We’ll start our tour of Perryville in the courthouse square, with the Perry County Courthouse, constructed in 1904. The architects were Caldwell and Drake of Columbus, Indiana and the building cost approximately $32,000. It is on the National Register. And of course there’s a statue of a Union soldier in the lawn out in front….
Tag: Early Vernacular
Perryville, Perry County, Missouri
We visited the town of Perryville in Perry County last weekend to check out the area and in particular the Shrine at St. Mary of the Barrens, which we’ll look at later this week. It’s an interesting and extremely old part of Missouri, with origins dating back to 1820, right around the founding of the…
Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: Hyde Park
Hyde Park was never in the footprint of the Northside TIF, but I can’t help think that it was affected by the disruption that was occurring in the neighborhoods to the south. This neighborhood is really suffering from the effects of abandonment, and the City’s reliance on McKee’s plans diverted attention from residents’ real needs…
The Old Dairy
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…
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…