I realized I had so much fun revisiting the West End a couple of weeks ago that I decided to go back. This time I tried to hit blocks on the east side of the Ruth E. Porter Mall (read about Porter here).

The two houses below are on the other side of the street and down a few addresses. They were both demolished for a depressingly ugly school building and its disused parking lot.

I’ve actually looked at this block of Maple Avenue before, back in December of 2015, so basically a decade ago, which is amazing to think that it’s been that long. There have been some demolitions, particularly that beautiful yellow brick apartment building seen in the first photograph from 2015. I returned briefly in April of 2024.

It also dawned on me, finally, that Maple obviously took its name from its location on the southern border of the former Maplecrest estate, which I explored back in July of 2024.

The houses that survive are looking good, though, and it’s a nice street.

What always jumps out at me are the front porches, often very intricate and the brickwork, which is frequently a mixture of many different colors, as seen below.

This house is an interesting member of a small club in St. Louis, in that its front door is now part of a closed street, in that it almost seems like it now faces Maple instead of Clara.

To the north, you can see the newer houses of the Maplecrest subdivision, so close but yet so far due to street closures.