Update: The Jewish Memorial was blocked off by barricades by the fall of 2019. Completed in 1956 to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of members of the Jewish faith in New Amsterdam, the Jewish Tercentenary Monument by Kurt Perisee. The various figures represent the “Four Freedoms,” which are freedoms of speech and religion,…
Frank P. Blair Memorial, Forest Park
Frank Preston Blair worked with Nathaniel Lyon to secure the arms at the Arsenal in 1861, and went on to a successful career fighting for the Union in the Civil War. He also was a statesman, and I find it interesting that the foundation who created this memorial chose to portray him in civilian clothing.
Lyon Park
Update: The bronze plaque visible in the photos above and below was stolen sometime in the last couple of years. There is no explanation of when it happened, or who may have stolen it. There seems to be no plans to replace it. This is one of many bronze plaques stolen from monuments around St….
St. Louis Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist, Holly Hills Boulevard
Update: Readers helped to identify this as the St. Louis Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist, built in 1931 according to plans by Aegerter & Bailey. To read a masterful article by Mimi Stiritz on all of the churches in St. Louis, click here. Does anyone know the original name of this church? It was certainly…
McRee and Tower Grove Avenues, McRee Town
I never thought I’d see the day when McRee Town saw redevelopment. It’s coming rapidly, and I can only imagine in a decade the old, dilapidated neighborhood will be replaced with renovated buildings. Updated with one from the vaults:
Central Industrial Drive, McRee Town
Update: There is another one of these industrial drives up north. Central Industrial Drive might be the most forgotten street in St. Louis, stretching from Vandeventer to Chouteau in a valley that stretches up to the Mill Creek Valley. It was packed with railroad tracks for over a century, but sometime presumably in the mid…
Folsom Avenue, McRee Town
The eclectic nature of the area’s architecture continues on the northern end of the residential area. There was a Jewish population in the neighborhood for a while, as this former synagogue attests. Folsom Avenue is dominated by the gigantic Liggett-Meyers Tobacco Factory, which is gigantic, to be blunt. It stretches the entire length of the…
McRee Avenue, McRee Town
Update: Many of the abandoned buildings in these photos, and particular the large house in the photo below, have been renovated as of the winter of 2020. Redevelopment is coming to McRee Avenue, though many buildings still empty. Perhaps what is most striking is the variable housing stock, everything from a stately house that one…