The 4600 block of Ashland is weird; it starts in the middle of the long block with 4500, but then continues on for a short block west of Cora Avenue. The house above is an old wood frame survivor. The houses above are more examples of the sort of beautiful, affordable homes that developers provided…
4500 Block of Ashland Avenue, The Greater Ville
Heading further west, the terrain continues down into a valley, and the houses change, as well. Update: I revisited this block in July of 2023. First up is a house that I would expect to see in Benton Park or Hyde Park, and was certainly out in the middle of nowhere when it was first…
4400 Block of Ashland Avenue, The Greater Ville
Update: I revisited this block in July of 2023 (third photo). Moving west on Ashland Avenue, the terrain starts to head downward, and there is a mix of scattered Nineteenth Century houses, and then early Twentieth Century tract houses that were built in the empty spaces. So for example, this Romanesque Revival house above can…
4200 Block of Ashland Avenue, The Greater Ville
Update: I revisited this block in July of 2023 (fifth photo). The Greater Ville was built in stages, with early exurban houses built for agricultural uses, and then later houses were built as the city proper came out to the open fields. This photo was taken from New Ashland Place. I find it fascinating how…
New Ashland Place, The Greater Ville
New Ashland Place is another one of those short one-block streets in between longer arteries. And strangely, they often time possess the oldest housing stock, such as these two wood frame houses, one in good condition, the other abandoned.
Vine Grove Avenue #2, The Greater Ville
Update: I went back and looked at the Greater Ville, including Vine Grove Avenue, in July of 2019. The roof of the house on the left below collapsed sometime after I took the picture. There was extensive demolition of abandoned and deteriorating houses in September of 2019, particularly on the west side of the street,…
Vine Grove Avenue #1, The Greater Ville
Update: I revisited the Greater Ville, including Vine Grove Avenue, in July of 2019. There was extensive demolition of abandoned and deteriorating houses on the street in September of 2019. I went back in the Spring of 2022. Heavily damaged by the tornado on May 16, 2025. “Vine Grove Avenue? Wow, that’s a street I’ve…
4200 Block of Labadie, The Greater Ville
There are beautiful, healthy blocks of the Greater Ville, as well. Just one block over from the 4300 block of Labadie, where the abandonment and vacant lots of yesterday were shown, are these totally different, middle class homes, most of which are occupied and well-maintained. They are the bastions of the African American middle class…
4000 and 4100 Blocks of Labadie, The Greater Ville
Moving west on Labadie Avenue, four family apartment buildings predominate, but they are elegant, and meant for the middle class residents who probably hopped on the streetcar in the morning and rode to office jobs downtown in the morning. In the evenings, they would get off at the corner and buy groceries at corner stores…
3900 Block of Labadie, The Greater Ville
Update: All of the houses below, except the occupied one (with the pink first-floor window) have been demolished as of January of 2021. The eastern end of the Greater Ville has architecture that looks to be from the late Nineteenth Century, and that makes sense, being close to Vandeventer Avenue. Most, but not all, is…