Soulard and Benton park are similar in many ways; really they’re only separate because of the interstate.
No more is that obvious than in the three or four quiet blocks of technically Soulard that sit south of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery. Cut off by Broadway, I-55 and the brewery, they have more in common in many ways with Benton Park than Soulard.
You can just spot the houses, flying by on the interstate, hidden in the trees.
The Sanborn map below shows what was destroyed by the interstate in the upper portion. The original school of St. Agatha’s was also a victim.
This is great work, the juxtaposition of the map and the photograph. Very poignant, concrete, and a cautionary tale.
Quick suggestion, Chris — when you use a map and a photo together to contrast what a place was to what it’s become (which you do really well), I wish that as a matter of course you’d place a “you are here” dot on the map, and an arrow to indicate the direction or visual range of the shot. This would place the photo’s point-of-view in more precise context.
Thanks as usual for your dedication to telling the city’s architectural stories and discussing their relevance to the city’s evolution, for better and for worse.
Sadly, the interstate wrecked a lot of good neighborhoods. The affects still happening 50+ years later.