I’ve long been intrigued by this corner storefront sitting right by the interstate. The black paint is the from the never-ending efforts of Operation Brightside to cover up graffiti. The city agency is currently winning at this address, but the tide of battle will probably turn the other way sometime this summer, and so on.

It has a garage building in the back that has now rapidly deteriorated, and seems to have collapsed.

Heading south, we come to the first of the three civic circles laid out by the founders of Old North St. Louis, which of course was just North St. Louis at first. What many people might not realize is that originally before the interstate was built, these three circles were in the middle of the plat for the suburb. Now, the portion of the town to the east is the Near North Riverfront and a wasteland, more or less. You can still see the northern curve of the ecclesiastic circle.

There is in fact a church still on the circle, with the interstate to the east.

Update: Thanks to reader comments, this building below has been identified as the old St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Church parish school.

There are some more church buildings to the south, which removed the southern half of the circle.

Across Eleventh Street, in what are now the southbound lanes of Interstate 70 was this house.

I looked at how the interstate destroyed the neighborhood in a post from January of 2014.

All of the circumference of Jackson Place, the middle circle for recreation, has been preserved.

But my God, what kind of basketball court is this supposed to be? This photo is not crooked.

Further south is the third oldest church building in St. Louis, which was formerly Sts. Cyrils and Methodius Polish National Church. The old factory building on the south side of the circle collapsed due to pile driving during the construction of a new pedestrian bridge and was demolished in January of 2020.