Continuing and ending our end of the month look at Mississippi River towns north of St. Louis for the time being, we come to the Quad Cities, and first we will look at Davenport, Iowa. Of course, Davenport, and Rock Island, Illinois on the opposite bank (which we’ll look at in a few days) are…
Tag: Beaux-Arts
Pennsylvania Avenue Between Cherokee and Utah Streets
Surprisingly, I had never looked at Pennsylvania Avenue in Benton Park West, so I sought to fix that recently, heading north from its intersection with Cherokee Street. There has been some rehabbing going, unfortunately with some people who don’t know where they’re doing, as evidenced by the gray paint. House prices have also gone way…
Muscatine, Iowa, Part Two
Downtown Muscatine was really nice, with most of the storefronts occupied and many buildings looking like they had recently been renovated. As would be expected, there are a plethora of Italianate storefronts, as one often sees in cities along the river. The Laurel Building, below, was built in 1917 and was designed by William Hyland…
Sheldon Memorial
The Sheldon Memorial was built in 1912 for the Ethical Society according to designs of the architect Louis Clemens Spiering. Spiering is actually a very interesting figure, having participated in the design of the 1904 World’s Fair, as well as being a descendant of the famous German Marxist Karl Ludwig Bernays. St. Louis, as pretty…
High Street, Revisited, Jefferson City
Starting at Broadway Street and heading east or more southeast on High Street, we first see the Roman Catholic Proto Cathedral of St. Peter, just across the street from the Missouri Capitol. A proto cathedral is a former cathedral; the present church dates from 1883, and it was the seat, or cathedra of the diocese…
West Main Street and East Capitol Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Jefferson City
I visited Jefferson City recently, and I realized I had never really looked at the state capital outside of the capitol building. I discovered there is some great architecture, such as the building above and below, and over the next several days we’ll look at the city by street in the order I explored various…
Engine House No 12, Walnut Park
Just up West Florissant from the former Sixth District Police Station is Engine House No. 12, built around 1920, I suspect. It has some nice classical motifs around the front portal. But the side is relatively unadorned, left exposed by presumably the demolition of the neighboring building.
Avenue G, Part Two, Fort Madison, Iowa
We make it back down to Avenue G where we again see more Italianate storefronts ling the thoroughfare. And as we have seen before in places such as Macon, Missouri, a Modernist bank building has been inserted into the street wall. There are some more interesting buildings, such as this bank above and below. But…
Main Street, Downtown, Keokuk, Iowa
Main Street in downtown Keokuk is also U.S. Highway 218, which is usually not the best arrangement as it brings heavy traffic that does not want to stop at local businesses, but still brings the negative effects of automobiles, particularly tractor trailers and their pollution. Nonetheless, Main Street is overall in good condition and has…
The Union Electric Hydroelectric Dam, Keokuk, Iowa
We’ll get started with the major landmark in Keokuk. The Cahokia Power Plant was just one cog in a much larger machine that Union Electric didn’t build but purchased shortly after its completion at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. Keokuk and St. Louis have more than one link, and the first we will talk…