I thought I would take some more photographs of the Oakherst Concrete Block National Historic District while I was up in the West End.
Platted in 1906 as the Woodland Park Addition, as we’ve seen before back in October of 2017, concrete blocks were manufactured on site for what was considered a new exciting building material.
Interestingly, there is one brick house in the middle. The Sanborn map does not show this house, so perhaps one of the concrete block houses burned down or was demolished and was replaced later with this house.
I photographed this house from the south…
…and from the east.
We’re now on Oakley Place.
I remember the first time I saw this house below, it was abandoned.
I have a photograph of the house at the end under restoration. This is the one you said you had previously seen abandoned. It was exciting to see it being worked on several years ago, especially as it’s the most striking of the homes in the district. I was fascinated to learn about this historic district after sort of stumbling upon it — the uniqueness of the homes and the way they are grouped together caught my attention. Ever since learning about that material I’ve noticed it here and there around St. Louis. At least in my view it looks like the same material!
I believe there are (or were) some kit homes sold by Sears and Roebuck located on those streets. A very unique area of the West End.
Oh interesting, I didn’t know that.