Thekla is an interesting street name and probably comes from an early saint, which you can read about here. In fact, most of the “east-west” streets are named after women’s given names. As usual, the houses on the first block west of Riverview Boulevard are in styles such as the Arts and Crafts style, as…
Harney Avenue Between Park Lane and Mimika Avenue, Walnut Park West
Harney Avenue is named after William S. Harney, a St. Louisan who served in the military but who also had some loyalty issues during the Civil War, apparently. It’s an interesting block, which again, makes me suspect that while this is the West Walnut Park Addition laid out by Julius Pitzman in 1906, makes me…
Park Lane Between Harney and West Florissant Avenues, Walnut Park West
Formerly Butler Avenue, the street that bisects many of the streets in Walnut Park West is now named Park Lane, no doubt a result of the platting of the North Pointe neighborhood across West Florissant Avenue. While most houses are built facing the northeast/southwest facing streets, there are a handful of homes built on the…
Riverview Boulevard, West Side, Walnut Park West
Riverview Boulevard has been known by many names over the years: Tracy Road or Avenue until 1907, Kingshighway Northwest until 1925 and Partridge Avenue at some point. Regardless, it forms the southeast boundary of Walnut Park West and has been a major artery since the Nineteenth Century, traveling to the northeast where it intersects with…
Sherry Avenue Between Mimika Avenue and Riverview Boulevard, Walnut Park West
Doglegging across Mimika Avenue (whose name is an interesting choice–was it from a daughter of the Jennings family or the people in Indonesia?), we look at the block of Sherry closer to Riverview. The housing is much older than the block to the west, and much of it is in worse condition or abandoned. A…
Sherry Avenue Between Goodfellow Boulevard and Mimika Avenue, Walnut Park West
I realized that I had never looked at Walnut Park West, which is nestled far up in the northern reaches of the city. Bounded by Interstate 70 on the southwest, Riverview Boulevard on the southeast, West Florissant Avenue on the northeast and the city limits on the northwest, Goodfellow Boulevard cuts through just to the…
South Seventh Street Between Geyer and Lafayette Avenues, West Side
I was heading up South Seventh Street (no, it’s not South Broadway) north of Geyer, which is the eastern border of Soulard, and I was admiring the buildings to my left. Of course, it must be terribly loud with all the trucks driving up and down the street to the interstate, making quality of life…
Il Gesù, Rome, Italy
We haven’t done an architectural history category post in awhile, so I thought we’d look at one of my favorite influential churches, that of Santissimo Nome di Gesù all’Argentina in Rome. Don’t worry, we’ll just call it Il Gesù, literally “The Jesus” in Italian from now on. As I remarked in my photographs of the…
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Peoria
I stumbled upon this Catholic church in downtown Peoria when I was visiting nearby. The parish dates from 1878 but the current church is from 1903. While it’s known as the Sacred Heart of Jesus, when looking at the cornerstone, it says Herz Jesu Kirche, so I will assume it was a German national church…
Family Farm and Environs, Early November 2025
I visited the family farm east of Peoria for the last time this year, but will be back up in the spring, as usual. The harvest has been over for weeks, so the landscape has been transformed to the fallow fields with its stark beauty. I photographed this corn crib to the northwest of the…