Built in 1846, with substantial remodeling completed in 1866 by the Jesuits to serve the German population of the Near North Side, the Shrine of St. Joseph is one of the oldest buildings still left in the city. The lavish Baroque Revival fa?ade, from 1881 (incorrectly described as Romanesque Revival at the shrine’s website) seems…
Tag: Baroque Revival
2,000th Post: In Search of Bob Reuter
Update: See a documentary of Bob Reuter here. I always go back and take a mental inventory of where I was when a friend of mine passes away. What was going on, and did I feel anything different? I know exactly where I was when Bob Reuter tragically fell to his death in an open…
Shenandoah Elementary School
Updates: See the street and its houses around the school here; compare to the architecture of Walbridge Elementary School in Walnut Park and the former Kennard Elementary School. See more pictures of the school and Tennessee Avenue in this post from June of 2020. Updated with historic photo from 1926 in April of 2021. I think…
Grand Center, November 2012
It was a cold day, but Grand Center was devoid of human life except for the automobiles driving by on Grand Blvd. It’s hard to believe but at one point if you looked west you would have seen a church instead of the Fox Theater. Update: The building below, the former Missouri Theater, was converted…
Return to Holy Corner, Washington, District of Columbia
It’s one of the more unique places in the United States, the corner of 16th Street, Mt. Pleasant Avenue, Columbia Road and Harvard Street Northwest. Three churches, all in their own unique styles, cluster at this boisterous and congested intersection. I remember when I first moved to Washington, DC, this intersection felt like I had…
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Kansas City, Missouri
While the cathedral of Kansas City is much smaller than St. Louis’s own basilica on Lindell, I still found it a beautiful and unique structure. Firmly embedded in the fanciful eclecticism of the Nineteenth Century, it is an interesting mix of Baroque and even western American architectural elements. When built, it was the tallest building…
Chicago and St. Louis: Differences in Ecclesiastical Architecture
Recently, while in Chicago, Rob Powers and I drove around looking for all of the churches that I’ve always seen from the interstates and wondered what they were like. One in particular, right down in one of the oldest parts of the city is this church, which I suspect is a Jesuit church since their…
Fox Theater Details
I love the ornament of the Fox Theater in Grand Center, but I get annoyed every time I hear its architecture described as Byzantine-Moresque. What the heck is that? In reality, it clearly shows the influence of the Churrigueresque style of Spain, a late Rococo, exuberant explosion of design and ornament. Take the time when…
Midtown in the Snow
Update: These are really terrible photographs.
Cathedral, St. Paul, Minnesota
Update: See the interior of the cathedral from my trip to St. Paul in 2018 from this pot from April of 2020.