Grant’s Farm, Mid-June 2023

The Busch Family Ownership Group (minus Billy and Adolphus IV) welcomes you to Grant’s Farm! We paid an evening visit to the Busch family estate recently. I learned the structure below was the ice skating building. This was part of the original holdings of the Dent Family, and the Hardscrabble log cabin is one of…

The Former Faust Estate

Always take that strange narrow road and see where it goes. We were recently visiting Faust Park in Chesterfield to look at the collection of historic West County structures on display there (see them here and here) and noticed there was a little road going to the east. Before we knew it, we had discovered…

Gravois Avenue from Morgan Ford Road to Neosho Street, Bevo

Moving past the intersection of Morgan Ford and Delor, we hit a stretch of Gravois that is substantially marred by demolition for parking lots, While the Bevo Mill carefully follows the contours of the wedge-shaped block where it sits, ironically there is a giant parking lot behind it that once served the popular restaurant. Across…

End of Winter 2023 Odds and Ends

The old Soulard Branch of the St. Louis Public Library has had several uses over the last decade besides the commercial space facing 7th Boulevard. There was “The Library” and then “The Archives.” They’re both gone. Below, in McKinley Heights, I still can’t believe that Second Empire house below is sitting vacant; the property values…

The John G. Busch Brewery, Washington, Franklin County

John B. Busch founded his brewery south of downtown in 1854, and it continued under the supervision of his sons for many years. Yes, as you might suspect, he was a brother of Adolphus Busch of Anheuser-Busch fame. As was typical, the brewery switched to the manufacture of soft drinks at the dawn of Prohibition….

Bellefontaine Cemetery, The Last Snow

I snapped these photos the last time it snowed in St. Louis back when it was just pretty and not a complete and total nightmare like this most recent snowstorm. I’m experimenting around with a new function which is a gallery; as has always been the case you can click on any photo to see…

Details, Busch Mausoleum

I’ve done details of the Wainwright and Lemp mausolea in the past, so I turned to the Busch Mausoleum next. The famous phrase by Gaius Julius Caesair, Veni, Vedi, Vici, was spoken after his defeat of Pharnaces II of Pontus, not during the conquest of Gaul, as is commonly misunderstood.

Bellefontaine Cemetery, Winter 2021

I took a look around Bellefontaine Cemetery in early January, when the winter had set in, leaving the grounds in their stark but beautiful appearance for the season. I went back the Saturday in mid-February after the big snow and frigid snow, and checked out the cemetery again, and caught some nice vistas across the…

Thirteenth Street from Barton Street to Shenandoah Avenue, West Side

Perhaps two of the most interesting blocks in Soulard are 13th Street between Barton and Shenandoah. I’ve looked at this stretch before, but mainly on the east side, back in November of 2019. There are a host of interesting houses, including these which I also examined around the same time. The first thing to realize…

August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area

Formerly owned by the Federal government, the August A. Busch Conservation Area was purchased in his memory by his widow Alice Busch in 1947. I had always thought it was much older, and the government had requisitioned it during the war. There are still bunkers left over from the war (and in other parts of…