Update: I revisited the area again in November of 2020 in two posts here and here. I was back in the southern tip of McKinley Heights, which I first looked at in June of 2014. I’m endlessly intrigued with what was a little hamlet of small houses, some frame, some brick, and some “in between.”…
Tag: Alleys
Gravois Avenue Between Compton and Minnesota Avenues
In my dreams I have this fantasy where I win the lottery, and among other things, I secretly purchase all the crumby autocentric stores and used-car lots along Gravois east of Grand through straw buyers, and rebuild a pedestrian-friendly urban environment–you know, like what used to be there one hundred years ago. I’m not expecting…
Menard Street and Environs
Menard Street continues the theme of older Greek Revival construction, and they even have some of their original (or at least tastefully reconstructed) balconies. Look closely at the houses below; the two Second Empire houses at the right are traitors to their earlier roots. As I always say, brick can never lie: those houses are…
The Mystery Houses, 13th Street and Shenandoah Avenue
Update: See the houses on the west side of the street here from 2020. I call these houses the “mystery houses,” and I’ll explain why. They seem to appear on Compton and Dry from 1875, and if you look closely in the lower right corner of the image below, just below the letter R in Summer…
The Beauty of Dutchtown, Part 3, California Avenue Between Osage and Keokuk Streets
Update: See the block of California to the north of here from August of 2020. On California Avenue in between Osage and Keokuk streets, some detective work was needed. Why are the houses several decades newer than the red brick buildings around them in Dutchtown, and why are they subsiding so badly? Compton and Dry’s…
Survivors Revisited Yet Again, Ohio Avenue, Fox Park
I hope my readers understand why these seemingly humble and insignificant houses on Ohio Street, just up the block from the stately St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church, are such wonderful buildings, and deserving of being saved. I looked at them originally back in 2014, and then again in 2016. These are very old,…
College Hill in the Snow #30: 5200 Block of Conde Street
Well, isn’t this interesting? Another large cluster of wood frame houses on Conde Street. I had spotted this cluster a while back (fifth photo), and I finally got back to take a look at them. There are one story versions, and two story ones, and then ironically, there are new in-fill houses, which you can…
Checking In On Old North, “Post-McKee”
Update: See the house in the pictures above and below in the winter of 2019. The house was demolished by July of 2019. Its roof collapsed in 2014. Yes, there is a house in there, hidden by the giant volunteer trees. It’s owned by Paul McKee’s Northside TIF, and he was supposed to have divested himself…
Hyde Park in the Morning Light #35, Garden Street
Why is Hyde Park so special to me? It’s because of these little streets, upgraded from “alley status,” that still survive around the neighborhood. Yes, these houses are all abandoned, falling down in many cases, but they represent a beauty that is being lost in St. Louis. Little woodworking details, on what are otherwise humble…