I’ve long been intrigued by this corner storefront sitting right by the interstate. The black paint is the from the never-ending efforts of Operation Brightside to cover up graffiti. The city agency is currently winning at this address, but the tide of battle will probably turn the other way sometime this summer, and so on….
Tag: Demolition
Old North, Revisited Winter 2022, Hadley Street Between Wright and Montgomery Streets
Heading south on Hadley Street, we pass by some houses that we’ve looked at before, back in September of 2019. The problem with this street is that it is a major cut-through to get over to the on-ramp onto southbound Interstate 70, so cars fly down this stretch. Who wants to listen to people revving…
Old North, Revisited Winter 2022, Dodier and Wright Street Between North Fourteenth Street and North Florissant Avenue
I remember when there used to be buildings here. They were not in good shape, but they were still salvageable. I photographed them back in March of 2014 and mere weeks or only days of their destruction in January of 2020. (last photo). They were demolished by later that month. Their neighbor on Dodier to…
Culver House Under Threat
You might have heard in the news about the expansion planned by the St. Louis Symphony, which will add new wings out the east and south of the original building built as the St. Louis Theater. Not mentioned is the demolition of the Culver House, which I have featured before as the Stephen Allen Bemis…
Near North Riverfront Streetscape Survivors
I found myself checking out those blocks cut off by the construction of the Mark Twain Expressway that is known as the Near North Riverfront. First up is the storefront left behind with the demolition of the apartment building on Branch Avenue. I’ve also looked at the area in 2012, which has become increasingly industrial…
John F. Kennedy High School, Demolished
Kennedy High School is no more. There are only long piles of rubble. The machines who did the deed are sitting around surveying their work, and other Caterpillar products are awaiting their turn to permanently alter the topography to allow for the construction of half a million dollar houses. I’ve seen it across the country,…
Oak Hill, The Old Russell-Parker Estate
The Russells and Parkers operated coal and clay mines in what is now the expansive Tower Grove South neighborhood in the Nineteenth Century. Their house, which was owned in turn by both families, but seems to have been built by William Russell, sat at 3405 Oak Hill Avenue and Fairview and Parker. The house sat…
Emmaus Homes, New Lease on Life
Bonjour mesdames et messieurs! Bienvenue au Château Hoffman! OK, jokes aside, anyone in the preservation community–or anyone in the wider community in general–who has a problem with the Hoffman Companies buying up real estate in western St. Charles and eastern Warren counties has to tell me what their plan was for redeveloping the old Emmaus…
In the Footsteps of Lillian Handlan Lemp
Many readers are no doubt familiar with Lillian Handlan, who would marry William Lemp, Jr., the heir to the Lemp Brewery. Later, their acrimonious divorce would make headlines around the country. But she also lived in many places around St. Louis, and I’ve identified several places she called home. There may be more, but for…
Enclaves of St. Louis: A Corner of Wells-Goodfellow
I’ve become intrigued recently with little enclaves of houses left behind when industry, highways or other constructions have cut off or isolated what was originally larger neighborhoods. The first one I’m looking at is an area of around a dozen houses reached by what is technically Hamilton Avenue south of Natural Bridge Avenue. It was…