I’ve looked at the old Carter Carburetor Plant on North Grand Boulevard before many times in the past, and it has been demolished and remediated for PCBs. But the office building for the company was located in the heart of Grand Center. Originally intended to be a skyscraper in 1925, only the first two stories…
Tag: Art-Deco
St. Gabriel Archangel Roman Catholic Church
I almost missed St. Gabriel the Archangel Roman Catholic Church, which sits on the north side of Francis Park in the St. Louis Hills neighborhood. It is one of a series of churches designed by A.F. and Arthur Stauder, along with at least St. Stephen Protomartyr and St. Joan of Arc. The parish has an…
The Crossroads of the World: Grand and Gravois
Inspired by a World Wide Magazine visit to the intersection of Grand and Gravois, I photographed the old South Side National Bank. It’s been turned into condos or apartments. It was going to be demolished for a Walgreen’s but cooler heads prevailed. It’s sort of St. Louis’s own shorter version of the Empire State Building….
The Beauty of Dutchtown, Part 39: Virginia Avenue Between Eichelberger and Walsh Streets
Continuing north from Eichelberger, we see houses set back from the street, but then there are numerous businesses built right up to the sidewalk line, their front façades angled to match the orientation of Virginia Avenue. They show their continuous occupation up through the Twentieth Century, and while many of them now appear to be…
Former St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, Hannibal
It must be a hidden talent, but the first major building we stumbled upon coming into Hannibal was a giant abandoned building, which in this case is the former St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. It’s the usual story; it was founded over a century ago by nuns, it was added on to repeatedly over the last one…
National Candy Company
The old National Candy Company factory sat empty for years, and was first the target of redevelopment for a charter school a few years ago. That never happened, so in a continuing trend, U-Haul got a hold of it and renovated it for storage, which I think is a perfectly fine reuse. It’s a great…
Gravois Avenue Viaduct
The Gravois Avenue underpass, started in 1940, is much deeper than its neighbor, the Chippewa Avenue underpass. Much like its neighbor, it was built to go under the Missouri Pacific railroad tracks, and was originally budgeted to cost around $600,000. It ended up costing $850,000. And similarly, the right-of-way and its bridge are now much…
Bellefontaine Cemetery Late Spring 2020
Things are looking good around Bellefontaine Cemetery this spring, and I took the opportunity to walk around different parts of the grounds to see how the historic mausolea and tombs were doing. First up is this trio of two obelisks and a Corinthian column; compositionally they work together so well. I headed away from there…
Washington Park, Dubuque, Iowa
What impresses me about Dubuque is its abundance of successful public spaces; here is Washington Park, which possesses the Post Office on the south side. Designed by James A. Wetmore, it opened in 1934. I strongly suspect this Art-Deco edifice was part of the New Deal, and it even has some WPA murals on the…
Alliant Energy Power Plant Under Demolition, Dubuque, Iowa
This power plant is no longer standing; it was being demolished when I walked by in the afternoon. It was not the largest power plant in the world, but it sure seems huge when I was standing near it. Back in 2008, before it was slated for demolition, it was the feature of a power…