We’re heading to Cincinnati, Ohio next, to look at Over the Rhine, which is one of the best preserved early Nineteenth Century neighborhoods in America. St. Louis used to have numerous neighborhoods like Over the Rhine, but we annihilated them like fools. Kosciusko, Carr Square (read part two) and Mill Creek, all neighborhoods in St….
Tag: Alleys
German Village, Columbus, Ohio, Part Three
We’ll look at a few more streets in German Village today. I think what makes this such a beautiful neighborhood is that even if the houses are different sizes, they maintain a certain architectural uniformity that creates that harmony. Likewise, with only a couple of different roof types, such as the gable above and the…
German Village, Columbus, Ohio, Part Two
Like Lafayette Square in St. Louis, the side streets of German Village in Columbus are where I found much of the more intimate and interesting views of the neighborhood. What really struck me were the alleys! Wow, talk about clean and unobstructed! I think St. Louis’s decades-long experiment with dumpsters has failed. It just makes…
The Squeezed Streets, Wabada and Highland Avenues, The Western Greater Ville
This is a little hard to explain, but the streets of the western Greater Ville were not laid out by any higher authority, and they were once part of a larger estate known as the Papin Tract. Consequently, they’re all messed up, becoming incredibly narrow, having houses on only one side of the street, dead-ending…
North Third Street, Laclede’s Landing
What’s there to say about what’s left of North Third Street in Laclede’s Landing? First of all, to exit the parking lot, which is currently the only way to get out of the neighborhood and onto Third Street on the south side, you have to walk out into traffic lanes because there is a fence…
Clamorgan Alley, Laclede’s Landing
Clamorgan Alley is not the historic name for this alley, which cuts between the 700 blocks of North First and Second streets. But it received that name because Jacques Clamorgan once owned this land, and in a famous court case, after giving the land to his slave, Esther, in an effort to avoid creditors (something…
North First Street, Laclede’s Landing
We come up the steep incline and reach North First Street, where the above photograph captures the street in 1968, right before the grand plans for redevelopment had begun. Interestingly, old fashioned street lights had already appeared. Below, on the southwest corner, a plaza that appears to still be incomplete replaced the vacant lot where…
Around Marshall County, Illinois, June 2022
North of Washburn is the town of La Rose, which is in Marshall County. The country actually has two parts on either side of the Illinois River. The town is dominated by a grain elevator, a part of which looks to be quite old. The booth for the truck scale is still standing, much like…
Old North, Revisited Winter 2022, Monroe Street Between North Florissant Avenue and North Fourteenth Streets
Heading east down Monroe Street, we come across some interesting houses that have received Formstone, which I am familiar with from living in Baltimore. I am not sure what possessed these owners to do this to their houses. This old wood frame house is not long for this world, I’ve been told. I’ve always been…
Old North, Revisited Winter 2022, Branch Street Between North Twentieth and Nineteenth Streets
Branch Street forms the nebulous boundary between Old North and Hyde Park, and there is much vacant land in this border region. Also, there are many more wood frame houses that speak to the old age of the buildings. On neighboring streets such as Knapp Street and other nearby streets, Paul McKee’s ownership has furthered…