I can’t keep track of all of the things that have gone into this storefront over the years at Page and Belt. I like the new plywood in the second floor windows. Stay classy, predatory corner store owners of St. Louis.
Tag: Crime
Hyde Park in the Morning Light #6, The Children of the Hyde Park Fire
As some of my readers know, I was gone from St. Louis for a good solid decade, from August 1996 to December 2006. Up in Kirksville for undergrad, I rarely knew what was happening back in St. Louis, back when the internet was still in its infancy. I had never heard of this fire, and…
Poplar Street Bridge Approaches, Revisited
Update: The construction is now complete, with the ramp now expanded to two lanes. The rebuilding of the inadequate, dangerous ramp that hugged the street grid south of the Poplar Street Bridge and gave northbound I-55 access to the eastbound lanes has begun. The piece of concrete above has changed since the last time I…
Pacific Cemetery
Update: On July 29th, the vast majority of the stones were fixed by the amazing Franklin County Cemetery Society. Read my original article here. The City of Pacific’s cemetery was vandalized back in the winter.
Visiting East St. Louis on the 100th Anniversary of the Riots
10th and Bond Street is where it all began, 100 years and two weeks ago. I went back and snapped these photos on the exact anniversary of some of the worse racial violence in US history. The oldest areas of East St. Louis are still mostly abandoned, with wide swaths of vacant lots. I am…
For Sale: Tires Not Included
How does a car end up in this condition right off of N. Florissant Avenue, in sight of a gas station?
Young Victims of Violence Memorial
Update: I went by the block where Christopher Harris was murdered in 2018. It has changed dramatically from the time when he died. I remember when the boy mentioned in this inscription was killed. However, the sculpture is supposed to represent “Every Child,” and not a single victim. There are other bronze statues located around…
Ten Year Anniversary of St. Louis Patina
I hope my readers, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of this website, will allow me to talk about something other than St. Louis architecture. As I’ve said before, over the last decade St. Louis Patina has become something much more than a just a place for pictures of beautiful or abandoned buildings (though…
The Corner of Jefferson and Hebert, Late April 2017
There were Teddy Bears sprawled out all over the street when I revisited this intersection that I have been documenting for several years.
Desecration
The neighborhood that once filled the pews of St. Augustine is now gone, and the old church sits alone, vulnerable. I have been truly shocked by how large and bushy the volunteer trees have become. It is only late April and the undergrowth is huge. Vines have now crept around the flamboyant Gothic elements of…