South Hyde Park, which I define as south of Salisbury Street, has a slightly but not totally different feel than the northern half. The south side has less mansions, more workers’ cottages and some amazing alley houses. This is a cool building, which clearly once used horses for its business. I suspect that the owners…
Tag: Alleys
Hyde Park in the Morning Light #4, The Italianate Beauty
Thousands of people left Hyde Park in the Twentieth Century, but many people stayed. The owner of this house not only stayed, but double-downed on their investment, carefully restoring and updating two beautiful Italianate row houses. While the original buildings are carefully restored, they also added this cool atrium in the back. Sadly, just feet…
Mallinckrodt Street, Hyde Park
There are amazing rehabs happening in Hyde Park, such as this one with what looks to be a stable behind it. These alley houses, one ravaged by fire, are increasingly rare, but more common than other neighborhoods in Hyde Park. There’s this amazing half-flounder that’s been jazzed up over the years. And this spectacular,…
Wells-Goodfellow #13, Hamilton and Wabada, Vicinity
The sun had risen up above the horizon, and the red brick so famous in St. Louis was glowing. This old gas station seems to have been converted into a house; there are garages in the backs of these apartment buildings, and surely this station was busy. The walls are collapsing on this apartment building,…
Two Little Houses, Old North
I think these little guys have so much potential. It would be perfect for an artist, who could live in one house, and have a studio in the other, and the alley house could serve as a rental property. You know, sort of like how these houses were designed originally. As incomes continue to stagnate…
3600 Block of Ohio Avenue
I’ve looked at these houses before, but I came back to look again. Look at the little guy above; probably it was originally built as an alley house. But then, going north, the old Lutheran Hospital is to the east, and a row of beautiful houses appear. I suspect that possibly doctors or other administrators…
The Funky Alley, Benton Park West
Weird things abound in this city, the result of the slow, often hodgepodge rate of development. But sometimes, those weird things survive up to the present day, such as the “funky alley,” as I call it, just southwest of the intersection of Ohio and Gravois. Even back in 1875, in the Compton and Dry, you…
Branch Street
Update: The building above was demolished in May 2016. Ironically, I was told this apartment building was rehabbed back as part of one of the first redevelopments in Old North. It’s been sad watching the building above waste away; the story goes is that it was actually renovated back in the 1980s. No revival is…
Alley Houses, Soulard
Somewhere along the line, probably after World War II, American cities declared war on alley houses. Seen as dirty, cramped and ugly, most of them around the United States have been torn down. I was pleased to rediscover Soulard a couple of weekends ago, and realized that the alley house is alive and well, some…