I was intrigued by the recent closure of St. Louis’s version of the Ritz Hotel on North Grand Boulevard. Deed research revealed that the Jubilee Church, just across the street from this five star hotel, recently purchased the motel, no doubt to clean up this section of North Grand. Kudos to the church for implementing this important civic service. Newspaper articles show that the motel had been a problem for at least thirty years, and I strongly suspect that it had been so for much longer. The usual suspects owned it, of course. And it was so strategically placed across the street from a liquor store!
5 star hotel must be the joke of the day.
What did the liquor store start out as?
My guess would be a small neighborhood gas station/ auto repair shop.
Yes, there are actually some still in operation as gas stations, such as the one in the Central West End at Laclede and North Newstead. I believe they were originally Standard Oil stations.