The North Riverfront remains a fascinating, historic place. But I often find myself stymied by closed streets (though not as bad as on the South Riverfront), and superblocks that formed over the years. Also, sometimes street names change, as well. But I was lucky to discover that there was once a giant stockyards on the North Riverfront around Bremen and Broadway, so east of Hyde Park. It was big, and there was even a lumberyard operating to the north as well.

Above is the western half, and below is the eastern. It seems to have thrived until the Twentieth Century; I would imagine that the National City Stockyards supplanted it. But Krey Packing is probably a remnant of the slaughter industry in North St. Louis.

The Lothman Cypress Company owned the lumberyards north of the stockyards. All of this now appears to be completely gone.

The Merchants Bridge would later come through this area.

There are still plenty of businesses active on the North Riverfront, even if it’s a relatively isolated area now.

The rail approaches for the McKinley Bridge still stand, awaiting conversion to a bike path.

Now the industry is mainly the scrapping business in many stretches.

I’d been seeing this house for a while. Was it historically a mansard Second Empire house, or was it messed with? Well, it was definitely messed with, but by how much?

Look at those arched front doors; it was once a really nice place. On the back, the porches were shielded by load bearing side walls. Unique, to say the least.

Why was this abandoned here?

There are still some people living up here; I’ve been told they are usually descended from the poor whites that emigrated from Southeast Missouri in the 1950s. I could have sworn this house used to be occupied below.

Then the massive railroad tracks begin.

But then there’s this nice office building.

It’s the type of area where the giant concrete Legos function as walls for various low tech industry.

It’s amazing the care that went into old industrial buildings.