The Cassilly and Cassilly Shop on Lafayette Avenue has been in the news a lot recently when its owner, who also operates the currently closed Avyan Hotel to the east, tried to apply for a demolition permit again like he did last year (and failed). The building actually has a really interesting history. Built in…
Tag: Compton Hill
Henrietta Street and Environs, Compton Hill
I am still trying to understand the so-called Gate District, which I still stridently refer to as Compton Hill, its historic name. I wrote an article about it back in 2020, but one thing I can’t do is go back in time and see the area before redevelopment began. Was it as bad as claimed,…
Lafayette Avenue Between Michigan and Louisiana Avenues, South Side
I looked at the north side of Lafayette Avenue way back in June of 2018, remarking on how this thoroughfare was surely far more important before the devastation of the interstates. There’s been substantial reinvestment and rebuilding just in the last thirteen years I’ve lived to the south in Tower Grove East, and the light…
Former Immaculate Conception/St. Henry’s Roman Catholic Church, Revisited
I realized the last time I came by the former Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church a decade ago, it was a cloudy day, and when I drove by on a recent Saturday, the morning sun was shining on the front façade, making it look wonderful. In fact, it is probably one of the more beautiful…
Former Immaculate Conception Parish School
Immaculate Conception Parish School is a great example of adaptive reuse, where the original Roman Catholic church west down Lafayette Avenue is now long closed, so the need for its nearby education building was no longer needed. It has been converted into apartments. This is actually not designed by famed school architects William B. Ittner…
Odds and Ends
Update: Demolished in the spring of 2024. When I’m out and about, I sometimes snap pictures of interesting buildings that later expand into larger posts, but other times, I can’t figure out what to do with them. These photos are “outtakes;” buildings that are worth publishing but didn’t grow into anything else. Above, this is…
Compton Heights Christian Church
Now the Summers Faith Temple Church, this was formerly the Compton Heights Christian Church, relocated to the south side of the entrance of Flora Place in the Shaw neighborhood. As is typical of many of the Protestant denomination churches that were built in the final years of the Nineteenth Century, it features a large dominating…
Former Compton Hill Congregational Church
Continuing our tour of cool Romanesque Revival churches in the Central Corridor, we next come to the Compton Hill Congregational Church, which is the original builder and owner of the building at the northeast corner of Compton and Lafayette avenues. It was established in 1894 and closed in 1955. It easily has one of the…
Jefferson Avenue at Interstate 44
Here we go again; more crumbling infrastructure has to be torn down and replaced; in Baby Boomers’ lifetimes we are now going on the third bridge in some parts of St. Louis, such as the Grand Viaduct. Interstate 44 has caused irreparable damage to South St. Louis; the Barr Branch of the St. Louis Public…
A Tale of Two Storefronts, The Gate District
Lafayette Avenue in the Gate District has improved an amazing amount in the last decade, even with the tragic loss of Hodgen Elementary. With that, Garavaglia’s still sits empty and rapidly deteriorating as can be seen since I first photographed it way back in 2008. It shouldn’t be, as other storefronts have been successfully converted…