Update: The buildings were demolished around the beginning of 2020. Jefferson Avenue is a long thoroughfare; at one point, it passes by multi-million dollar mansions. On other sections, it passes by a much different world.
Tag: Crime
New Police Districts Reflect Sad Reality
The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department is currently in the process of redistricting and removing its nine police districts, which have been in place since the 1960’s. It goes without saying that times have changed dramatically since then. The population has dropped by hundreds of thousands of people, some neighborhoods are drastically lower in density,…
Hebert Street
Update: The buildings above and below were demolished around the beginning of 2020. Hebert Street can change from utter devastation and abandonment in the northeastern corner of JeffVanderLou… …to new signs of life in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood. Update: I went back to this block in July of 2014 and the winter of…
North Grand Boulevard, JeffVanderLou
Once bustling with pedestrian traffic, North Grand feels more like a highway nowadays, with stoplights for deserted side streets that don’t have anyone waiting at anyway. It’s hard to imagine what the boulevard would have been like in its heyday, when streetcars went to and from Sportmans’ Park. An old funeral home, clearly a modification…
Old Kroger, Ohio Avenue Just South of Cherokee Street
This is the former home of Kroger’s, robbed at gunpoint in 1959 by none other than James Earl Ray. It was part of the old Cherokee Brewery before its front fa?ade was adapted for the grocery store.
The Horseshoe, Completely Gone
Update: By February 2017, the area had been completely transformed beyond recognition, with a large storm water retention pond having been constructed. Other portions of the street have become a parking lot for a church. There has been substantial demolition of buildings on the streets around the Horseshoe, as well. I had the opportunity to…
Wells-Goodfellow #3: The House of Horrors
Update: A man was charged and convicted of the dogs’ deaths. As I’m sure many of you had, I read the reports last week of the atrocious torture and killing of six dogs in an abandoned apartment building in the Hamilton Heights neighborhood of St. Louis. While I consider the building in question, at 5321…
Merry Christmas from Saint Louis Patina!
Update: The basement door was replaced and outdoor electrical plugs have been installed. After three years of waging war on the crack dealers and other criminals on my block, for the first time I felt comfortable placing Christmas lights on the front of my house without fearing they’d be vandalized. I particularly like how I…
Saint Louis Avenue Despoliation #1
Update: Most of the buildings on this stretch of St. Louis Avenue have been torn down as of December of 2019.. The rest of the week will feature the ongoing destruction of the built environment in neighborhoods such as JeffVanderLou. In particular, St. Louis Avenue, which was once the lifeblood of the area, is slowly…