Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: JeffVanderLou

Over the next six days, starting today, we’ll look at areas in the footprint of the Northside TIF, and see the effects McKee’s purchases and land banking have stalled redevelopment and also accelerated decline, as properties he’s purchased have gone vacant and been demolished. We’ll start in JeffVanderLou, driving up Webster in the two photos…

Harney Avenue Between Park Lane and Mimika Avenue, Walnut Park West

Harney Avenue is named after William S. Harney, a St. Louisan who served in the military but who also had some loyalty issues during the Civil War, apparently. It’s an interesting block, which again, makes me suspect that while this is the West Walnut Park Addition laid out by Julius Pitzman in 1906, makes me…

Park Lane Between Harney and West Florissant Avenues, Walnut Park West

Formerly Butler Avenue, the street that bisects many of the streets in Walnut Park West is now named Park Lane, no doubt a result of the platting of the North Pointe neighborhood across West Florissant Avenue. While most houses are built facing the northeast/southwest facing streets, there are a handful of homes built on the…

Riverview Boulevard, West Side, Walnut Park West

Riverview Boulevard has been known by many names over the years: Tracy Road or Avenue until 1907, Kingshighway Northwest until 1925 and Partridge Avenue at some point. Regardless, it forms the southeast boundary of Walnut Park West and has been a major artery since the Nineteenth Century, traveling to the northeast where it intersects with…

McClellan Heights, Davenport, Iowa

If there’s a neighborhood in Davenport that reminds me the most of Clayton, it’s McClellan Heights, to the east of Prospect Park, which we looked at yesterday. And perhaps, also like the Moorlands, that large development of Clayton that lies on the southeast side of that St. Louis suburb, though McClellan Heights lacks the large…

Prospect Park, Davenport, Iowa

Heading east of downtown Davenport, we reach Prospect Park and environs. Centered around an eponymous greenspace, the area grew up later than Hamburg upriver from older parts of Davenport. There is still no levee protecting the city, so there are excellent views of the Mississippi River from the neighborhood. There are relatively simple houses on…