Heading up Normandy Avenue, I first glanced over at the historic Normandie Golf Club and noticed earth being moved around. Had it finally been purchased and subdivided for houses, as had been threatened so many times? No, in fact it is being renovated according to designs by Jack Nicklaus. But I was turning my attention…
Bel-Nor
As can be seen clearly labeled on the map above, the town of Bel-Nor began as a real estate development named the Country Club Addition of Normandy Park. In fact, the Normandie Golf Club, which sits to the south of the residential component of the town, lies within its city limits. The old Incarnate Word…
Normandy, Part Three
On the west side of Florissant Road, opposite St. Vincent Children’s Services, which is again another land donation of the Lucas-Hunt family, we have a row of houses from the 1920s and 30s. There is a broad mix of houses on what is the eastern edge of the Normandy Heights addition, with almost Arts and…
Normandy, Part Two
Crossing over Florissant Road, we are now on Bermuda Drive, which appears on the Normandy Park plat maps. We see the back of the house above which we saw back in May of 2019. Much like along Florissant Road that we saw back in May of 2019, there is a row of Gingerbread houses of…
Normandy, Part One
Normandy is one of the most interesting parts of St. Louis County, and I have created a tag for future and past posts of the area, including the municipal boundaries of the modern city but also areas part of the historic area owned by the Lucas Family. Charles Lucas, and more importantly his son John…
Bethany Cemetery, St. Charles Rock Road
We looked at the now fire-gutted former sanctuary of Bethany Evangelisch Church last week, so I thought I would check out the accompanying cemetery out St. Charles Rock Road. Like just about all German Protestant churches, the cemeteries were owned and operated independently by individual congregations, for better or for worse, sometimes for the extremely…
Historic Farmstead, Route 94, Eastern St. Charles County
This farmstead along Highway 94 in the eastern “peninsula” portion of St. Charles County has several interesting buildings. The first one is the historic Greek Revival farmhouse, perhaps from the 1860s or thereabouts. There’s a nice barn that is collapsing, but the real interesting feature is below: it appears to be a grain silo, but…
Melvin Price Locks and Dam
Who doesn’t like a giant dam? Melvin Price Locks and Dam opened on October 10, 1989, replacing the aging Lock and Dam No. 26, which had major structural deficiencies. Dams have been getting the photographic treatment since at least Margaret Bourke White, which you can see here. The dam is so massive that it is…
Edward “Ted” and Pat Jones-Confluence Point State Park
I completed the trifecta of visiting all three of the corners of the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers two Saturdays ago when we visited Edward “Ted” and Pat Jones-Confluence Point State Park at the furthest eastern edge of St. Charles County. Looking across the Mississippi River, you can spot the tower in Hartford…
Former St. Engelbert’s Campus
One of the more popular former Catholic parishes that I’ve posted about before is the former St. Engelbert’s on Shreve Avenue in the Penrose neighborhood. It might also win the informal award of “Largest Catholic church building most people have never heard of in St. Louis,” as well. It’s huge. I was poking around on…