Jumping to the other side of the neighborhood, we look at the one block section of Montana Avenue just to the east of South Grand Boulevard. What jumps out at me is this old wood frame house, probably dating back to the earliest days of the neighborhood. But then right next door is a house…
Iowa Avenue Between Keokuk and Osage Streets, Revisited Yet Again
Heading south of Keokuk Street, we see a wider range of styles of architecture. I looked at this block back in October of 2019 and August of 2020. We also see a four-family that looks just like one in Fox Park and also up in the Greater Ville. There are also two Second Empire houses,…
Iowa Avenue Between Chippewa and Keokuk Streets
Heading south of Chippewa Avenue into Dutchtown, there are more of the standard four families and single family houses. In particular, I liked the mixture of stock terracotta used to fill in the blind window above on the second floor. Wood cornices are replaces with brick and metal.
Iowa Avenue Between Winnebago and Chippewa Streets
It’s a busy week around St. Louis Patina headquarters so posts will be brief, but we’ll take a look at Iowa Avenue south of the famed Iowa Buffet, at the corner of Winnebago Avenue. A couple of early Greek Revival houses are surely some of the earliest houses on the block. The house below looks…
That Sinkhole on Potomac
Well, interesting. A large sinkhole has formed on Potomac Avenue between Michigan and Minnesota avenues in the Gravois Park neighborhood. Should be cut and dry, right? Let’s go to Compton and Dry’s Pictorial St. Louis and find the sinkhole that was filled in… But what do we find? There’s just an orchard? There is a…
Ulyssess S. Grant Statue
Located at the northeast corner of Washington Square Park, the Ulysses S. Grant sculpture dates from 1888 and represents the most prominent future president to live in St. Louis. Sculpted in 1888 and dedicated in October of that year by Robert Porter Bringhurst, it also has a depiction of the Battle of Lookout Mountain, which…
Ferdinand Herold House Not Doing Well
I was alerted by a fellow lover of St. Louis history and architecture that the Ferdinand Herold Mansion on South Jefferson has been boarded up and abandoned after a failed attempt at rehabbing the stately house. It is currently on the market but no one has bought it yet. Unfortunately, the house has now been…
Former Normandy Hospital South
It’s hard to keep track of all of the names of the hospital at the intersection of Dougherty Ferry and Des Peres roads, but it was born in 1974 as Normandy Hospital South. Nearby Interstate 270 was actually still known as 244 at the time, and the interchange was only half complete, with nearby Big…
An Abandoned Factory and a Prison, Fort Madison, Iowa
On the way out of town we saw two landmarks. The first was the old Sheaffer Pen Plant, built in three stages: an office in 1931, a pen manufacturing plant in 1952 and a shipping depot in 1976. It closed in 2008 and the pens are now made in China after being sold to Bic….
Avenue G, Part Two, Fort Madison, Iowa
We make it back down to Avenue G where we again see more Italianate storefronts lining the thoroughfare. And as we have seen before in places such as Macon, Missouri, a Modernist bank building has been inserted into the street wall. There are some more interesting buildings, such as this bank above and below. But…