The last time I had visited the former Carrollton subdivision was back in November of 2022, and some things had changed. First of all, an ultimate frisbee course had been built. Also, we saw a person walking through the empty yards. Not sure what he was doing. The trees are slowly dying but the former…
Tag: Deserted
Marycliffe, The Marianist Retreat, Wildwood
Just south of Glencoe on Missouri Highway 109 is Marycliffe, which is a Marianist retreat set along the bluffs of the Meramec River. I stumbled on the retreat center recently, and its 1967 building, which we’ll look at first. I couldn’t find any signs of anyone on the property. This was originally the land of…
The End of Antelope Street
I had just been talking to someone about Antelope Street, that interesting little footnote in St. Louis history in Baden where a row of houses once featured an active train track in their front yard. I was in the area so I wanted to check and see if the last house was still there. It…
Zombie Subdivision, St. Charles County
It’s been a long time since we’ve looked at a zombie subdivision, so what luck it was to discover one while we were on our way to visit the small hamlet of St. Paul in St. Charles County, which we’ll look at tomorrow. The sun was shining and a nice breeze was gently blowing the…
Downtown Granite City, Early March 2025
I last stopped by downtown Granite City in Spring of 2024, and there has not been much happening other than at the Granite City Arts and Design District on the far side of the area. I did discover another Sinclair Dinosaur which had been put on display along with a bunch of other Route 66…
Bissell Mansion, August 2024, Still Not Looking Good
Back in February of 2021, I had alerted readers to the abandonment of the Bissell Mansion, and already back then it was starting to look unkempt. Based off a reader tip, I went back and took another look, and things were getting much more out of control. The building looks reasonably secure, but I must…
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…
Hidden in the Undergrowth, Cairo
Moving west of downtown to the oldest part of Cairo, we spot the Queen Anne house with the onion dome turret (second photo), which I photographed back in 2014. Nothing to the east of it is still standing. See that vacant lot above in the left foreground of that ranch house? That was a huge…
Returning to Cairo, Ten Years Later
It’s been ten years since my last visit to Cairo, Illinois, and it felt like it was time to check in on the town that played a critical role in the history of America, and in St. Louis. It was from here that Ulysses S. Grant, formerly of St. Louis, launched his invasion south, changing…
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…