The St. Louis architecture, preservation and ADA rights community lost a dear friend last year by the name of Steve Patterson, who ran a blog, UrbanReviewSTL, for almost twenty years, and one thing Steve always did every year on Dr. Martin Luther King Day was to walk or eventually ride his motorized wheelchair the full length of the eponymous thoroughfare to check up on the state of North St. Louis and even just curb cuts for people with mobility issues. I thought it would be interesting to do something similar and head two blocks north and go east down Cote Brilliante Avenue from the city limits to where the street ends in JeffVanderLou. I purposely cropped photos oddly and occasionally I had to detour off Cote Brilliante due to street closures and random one ways, but it paints a portrait of the North Side that few people see. I retraced some blocks that I’ve photographed multiple times, and many places I’ve never been. But it was eye opening, as always.

Heading east from Hodiamont Avenue from the streetcar shelter which we saw in the last photo from yesterday, we see Cote Brilliante Avenue in the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood.

Most of the buildings were originally built as two-family flats, though they look like single family houses, and they are mixed with stand alone houses.

There is a large amount of abandonment and vacant lots.

This is actually the street where Firefighter Ben Polson died two years ago, and brought about changes in the Fire Department’s policy of going into abandoned buildings. The house where he died on this street was demolished shortly after the fire.

We finally see at least one building that is occupied and in good condition.

This corner store sits abandoned. I remember when I walked this neighborhood years ago I was struck how there were no businesses left, not even one corner store.

We now reach Goodfellow Boulevard.