I was out visiting a friend two Saturdays ago, and I was intrigued by the “new urbanism” development of the Streets of St. Charles. It’s becoming increasingly common for wealthier suburbs of major cities to build these mixed-use developments, where there are ground floor restaurants and stores below apartments or condos. There’s usually a hotel…
Category: Surrounding Region
Posts about the Surrounding Region in Missouri
Emmaus Homes, Fall 2022
We swung by Emmaus Homes, which is now Chateau Hoffman, to see what was going on. It looks like there is a pause in renovation after the clearance of trees we saw back in February of this year. The first floor windows of the buildings have been secured, which is always a good thing when…
Our Lady of the Rivers, Portage des Sioux
Located down a concrete walkway at the end of a promontory, the statue of Our Lady of the Rivers is a short distance from the town of Portage des Sioux. Past the front entry, there are a series of steel panels commemorating various river-related events, such the one below. The statue itself, designed by Norma…
Two Churches in the Land Between the Rivers
We looked at two churches in that flat bottomland sandwiched between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers that forms an almost peninsula-like eastern tail of St. Charles County. The first one, Trinity Lutheran Church at the intersection of Highway 94 and Church Road, dates from 1876, when it was calved off from Emmanuel Lutheran. The church…
Twin Silos
The question arose when we viewed the entrance gateway to this new development: was the name obtained a priori or a posteriori?
EPiC Church, Former Troy Presbyterian Church
I will openly admit to being severely ignorant and unknowledgeable of Troy and Lincoln County history, but we did stumble across this beautiful building, which is now home to the EPiC Church. However, carefully reading a limestone dedication stone above the front door, we learn that this was the former home of the Troy Presbyterian…
Lincoln County Courthouse and Former Jail
Designed by Gustave Bachmann and constructed in 1870, the Lincoln County Courthouse in Troy is the second building on the site, replacing an earlier structure on the site built in 1830. Contractors Edwards and Griffiths completed the building for $27,500. The architectural drawings are kept by the Missouri State Historical Society. I call the building…
Main Street, Troy, Lincoln County
Troy, the county seat of Lincoln County, which is just north of St. Charles County on U.S. Highway 61, has experienced considerable growth over the last twenty years. The downtown is interesting, and is relatively intact while sprawl occurs to the north. The most ornate building is this long Italianate block, with the original tenants’…
Pitman Cemetery
Recently volunteers have restored a historic cemetery in St. Charles County that holds the grave of a Revolutionary War veteran. The grave of John Pitman is above; as is typical of Protestant settlers, the dead were buried in family cemeteries in early Missouri. Here’s a link to a great article about how the subdivision developer…
Zoar German Methodist Church and Cemetery
Down a little road is the Zoar German Methodist Church, a remnant of a time when there were little houses of worship scattered throughout the countryside. The church seems to be closed, but a non-profit association has sprung up to operate the cemetery. It is a small, simple Romanesque Revival church that is in good…