Nineteen years…I remember when I turned nineteen years old in 1997 it was fairly anticlimactic as no new privileges are unlocked like when you turn sixteen, seventeen or eighteen. Perhaps I feel the same for nineteen years for this site. I do remember when I hit my 6,000th post finally grasping the breadth of St….
Category: Commentary
Opinion pieces/commentary
751 North Taylor, Under Threat of Demolition, Kirkwood
Update: Unceremoniously demolished on Wednesday, May 6, 2026. One of the oldest suburbs in the St. Louis region, Kirkwood has a wealth of historic houses, including a few that even date to before the Civil War. One of them is the Marquitz-Garesche House, which dates to 1858, and is a historic landmark in Kirkwood. You…
6,500th Post: Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee
Wow, I suppose 6,500 posts have a way of sneaking up on you! I also suppose since Paul McKee and his failed Northside TIF is in the news, it would be germane to talk about it and how I’ve been investigating and shedding light on his dealings for eighteen years now. Some of the first…
From the Vault: Philadelphia, March 2006
I was digging around in the vaults when I came across some twenty year old photographs of Philadelphia. They’re so old that they pre-exist my move back to St. Louis from the East Coast and the founding of St. Louis Patina. This is about five cameras back and lots of growth in my picture-taking abilities….
Grace Episcopal Church
Leaving behind their original church to the west, Grace Episcopal moved into their new sanctuary in 1961 at 514 East Argonne. A newspaper article related the details of the new church: designed by Frederick Dunn & Associates, it was to be built in two parts. Earlier this year I looked at Dunn’s National Garden Club…
After the Tornado: Photographing Destruction
I grappled with whether I should take or post any photographs of the tornado damage that struck St. Louis on May 16, 2025, which a reader noted will now be indelibly linked with the anniversary of the founding of this website on the same day. Is it ethical to photograph destruction, and in particular people’s…
Last Survivor
This house from the 1840s on North Tucker is a survivor. It is one of what were thousands of houses on the north and south side of downtown that were demolished for urban renewal in the mid-Twentieth Century. Most of those houses were never replaced with anything except parking lots or junkyards. I travel to…
Storm Damage
Oops, the junky old tree in the backyard of the absentee-owned apartment building down the alley from me had an accident during the historic storm that hit the region on March 14. Somehow, amazingly, the power line did not snap. There is an epidemic of unhealthy, dead and dying trees in St. Louis in the…
A Totally Preventable Fire
Update: The house has been demolished and is now a vacant lot. 3113 Arsenal Street in the Tower Grove East neighborhood was gutted by fire on the night of November 12. It’s the usual story: the owner of an abandoned house who’s owned the building for decades deferred maintenance for so long that finally it…
6,000th Post
Let’s face it. I’ve been talking to a lot of people in South City and many of our favorite businesses (and not so favorite businesses) have been closing lately. There’s clearly something going on where there’s just not enough money going to locally-owned businesses and even national chains, and the result is that many commercial…