A critical surviving component of the rapidly disappearing Bohemian Hill neighborhood was severely damaged by fire on January 15, 2024. While the front was clearly replaced in the early Twentieth Century, the building itself surely dated to well back into the Nineteenth Century. (Note: You can actually see the belltower of the church damaged in…
Tag: Alleys
Indiana Avenue Between Lynch and Pestalozzi, East Side
A reader recommended I look at the 2800 block of Indiana Avenue in Benton Park, which is in between Pestalozzi Avenue and Lynch Street. I’ve looked at the block of Indiana just to the north back in December of 2022, as well as a section to the south back in June of 2015. I’ve also…
Fire Ravages South Broadway Row
Sadly, last week on April 26, this stunning row of buildings on South Broadway in the heart of Carondelet was heavily damaged by fire. The damage didn’t look too terribly bad from the front of these abandoned buildings, which I featured in a post back in March of 2021 (scroll down). The roof structure seems…
Tower Grove South Coal Diggings, Beckville, Beck Avenue, South Side and Alley
Speaking of really, really old buildings, I spotted this one above out of the corner of my eye at the intersection of Meramec, Morgan Ford and Beck. This is the entrance to a fascinating chapter in St. Louis history, and a continuation of my brief introduction to coal mining in Tower Grove South that I…
Weird and Wonderful Tower Grove South: South Spring Avenue Between Potomac Street and Gravois Avenue, West Side
I noticed something strange about the west side of South Spring Avenue when I started looking at the houses. There are a striking number of older houses, sitting far back on their lots, constructed of wood, which I suspect could easily date back to the 1870s when this was far out in the countryside. This…
Weird and Wonderful Tower Grove South: Phillips Avenue East of Oak Hill Avenue
Phillips Avenue is another street that alludes to the early roots of Tower Grove South, with many wood frame houses from the Nineteenth Century, mixed in with early Twentieth Century suburban style homes. I have always been intrigued by the small house below, sitting all the way back on the lot. I have to believe…
Pennsylvania Avenue Between Courtois Street and Koeln Avenue, Carondelet
Whoa, wait a minute, I thought, what’s going on here? Why are there are a bunch of houses from the 1940s and later on the next block between Courtois and Schrimer? The explanation is easy, coming from old fire insurance maps; this was the Reiss-Rapp Lumber Company, and it clearly was later redeveloped as housing…
Enclaves of St. Louis #3: 2700 Block of Osceola Street
It’s been a little while since I’ve done an Enclaves of St. Louis feature, so I thought I’d look at the 2700 block of Osceola Street in Dutchtown, just east of South Broadway and west of Interstate 55, which now artificially truncates the block. This must be a very interesting place to live, with just…
Half Flounders, Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio
Half flounders are not somehow unique to St. Louis. I found them all over the Over the Rhine neighborhood, mostly north of Liberty Street where there is more demolition and vacant lots, making it easier to see the rear of buildings. Like I had mentioned when visiting the town of Blois in France, while certainly…
Main Street, Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio, West Side
Going back to the south and heading north again looking at the west side of Main Street in the Over the Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, we see more of the newly rehabbed, and a little of the old. I love this old storefront church, which is a remnant of when this was not a “hot”…