I was in St. Louis Hills so I thought I would see if I could find as many Spanish Revival houses as possible. I ran out of ones to find after awhile. The house above was probably not painted white originally. The houses and apartment buildings of St. Louis Hills represent an interesting transition from…
Former Klondike Silica Quarry
Heading out towards to Augusta, there is an amazing St. Charles County park that encompasses the old Klondike Sandstone or Silica Quarry. Originally owned by German immigrant Wilhelm Engelage, the property was purchased by the Tavern Rock Sand Company in 1898, which first had to blow off the top 85 feet of bedrock before the…
Family Farm, November 2024
I was up at the family farm in Illinois in mid November and things were looking good after harvest, which had finished by the time I visited. The cattle had been let out into the corn field for the purpose of cleaning up any missed cobs that had been left behind by the combine.
The St. Louis Commons and Common Fields
You might often hear the terms “St. Louis Commons” and “St. Louis Common Fields” thrown around a lot, but it’s important to know the difference between the two. Let’s talk about what they were, and how the terminology still survives to the present day in legal descriptions of properties, including the house from where you…
A Totally Preventable Fire
Update: The house has been demolished and is now a vacant lot. 3113 Arsenal Street in the Tower Grove East neighborhood was gutted by fire on the night of November 12. It’s the usual story: the owner of an abandoned house who’s owned the building for decades deferred maintenance for so long that finally it…
From the Vault: St. Cecilia’s, Interior
I was digging around in the vault and I stumbled upon these just ok photos of the interior of St. Cecilia’s Roman Catholic Church from probably just over a decade ago. They were giving tours during Lent and their famous fish fries. I’ve looked at the exterior twice, back in April of 2011 and then…
Locust Street Between Huntley and North Jefferson Avenues
Moving east of T.E. Huntley Avenue, the former Ewing Avenue, we see some demolished Italianate rowhouses with late Queen Anne front porches. But what is amazing is the sheer size of the mansions that once lined this section of Locust, such as the ones below. The Phyllis Wheatley Branch of the YWCA is a historic…
Locust Street Between Cardinal and Huntley Avenues
Moving east, there are more businesses that replaced houses. The photo above is perhaps the southeast corner, but I can’t be sure. The house in the background is gone for certain. The Fountain on Locust has become a famous restaurant in the amazing Spanish Revival building below. While this building below was marked for demolition,…
Locust Street Between Former North Channing and Cardinal Avenues
Back in September, we looked at Washington Boulevard in Midtown, and its transformation in the early Twentieth Century from a tony residential neighborhood into a commercial district. One block to the south is Locust Street, which like Washington, stretches from downtown where it ends at Theresa Avenue (though Washington continues, of course). Locust, seen above…
South Down North Grand Boulevard, Sunset
I was coming back from St. Charles and I needed to get to Grand Center, so Grand Boulevard was the logical route to take. I snapped some photos on the way down the grand thoroughfare. Above, the old Second German Presbyterian Church, which I photographed back in February of 2019, is still standing. One of…