I’ve looked at the landmark grain elevator in what is technically the Central West End but feels more like Midtown twice before over the years, here and here, but the light was so beautiful on an early Saturday morning I took another look at it.
Tag: Central West End
Edmund R. Norris House
Why is this house abandoned?! This beautiful house sits just to the west of Saint Louis University on West Pine Boulevard across Vandeventer, and is a wonderful survivor. I would love to know the story behind the steel beams that created either an outdoor patio for a former restaurant or maybe a loading dock. It’s…
The Gustav William Niemann House
Regardless of the fate of the Optimists Building, I still just absolutely love the Niemann House. Gustav William Niemann lived in this house around the turn of the Twentieth Century, and it’s a reminder that Lindell Boulevard was once lined with residences such as this. It was renovated into law offices several years ago, and…
The Optimist International Building
Update: On August 23, 2021, the Optimist building’s demolition received another denial from the Preservation Board. No word on what the Optimists will do with their building in the future. The Engineers Club, further down Lindell to the east, is now threatened with demolition for a similar conversion to an apartment building. As of this…
Outtakes, Spring 2021
They’re cleaning up the ruins of the John Loler House relatively quickly, though I was a little worried to see workers standing on the wood floors now loaded up with the debris of bricks and limestone as they stacked pallets. I had some leftover photographs from when I visited Dunbar Elementary this winter. I’ve always…
The Central West End and The Case of the Vanishing House
Update: When I revisited the property in the winter of 2023, construction had begun on a replacement house (fourth and fifth photos). Someone must know the story behind this house just west of Boyle on Laclede. I was told what happened years ago, but now I’ve forgotten. There was a nice late Nineteenth Century house…
West Pine Boulevard Between Newstead and Boyle Avenues, South Side
The south side of West Pine Boulevard east of Newstead has a total different character, with two apartment buildings from the early Twentieth Century. Then the houses to the east are clearly from the first decade or two of the 1900s. It is interesting that the north side of the street developed earlier, and then…
West Pine Boulevard Between Newstead and Boyle Avenues, North Side
Heading east from Newstead, looking at the north side of West Pine Boulevard, we come across what I think is easily one of the best kept secrets of preserved rows of Romanesque Revival houses in St. Louis. But to stress the point, and can be seen in the house in the photos above and below,…
West Pine Boulevard Between Newstead and Taylor Avenues, South Side
Heading west then from Newstead to Boyle Avenue on the south side of West Pine Boulevard, we see some more Romanesque Revival and related houses that survived later development. I particularly liked the house below, with its massive rounded tower out front. Then there’s this forgettable 1960s apartment building; I have a friend who lived…
West Pine Boulevard Between Taylor and Newstead Avenues, North Side
Moving past the Hawthorne and Taylor Avenue, I realized that West Pine Boulevard has an amazing collection of preserved Romanesque Revival houses from the late Nineteenth Century. While there’s all sorts of development going on further west, and the stereotype of the Central West End is that it was built up after the World’s Fair,…