I stumbled across some old photographs by William Swekosky of the noted ruined stone house on Missouri Avenue in Lafayette Square, which I have looked at extensively over the years, particularly in July of 2018, but I briefly glanced at it back in May of 2022 when I was examining some new in-fill. What is…
Tag: Early Vernacular
Thekla Avenue Between Mimika Avenue and Riverview Boulevard, Walnut Park West
Thekla is an interesting street name and probably comes from an early saint, which you can read about here. In fact, most of the “east-west” streets are named after women’s given names. As usual, the houses on the first block west of Riverview Boulevard are in styles such as the Arts and Crafts style, as…
Harney Avenue Between Park Lane and Mimika Avenue, Walnut Park West
Harney Avenue is named after William S. Harney, a St. Louisan who served in the military but who also had some loyalty issues during the Civil War, apparently. It’s an interesting block, which again, makes me suspect that while this is the West Walnut Park Addition laid out by Julius Pitzman in 1906, makes me…
Park Lane Between Harney and West Florissant Avenues, Walnut Park West
Formerly Butler Avenue, the street that bisects many of the streets in Walnut Park West is now named Park Lane, no doubt a result of the platting of the North Pointe neighborhood across West Florissant Avenue. While most houses are built facing the northeast/southwest facing streets, there are a handful of homes built on the…
Sherry Avenue Between Mimika Avenue and Riverview Boulevard, Walnut Park West
Doglegging across Mimika Avenue (whose name is an interesting choice–was it from a daughter of the Jennings family or the people in Indonesia?), we look at the block of Sherry closer to Riverview. The housing is much older than the block to the west, and much of it is in worse condition or abandoned. A…
Pennsylvania Avenue Between Cherokee and Utah Streets
Surprisingly, I had never looked at Pennsylvania Avenue in Benton Park West, so I sought to fix that recently, heading north from its intersection with Cherokee Street. There has been some rehabbing going, unfortunately with some people who don’t know where they’re doing, as evidenced by the gray paint. House prices have also gone way…
Missouri Avenue Between Crittenden and Lynch Streets
I’ve only looked at a small portion of Missouri Avenue in Benton Park, the portion between Arsenal and Pestalozzi back in June of 2020. We’ll retread a bit of the portion between Crittenden and Pestalozzi, and then continue north into new territory. There are a lot of Second Empire houses, as would be expected. And…
Wabada Avenue Between Arlington Avenue and Union Boulevard
Leaving behind Arlington Avenue, we head east on Wabada Avenue, on a section that we have not looked at before. While the street traverses much of the North Side, this section is quiet.
Quinette
Back in July, we had looked at Quinette Road, which terminated at Meramec Station Road. Today we’ll look at the small speculative development of Quinette, which was platted at the terminus of the road, far out in West County at the time in 1858. The nature of the Quinette Subdivision becomes clearer after reading an…
Sixth Street Between Jefferson and Decatur Streets, St. Charles
We looked at Fifth Street in the historic core of St. Charles back in May of 2019, and then there’s a quirk in the street naming system of the grid, as before we get to Sixth Street, there is Benton Street, which we looked at more recently in September of 2024. Proceeding logically, we’re now…