Moving a half block to the north to Magnolia Place “proper,” there are a pair of handsome gates that mark the entrance to the one block street on both ends at Lawrence and Thurman. And the housing is distinctly different from the houses to the south on Magnolia Avenue that is apparent immediately. While they…
Magnolia Avenue from Lawrence Street to Thurman Avenue, Part Two
Magnolia Place seems to have been platted around 1913 to 1916, which would make sense considering the style of the houses. Note the art glass in the lunette of the windows above. Some of the bungalows also seem to show some influence of Spanish Revival architecture, as well, such as in the house above. Side…
Magnolia Avenue from Lawrence Street to Thurman Avenue, Part One
One solution developers took for the ungainly long lots along Magnolia Avenue was to simply cut through a second street in between Lawrence and Thurman, named Magnolia Place (we’ll look at it in two days), and create a series of much smaller than normal lots with Arts and Crafts bungalows. It’s really a special little…
Magnolia Avenue from South 39th Street to Lawrence Street
Heading west on Magnolia Avenue past South 39th Street, we get to some of those exceptionally long lots. But these houses don’t have those long yards, because the backs were partitioned off to create houses facing South 39th Street, sitting perpendicular to Magnolia Avenue. They are typical houses from the early Twentieth Century. One house…
Magnolia Avenue from South Grand Boulevard to South 39th Street
The next couple of weeks I’m going to be looking at that strange, awkward strip of land that extends from South Grand Boulevard to Tower Grove Avenue between Magnolia Avenue and the north alley behind Botanical Avenue in the Shaw neighborhood. Why is the space between Magnolia and Botanical not wide enough for another street,…
Tony’s on North Broadway
As we commemorate the closing of Tony’s yesterday, one of the most famous fine dining establishments in the history of St. Louis, I thought it would be fun to look back at their original location at 826 N. Broadway, in the heart of what was known as Commission Row. Today, the vendors who once crowded…
Arsenal Street Between Louisiana and South Compton Avenues
Heading east on Arsenal Street from Louisiana Avenue in Tower Grove East, we see more of the trat housing along the busy corridor. We move past the church that was never built past the first story; one of the walls is leaning so I suspect they never built the upper stories due to settling of…
Arsenal Street Between Arkansas and Louisiana Avenues
We cross over Arkansas Avenue in Tower Grove East where there are many corner storefronts such as the one you see above and below. There’s also Riley’s, famous for its pizza. Those front parapet walls below have obviously been truncated due to damage from the weather, which is common. We see more tracts houses below,…
Arsenal Street Between South Grand Boulevard and Arkansas Avenue
Let’s back east into Tower Grove East from South Grand Boulevard on Arsenal Street from the still bustling intersection. We sadly lost the building in the center above, but at least it was replaced with a one story urban-scaled storefront instead of it remaining a parking lot. It must have been something to see with…
Pestalozzi Street Between Arkansas Avenue and South Grand Boulevard
As is often the case in Tower Grove East, even among large single family areas, we get thrown for a loop and come across a huge multi-family house, like the one we see here. But then we go back to the standard houses we see in the Tower Grove Heights subdivision that is perhaps more…