North Up Blair Avenue, Hyde Park, May 2026, Part Three

Continuing north up Blair in Hyde Park, we see a Gingerbread house and then the styles go back to what we would expect to see in the neighborhood. Windsor Park was a former quarry, which I’ve talked about before in the past. This little church is still in great condition. But there’s a lot of…

North Up Blair Avenue, Hyde Park, May 2026, Part Two

At Salisbury, we continue on past the fire station, which has been there for over a century, though the one below is not the original. The park is probably the original topography of the land. It starts to get very leafy north of the park as we continue up Blair Avenue. There have been many…

North Up Blair Avenue, Hyde Park, May 2026, Part One

Now, as we head north up Blair Avenue into Hyde Park, we see this substation. A pet peeve of mine is how AmerenUE makes no effort to integrate its utilities into city neighborhoods. They’re not so ugly and obtrusive in West County; trust me. I’ve seen lots of abandonment in southern Hyde Park in the…

North Up Blair Avenue, Old North, May 2026, Part Three

Continuing north up Blair Avenue, we leave St. Louis Avenue behind and enter the northern portion of Old North St. Louis. Perhaps what is most notable is the number of trees and how much more shaded the streets are, and how many more houses there are. Many of these houses appear in Compton and Dry’s…

North Up Blair Avenue, Old North, May 2026, Part Two

We continue north up Blair Avenue today, starting at the intersection of North Market Street and seeing the first Second Empire buildings. Vacant lots are interspersed with occupied and rehabbed houses. I’ve always liked the house below, with Italianate stylings. We now make it to Warren Street, where there are commercial buildings. More vacant lots….

North Up Blair Avenue, Old North, May 2026, Part One

It’s been awhile since I’ve gone north up Blair Avenue, so I thought I would take a look to see what’s been happening since the last time, which was March of 2024. It’s been my way of checking up on the inner ring neighborhoods of the Northside, and it is always interesting. I started further…

Carr Square, May 2026

I realized that while I investigated the Carr Square neighborhood in two pieces at St. Louis Magazine several years ago (you can read the first part here, and the second part here), I had neglected to take a look at what the area looks like now. To put it mildly, you would never imagine that…

Former Lutheran Hospital, Spring 2026 and the Past

I think I’ve joked before with readers, and definitely with many of my friends, that I like the winter because the leaves are off the trees, providing clear views of St. Louis architecture in neighborhoods with mature vegetation. But I’ll have to admit, earlier this spring when the leaves started filling out on the trees…

West C Street To North 10th Street Via Voss Place, Belleville

We now turn onto West C Street in Belleville, and discover a building whose originally purpose remains unknown to me. Was it a Turnverein or some other German social organization? I don’t know, but perhaps a reader does. We next come up to a short private street, Voss Place, which betrays its obvious Teutonic origins…