Update: The church is now gone. The old Emmaus church at Tower Grove and Chouteau avenues will be demolished for the new Ronald McDonald House and headquarters. The old warehouse to the east has already been demolished. The apartment buildings to the east down the block are in great condition, and are not part of…
Demolition Coming, The Grove, Part One
This row of houses on the south side of Manchester Avenue, just east of Kingshighway in the Grove, are slated for demolition for the now ubiquitous flimsy wood frame apartment buildings that are going up all over the neighborhood. Left vacant and unmaintained for years, of course they look a little rough around the edges….
Beck and Corbitt Iron Company, In Ruins
Update: The building in the background of the first four photographs was completely destroyed by fire on February 3, 2024. As I watched footage of the last two sections of the old Beck and Corbitt Iron Company building burn to the ground on Thursday, I realized it was a good thing I managed to get…
Near North Riverfront, Early Fall 2022
Update: Both buildings have now been destroyed by fire. The building on the left, the Norvell-Shapleigh Warehouse was completely destroyed by fire on February 3, 2024. It had been a little while since I had photographed the rapidly diminishing warehouses of the Near North Riverfront, specifically the ones just to the north of the casino,…
Former Granite City Moose Lodge
Update: The building has been demolished. I took a look at the old Moose Lodge on State Street this last weekend when I was over at GCADD in Granite City. It’s an impressive building, and like many fraternal organizations, it looks like it might have had storefront space on the first floor with the meeting…
Tower Rock
We made it out to Tower Rock, and it was worth making the trek down to the rural corner of southeast Missouri where it’s located. As can be seen from the above engraving, Tower Rock has been a sight on the river for generations of travelers, and I think about all the people who have…
Emmaus Homes, Fall 2022
Update: Hoffman put the property up for sale in October of 2023. It was purchased by a local couple that is now restoring the property. We swung by Emmaus Homes, which is now Chateau Hoffman, to see what was going on. It looks like there is a pause in renovation after the clearance of trees…
Macy’s Closing at Chesterfield Mall
Back in May of 2020, I had predicted the shuttered Macy’s at Chesterfield Mall would never reopen after it closed at the beginning of the pandemic. It did in fact reopen, but now it is closing again, and reopening in a smaller version in the Chesterfield Valley. I would imagine that the remaining portion of…
Some Final Thoughts on Paris
OK, we’re done with Paris. I did want to give some final thoughts on the French capital, and share some things that St. Louis could learn, and also be honest on some other matters. First of all, it’s sort of unfair to compare the two exactly because with any world capital, particularly a European one,…
Who Controls the Past Now Controls the Future
Who controls the past now controls the futureWho controls the present now controls the pastWho controls the past now controls the futureWho controls the present now? I’ve been thinking about the lyrics of this song by the band Rage Against the Machine, which are based off the novel 1984, after having gotten back from Paris….