4700-4800 Block of Cote Brilliante Avenue

I’ve revisited the 4700-4800 block of Cote Brilliante numerous times over the years, most recently, I think back in October of 2024. It’s overgrown, as can be seen below. But there are still plenty of houses that are in great shape, as can be seen above. I find it interesting that there are so many…

Jewish Orthodox Old Home, September 2025

Not much has been happening up at the old nursing home at Grand and Blair. There’s more graffiti, that’s for sure. There hasn’t been more demolition after the removal of the crumbling wing back in 2024 that I noticed.

Ruins in the Undergrowth

“Hey, I wonder how that one house is doing,” I thought to myself two Saturdays ago. I had checked in on a house I first found back in June of 2022 in April of 2024 and had discovered it had collapsed badly. At first, when I drove up the building, I thought it was completely…

Some Notable Buildings, Jefferson City

I also saw some other interesting building scattered around the city. This school, high up on a hill in the center of town, caught my attention. It is abandoned, unfortunately. With such a prominent location and great vistas, I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be great for redevelopment. Nearby on another summit is the Hugh…

Former Missouri State Penitentiary, Jefferson City

First opened in 1836, the former Missouri State Penitentiary operated until 2004, and was apparently the oldest prison west of the Mississippi, beating out the one we saw recently in Fort Madison, Iowa. It is located on East Capitol Street a few blocks east of the Missouri State Capitol. As is typical, based off the…

St. Andrew’s Cinema, St. Charles

St. Andrew’s or Andrews Cinema opened in 1970 and is one of the last of the movie theaters of its stylistic kind left in the St. Louis region. It passed through a large number of owners over the years, but eventually ended up being a second run theater selling tickets at a steeply discounted price….

Snake Alley, Burlington, Iowa

Continuing my series of Iowa river towns at the end of the month, we’re visiting Burlington briefly as we head up the Mississippi. I’d already visited the city back in September of 2013, but I’d only really focused on downtown. This time I focused on residential neighborhoods on the steep hills north of downtown, and…

Late Summer Odds and Ends

I had some leftover photos I didn’t have a use for, so as usual, I do an odds and ends post. The building above is on Sidney Street in Soulard just to the east of Interstate 55. By comparison, this corner storefront above on the Near North Riverfront is a real survivor, with most of…

3401 Union Boulevard

Occasionally I wonder to myself why I bother doing this website, and then I’m just wandering down a random street such as Union Boulevard, and I come upon a building I’ve probably driven by a dozen times but this time I finally notice, and I remember, this is why I do all this work. In…