Paul Gauguin, French, 1848–1903; “Reclining Tahitian Women”, 1894; oil on canvas; 23 5/8 × 38 9/16 inches; Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen EXH36.8 I wanted to let readers know there’s less than a week left to see a really wonderful exhibition of the work of Paul Gauguin at the Saint Louis Art Museum, closing on September…
Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church
Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church sits in the dense neighborhood of Soulard, and sometimes falls off my radar because of the busy traffic that flies by on its rear on South 7th Street. But I love how it rises above the city and cane be seen all over the South Riverfront, which is…
St. Mary’s Assumption Roman Catholic Church
Update: This is in fact the old St. John’s Episcopal Church, and it originally possessed a very tall spire over twice as tall as the current tower on the right. The Society of St. Pius is still canonically in a state of flux with the Roman Catholic hierarchy as of 2018. Officially, in Church doctrine…
Missouri Avenue, Lafayette Square
I realized I had never photographed the western side of Lafayette Square, where there is a plethora of beautiful houses, such as what was the McLaughlin Funeral Home. Its third floor once had a Mansard roof, as was typical of the Second Empire style, but it was destroyed by the Great Cyclone of 1896, and…
Uranium, Venice and Madison, Illinois
Update: Due to reader feedback, this post has been modified to reflect that the majority of the plant and a portion of the neighborhood are in fact in Venice. Portions of the plant and the neighborhood are in Madison. There’s a portion of Venice and Madison, Illinois that’s literally, not figuratively, on the wrong side…
State Street and Environs, Granite City, August 2019
Update: I revisited the area in the spring of 2024. A lot has been happening on State Street since the last time I posted any photographs of the downtown area of Granite City. Galen Gandolfi, who had opened the first art gallery on Cherokee Street, Fort Gondo, bought a series of buildings at tax auctions…
Northeast Peoria, August 2019
Update: I went back the weekend of the 4th of July in 2021 and in August of 2023. I revisited the house above in July of 2024 (eighth photo). Perhaps I was being too optimistic when I first documented Peoria northeast of downtown back in 2013. I have been back, and while there is a wonderful…
West Main Street and Nearby, Peoria
West Main Street shoots up the bluffs from downtown Peoria towards Bradley University, and there is a line of college-related businesses and other amenities. It is sort of a strange mix of buildings, such as the one below, which clearly had a gently curving pediment at one point that has been simplified, most likely due…
West High Street, Peoria, Revisited
More precisely, this should be West High Street revisited, and in the first several pictures, an introduction to Moss Avenue, which continues further west along the bluff line above downtown Peoria. The houses along Moss Avenue are from the Twentieth Century, and are in good shape, showing evidence of being renovated like their earlier counterparts…
St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, Peoria
As I mentioned yesterday, most of the historic residential core of Peoria northwest of downtown was destroyed, but one of the few buildings that survived was St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church. It stands beautifully among the low-quality 1960s and 70s public housing.