I had just looked at this stretch of Wydown Boulevard back in January of 2024 in Clayton in between Big Bend and Skinker boulevards, and it has now been transformed due to the tornado of May 16. The trees and windows of the houses along here have been savaged. There are also signs of damage…
Tag: Clayton
Shanley Building, Recalled to Life
I’ll have to admit I didn’t think I’d see the day, but the Shanley Building has been rehabilitated and saved from demolition. A very large residential building has taken up much of the rest of the block, but it has been built around the former orthodontist’s office, originally designed by St. Louis architect Harris Armstrong….
Davis Place
South of downtown Clayton and Country Club Place is Davis Place, laid out in a series of curving streets as well as continuing many of the north-south streets of the central core, though they are cut off by Forest Park Parkway, the former Rock Island Railroad tracks. Heavily developed and marketed in the mid-1920s by…
Country Club Place and the Sporting News
Country Club Place is another interesting subdivision in Clayton off Hanley Road. Turn off Hanley onto Polo Drive and it splits off into West, East and Middle Polo drives, but to make it simpler to understand, the streets basically create a “reserve” in the middle with huge lots and houses, and on the outside perimeter…
Wydown Forest
Wydown Forest is another one of those subdivisions that developed along Hanley Road, and when we look at the plat map for it above (north and south are inverted), we see like many of these early Twentieth Century automobile suburbs, there are triangular parks placed at strategic locations, creating long vistas and curving lines. Wydown…
The End of Fontbonne University
Sadly, my prediction that Fontbonne University would not make it to 2030 proved to be correct. (I also predict that two or three other universities in the St. Louis region will not make it to that year, either.) It started out so promising, though, founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph, whose legacy still includes…
Forsyth Boulevard West of the City Limits
It dawned on me that Forsyth Boulevard west of Forest Park is the natural continuation of that parade of mansions along Lindell Boulevard, many designed by Maritz and Young, that terminates at Washington University. As was already present on Lindell, the houses are positioned laterally towards the street wall, reflecting their owners’ reliance on the…
Country Club Court
I stumbled across one of the most wonderful little pockets of houses in Clayton, just off Hanley Road and just south of the central business district separated by Forest Park Parkway. The eighteen houses, constructed between 1926-27 and sold between $25,000 and $30,000 were designed by architect William Remmert, owner of the Remmert Construction Company….
Moorlands / Claverach Park
I almost certainly will go back, but I made a first foray into one of the most interesting and beautiful additions to Clayton, just west of Big Bend Boulevard and Forest Ridge and Southmoor, and south of Brentmoor. Developed by the Moorlands Land Company, Moorlands Park, now known as Claverach Park, was platted in May…
Wydown Boulevard Between Big Bend and Skinker Boulevards
I’ve looked at the various private streets west of Big Bend before (here’s a cool map of Forest Ridge and Brentmoor Park) in Clayton, but now let’s head east until Wydown Boulevard terminates in the City of St. Louis. Laid out in 1909, the subdivision takes up land that was once the western side of…