Starting at Broadway Street and heading east or more southeast on High Street, we first see the Roman Catholic Proto Cathedral of St. Peter, just across the street from the Missouri Capitol. A proto cathedral is a former cathedral; the present church dates from 1883, and it was the seat, or cathedra of the diocese…
Tag: Historic Buildings
Jefferson City National Cemetery
Jefferson City has a small national veterans cemetery located south of the Capitol. The first burial was as early as 1861, and they continue to the present day. The gates were built for horse drawn carriages and I almost thought I wasn’t going to be able to fit my automobile out the exit. It was…
Former Missouri State Penitentiary, Jefferson City
First opened in 1836, the former Missouri State Penitentiary operated until 2004, and was apparently the oldest prison west of the Mississippi, beating out the one we saw recently in Fort Madison, Iowa. It is located on East Capitol Street a few blocks east of the Missouri State Capitol. As is typical, based off the…
Nauvoo, Illinois
We visited the historic Mormon settlement of Nauvoo on our journey north up the Mississippi River looking at Iowa cities back in May. Of course, Nauvoo is in Illinois, and it is in an isolated corner of the state. There are numerous houses and other buildings from the historic period that have been restored, and…
Engine House No 12, Walnut Park
Just up West Florissant from the former Sixth District Police Station is Engine House No. 12, built around 1920, I suspect. It has some nice classical motifs around the front portal. But the side is relatively unadorned, left exposed by presumably the demolition of the neighboring building.
Former Sixth District Police Station, Walnut Park
Plans for a new “Angelica Street” police station were announced in 1929, as the eponymous building at Angelica and 9th streets was in danger of being outside the boundaries of the Sixth Precinct as the city grew to the west. The Police Board budgeted $150,000 for the new station at the corner of West Florissant…
An Abandoned Factory and a Prison, Fort Madison, Iowa
On the way out of town we saw two landmarks. The first was the old Sheaffer Pen Plant, built in three stages: an office in 1931, a pen manufacturing plant in 1952 and a shipping depot in 1976. It closed in 2008 and the pens are now made in China after being sold to Bic….
Des Peres City Hall, Former Lutheran Children’s Home
Please join me on July 24 at 6:30 at the Central Library in downtown St. Louis for a lecture about my new book. Please register here. Today, Des Peres City Hall sits in a verdant park, but originally its building and the surrounding grounds was the Lutheran Children’s or Orphans’ Home. The last of what…
St. Louis Medical Examiner, The Morgue
For years after the demolition of the old Four Courts the morgue was still used at the corner of Twelfth and Spruce streets (you can see in the 1920 photo below how the old courthouse has vanished). But finally in 1927, the City of St. Louis turned to its staff architect, L.R. Bowen of the…
Former Police Headquarters
After featuring the Police Academy, I realized I had never shown the old Police Headquarters at the southwest corner of Clark and Tucker. It is now only partly occupied, with evidence storage, from what I understand, and that was told to me over a decade ago. It could have changed since then. You can actually…