and American Skylines
I was thinking recently about how Western Civilization cities are defined by their skylines. In Europe, major cities were dominated by the spires of their churches and in their cathedrals. Take the city of Cologne; if you look above there is sort of a gentle pyramid shape formed if you follow the lines over the…
Tamm Avenue Between Wade and Lloyd Avenues
Continuing south past St. James the Greater, we can see the original church below, which I suspect was one of those standard rural school-sanctuary combos we see throughout the Archdiocese. And I think we see the storefront above on the right below in the historic photo down the hill from the church. There are many…
Tamm Avenue Between Clayton and Wade Avenues
Passing by the intersection of Tamm and Clayton Avenues, we are now come upon Victoria Avenue. There was another mine just to the east of here. The Hiram Roberts Mine had a 75-foot shaft into the earth in order to reach clay deposits in 1911; houses now cover the site. For whatever reason, there is…
Tamm Avenue between Oakland and Clayton Avenues
I realized I have never looked at Tamm Avenue, the famous street that passes through Dogtown just south of Forest Park. Of course, there were clay and coal mines in the area, but really, according to my sources, they were mainly east of Hampton Avenue. But not all, and one mine, the Gittens Mine, which…
Cherokee Cave at the Saint Louis Science Center
If you’re looking to do something fun the day after Christmas with the family, take a trip by the Saint Louis Science Center and check out a cool exhibit from the permanent collections. In addition to some other cool stuff, including pieces from the former Museum of Quackery, there is a whole room dedicated to…
Locust Street Between Huntley and North Jefferson Avenues
Moving east of T.E. Huntley Avenue, the former Ewing Avenue, we see some demolished Italianate rowhouses with late Queen Anne front porches. But what is amazing is the sheer size of the mansions that once lined this section of Locust, such as the ones below. The Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the YWCA is a historic…
Locust Street Between Cardinal and Huntley Avenues
Moving east, there are more businesses that replaced houses. The photo above is perhaps the southeast corner, but I can’t be sure. The house in the background is gone for certain. The Fountain on Locust has become a famous restaurant in the amazing Spanish Revival building below. While this building below was marked for demolition,…
Locust Street Between Former North Channing and Cardinal Avenues
Back in September, we looked at Washington Boulevard in Midtown, and its transformation in the early Twentieth Century from a tony residential neighborhood into a commercial district. One block to the south is Locust Street, which like Washington, stretches from downtown where it ends at Theresa Avenue (though Washington continues, of course). Locust, seen above…