Two Churches in the Land Between the Rivers

We looked at two churches in that flat bottomland sandwiched between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers that forms an almost peninsula-like eastern tail of St. Charles County. The first one, Trinity Lutheran Church at the intersection of Highway 94 and Church Road, dates from 1876, when it was calved off from Emmanuel Lutheran. The church…

Penrose, July 2022, Part One, North Newstead Avenue and Environs

I’ll be honest; I got totally lost in the Penrose on Saturday. I really love the neighborhood because it’s so hidden away and so few people know about. I wanted to get back and see how it was doing, and show off more of its great, well-kept streets and tidy streets. But I don’t know…

The South Side, Peoria

My trip up to Central Illinois in mid June took me to all sorts of random surprises, including several new churches and other sights, and that is why I enjoy doing what I do. It is often totally random. But sometimes my totally random path takes me through neighborhoods that tell stories that I don’t…

Checking Up on McKee Land

Little has changed where Paul McKee owns vast swaths of real estate since I went by this area last year. There are still abandoned and fire-gutted buildings. Update: By July of 2022, the ruins below were finally torn down. The large apartment building on St. Louis Avenue is still sitting as a burned out shell….