North Third Street, Laclede’s Landing

What’s there to say about what’s left of North Third Street in Laclede’s Landing? First of all, to exit the parking lot, which is currently the only way to get out of the neighborhood and onto Third Street on the south side, you have to walk out into traffic lanes because there is a fence blocking the sidewalk. And then you’re faced with the elevated lanes of the former Interstate 70-now 44. Civic boosters around the country wonder why tourists hate walking under interstate viaducts…

Walking north, we see the back side of the Witte Hardware building, with what is obviously a completely rebuilt curtain wall.

Ah, Morgan Street Brewery! It may be closed, but it was an important moment in time where the idea of a destination brew pub was still a new idea.

Abstrakt has gone back to being an abstract concept, but does anybody remember when this was Planet Hollywood? That was what was here, right?

I like the New Orleans-style balcony on what is otherwise a blank building.

Then we get to the MLK Bridge and turn around to look at the cross streets.

Not much happens on the east-west streets in this area.

Walking down Morgan Street, you see the sides of buildings.

You’re left with a row of abandoned building fronts that were once partially occupied by Morgan Street Brewery, which in its day was a cutting edge microbrewery. There are plans for the building, I’ve been told.

Morgan Street itself is beautiful, but like the east-west streets in the neighborhood only features the sides of buildings. You can get an impression of the natural slope of the terrain.

You encounter the alley in between Third and Second streets, which are interesting in how inviting they are. Alleys are normally not this nice.

Coming full circle, I look down at this aerial photograph of the legs of the Arch just starting to poke above the ground. I see so much damage already having occurred, but I see that there were still more buildings standing on the east side of North Third Street. What happened to them?

Dorrill Studio, View of Downtown During Arch Construction, April 1964, Missouri History Museum, P0243-12394-01-8a

One Comment Add yours

  1. Yoji says:

    I waited tables at a lunch/dinner place called the Blarney Stone back in the late ’70s, so was on the Landing 6 days/nights a week. The scene on the Landing was pretty vibrant then. Mississippi Nights was rolling along. There were a couple of bars that featured jazz, R&B, folk, and rock acts. The Spaghetti Factory was a bit of a destination for a lot of families living in the city, north and south sides. You could walk down on the ballast stone on the river’s edge, right up under Eads Bridge.

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