Old North St. Louis is famous for the success up around the 14th Street Mall and rightfully so, but I do want to draw attention to the mess down near the new interstate bridge and the cut-off streets it has caused, leaving the southern portion of the neighborhood isolated from the rest of the city….
Tag: Deserted
Chesterfield Mall, 99% Dead
So this is how it all ends. With Macy’s chugging along, and apparently the Cheesecake Factory and the movie theater locked into long leases or owning their own buildings, Chesterfield Mall seems to have finally bit the dust. There are still maybe two stores open, but otherwise the halls are empty, and the air conditioning…
Former Corpus Christi Parish, Revisited Early May, 2019
By June of 2022, the site was severely overgrown with underbrush. It had been a few years since I had visited the old Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church in Jennings, and I thought I was due a return trip. It was not a happy return. The former sanctuary’s exterior was heavily overgrown, looked unkempt and…
Checking Up on Far North County
Years ago BeltSTL and I took a drive around Far North County and checked out some old buildings, including this old farmstead. The barns appear to look in good condition, though there has been no progress on finding a new use for them. Update: The mall was demolished in 2023-2024. Jamestown Mall is now completely…
Stupid Strip Mall
There is no demand for autocentric strip malls in North St. Louis. If I am wrong, then why is this strip mall still sitting empty two years after being built? Oh alright, there is now finally one store that’s moved in. I took this picture close to dinnertime on a mild weather day. This is…
The House on Pleasantview Road, August 2018
Update: The house was destroyed sometime in the first half of 2019. It’s been a while since I’d photographed the house on Pleasantview Road, and I usually approached it from the south, and I was very surprised to see that there had been some dramatic changes. The back wing had been boarded up with new…
A Depressing Block
I’ve long said that this website is about breaking down prejudices and showing people that there are many great things about all parts of this city, but man, sometimes there is just nothing good to say about some isolated forgotten pockets of St. Louis. Let’s take the 4100 block of 21st Street, for example. There…
Former Robert Koch Hospital Site
Back behind those bushes and trees, and up over a hill, are the graves of hundreds, perhaps thousands of former residents of the Robert Koch Hospital. It is now private property, and no trespassing is allowed, but I hope one day those people can be properly remembered.
Transmission Lines
I sometimes find it hard to believe there was once life on the riverfront. It’s just a giant empty expanse of concrete, partially buried train tracks and vacant lots awaiting “redevelopment” that’s probably never coming.
Western Lutheran Cemetery, Revisited
Update: I went back to the Western Lutheran Cemetery in December of 2018 and in the late summer of 2021. I got back up to the Western Lutheran Cemetery, founded in 1865, and I made some new observations now that the grass is shorter. This is easily one of the most historic, if largely forgotten,…