I turned left onto Gimblin Avenue from Church Road and looked at the vacant lots that had appeared in place of the abandoned houses I had photographed back in February of 2018. There are more burned out houses, as well. But the cool apartment building below, which I also looked at in February of 2018,…
Tag: Baden
Church Road, Revisited May 2025
To my readers: I am safe from the tornado, but many others are not. Please keep them in your thoughts. In the future, when it is appropriate, I will survey the damage to the historic neighborhoods devastated in this tragic event. I found myself going back up Church Road in Baden again after I had…
The End of Antelope Street
I had just been talking to someone about Antelope Street, that interesting little footnote in St. Louis history in Baden where a row of houses once featured an active train track in their front yard. I was in the area so I wanted to check and see if the last house was still there. It…
Church Road, Baden, Revisited
I looked at Church Road in Baden extensively back in the winter of 2018 and last Saturday I went back and looked at the distinctive wood frame duplexes on the lower end of the street. I was happy to see that one had received a nice green coat of paint or new siding. It looks…
Water Retention Basins, Baden
Let me tell you a story about a creek. It was called the Gingrass Creek, and some geniuses thought it would be a good idea to bury it under a large section of the Baden neighborhood. I looked at this area back on that freezing cold morning back in the winter of 2018. You can…
Downtown Baden, July 2024
Responding to a reader critique, I headed back up to Baden recently, and in particular looked at the downtown area along North Broadway. The house above with its attached lot had not changed much. Many of the buildings north of there were still boarded up. This church was still looking good. The building below was…
Tina and Ike Turner Haunts
I recently read Tina Turner’s autobiography, and I thought it would be interesting to see if any of the places in the book were still standing. To put it bluntly, most of the famous clubs where rock n’ roll began (yes, it began here in St. Louis, but our leaders are so bad at their…
Suspicious Fires Week: The Plastic Recycling Warehouse and the Old Tavern in Baden
The last couple of weeks, and in particular the most recent, have been rough on historic buildings in St. Louis, with fires striking numerous prominent and lesser known structures. The first one I’m looking at is a recycling center in the Baden area. I am well aware that dirty industry built St. Louis into the…
Former Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church and Baden Elementary School
The former Our Lady of Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church is a mighty structure, stretching for a considerable length down the west side of Annetta Avenue at the intersection of that street with Halls Ferry Road and Veronica Avenue. It was originally founded at a different location in Baden in 1871 or 1872, and closed…
North Pointe
I finally got back into the heart of the North Pointe neighborhood, which for simplicity’s sake, I include under the Baden tag. North Pointe is easily one of the most beautiful, intact and best kept secrets in the entire city of St. Louis. I could not find a single abandoned house, and I maybe could…