Back in January of this year, I covered just one of what are dozens of houses that were painted a horrible burgundy color by a shadowy company operating out of Fort Knox, Kentucky. As Ryan Krull reports in St. Louis Magazine, it was all part of a giant Ponzi scheme, as well as other criminal…
Tag: Crime
Ferdinand Herold House Not Doing Well
I was alerted by a fellow lover of St. Louis history and architecture that the Ferdinand Herold Mansion on South Jefferson has been boarded up and abandoned after a failed attempt at rehabbing the stately house. It is currently on the market but no one has bought it yet. Unfortunately, the house has now been…
Castle Point, July 2024
Castle Point is one of those places in suburbia that sort of defies description. I visited the former Thomas Elementary School all the way back in April of 2012 and learned from readers that there is a portion of the vast neighborhood that is known as Hathaway Manor, which is distinct from the larger Castle…
Western Lutheran Cemetery Desecration
There’s been a terrible new development at the Western Lutheran Cemetery in The Greater Ville. Sometime in the last year or so, the neighbors of the cemetery have turned the eastern portion into a junkyard, full of abandoned, broken down vehicles and other rubbish. And yes, I can confirm where the property lines are, and…
Street Design and Crashes, Arsenal Street and Interstate 55.
The recent crash of an automobile into St. Louis institution Gus’ Pretzel’s Shop was logical. I’ll explain why. Vehicles come whipping off of southbound Interstate 55 every thirty seconds or less, and the vast majority of them make little to no effort to stop, making the assumption that no one will be coming from westbound…
Don’t Fence Me In, St. Louis Edition
I want to tell you about a man you’ve never heard of outside of a news story last week, who died anonymously for unknown reasons less than a block from the center of our city’s government. My coworkers and I never knew the name his mother named him, but his nickname around City Hall was…
Grand Motel, Closed and Burned Out
Back in January of this year, the now-closed Grand Motel was severely damaged by arson. It is actually very sad because the new owner was planning on renovating the buildings for a homeless outreach center. I saw her on the news, and her heart was in the right place. I don’t know what will happen…
Former Most Holy Name, Attacked
Update: See historic photos of the interior here. Well, this is not good. I was coming from somewhere and when I drove by the former Most Holy Name Roman Catholic Church, I was startled to discover a very bad development. Much like what doomed St. Augustine’s and what has also happened at St. Mark’s, someone…
Joseph Robidoux IV and Jesse James, St. Joseph
It was a little later, in 1843, that St. Joseph was incorporated as a city, laid on the groundwork of a French American Joseph Robidoux IV. His mark on the city is still present to this day in the east-west streets coming out of downtown, which are named after his children. Robidoux was active in…
Former Lutheran Hospital, Looking Rough
The old Lutheran Hospital, later known as the St. Alexius Jefferson Campus to distinguish itself from the now-closed South Broadway Campus, and also home to the recently defunct Lutheran School of Nurshing, is looking pretty rough. Working our way around counterclockwise, we see just how much vandalism, illegal entering and other just general dilapidation has…