The forlorn intersection of Branch Avenue with 9th and 11th streets was once a bustling crossroads as can be seen below in Compton and Dry’s 1876 Pictorial St. Louis. I want you to pay particular attention to the building in the lower left above labeled “5.” In 1876, it was the Bellefontaine Streetcar Company’s barn,…
Late Summer Odds and Ends
I had some leftover photos I didn’t have a use for, so as usual, I do an odds and ends post. The building above is on Sidney Street in Soulard just to the east of Interstate 55. By comparison, this corner storefront above on the Near North Riverfront is a real survivor, with most of…
St. Peter’s, St. John’s and Immanuel Lutheran Cemeteries
It’s a little confusing, but there are three cemeteries contiguous to each other to the west of downtown St. Charles, and each has its own section, but there are no boundaries between them. In the southeast corner of the huge area is St. John’s Cemetery. While in the north and west is Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery….
St. Peter Roman Catholic Church, St. Charles
A valued reader alerted me to St. Peter Catholic Church in St. Charles, so we thought we would head over and check it out. The parish, the second one in the city, was organized in 1848, somehow appropriate considering the turmoil happening in Europe at the time. The first, of course, was St. Charles Borromeo….
3401 Union Boulevard
Occasionally I wonder to myself why I bother doing this website, and then I’m just wandering down a random street such as Union Boulevard, and I come upon a building I’ve probably driven by a dozen times but this time I finally notice, and I remember, this is why I do all this work. In…
3025-27 Union Boulevard
Completed in early 1927, the building at 3025-27 Union Boulevard featured storefronts on the first floor and apartments above. Around the corner on Greer was a complementary apartment building which sadly have been demolished. The apartments were four and five rooms each. The stores were advertised as excellent for “live wire.” Does anyone know what…
Storms, Central Illinois, August 2025
I determined with a weather app on my phone that the lightning I was witnessing was over fifty miles away, so I thought I would see what my iPhone would capture. These are raw, unedited photos that I thought turned out interesting. I never tried photographing thunderstorms so far away in the pitch darkness of…
Family Farm, August 2025
I somehow managed to miss the hottest day of August in St. Louis by escaping to the family farm near Deer Creek, Illinois. It was still hot up there, and I was treated to an amazing light show both nights as storm rolled through the area on Friday, and then on Saturday, I witnessed a…
More Tiffany Redevelopment
I took a look at the in-fill development was going in the Tiffany neighborhood east of South Grand Boulevard after having visited back in February of 2021 and November of 2022. East of Theresa Avenue on Vista Avenue, there is substantial construction completed, but there are still some empty lots. But the tan brick houses…
Engine House No 12, Walnut Park
Just up West Florissant from the former Sixth District Police Station is Engine House No. 12, built around 1920, I suspect. It has some nice classical motifs around the front portal. But the side is relatively unadorned, left exposed by presumably the demolition of the neighboring building.