I visited the family farm east of Peoria for the last time this year, but will be back up in the spring, as usual. The harvest has been over for weeks, so the landscape has been transformed to the fallow fields with its stark beauty. I photographed this corn crib to the northwest of the…
Tag: Gas Stations
American Foundry and Manufacturing Company and F. W. Hanpeter Furniture Company
The forlorn intersection of Branch Avenue with 9th and 11th streets was once a bustling crossroads as can be seen below in Compton and Dry’s 1876 Pictorial St. Louis. I want you to pay particular attention to the building in the lower left above labeled “5.” In 1876, it was the Bellefontaine Streetcar Company’s barn,…
Northeast Peoria, Early June 2025
It wouldn’t be a complete visit to Central Illinois without checking in on Northeast Peoria, those streets that stretch out in a diagonal fashion from downtown Peoria. It is an interesting mix of rehabbed and abandoned buildings. This gas station is a find; if you look carefully, there are the letters for Standard Oil on…
North Twenty-First Street From Bremen Avenue to Penrose Street, Hyde Park
It turns out that I’ve apparently never looked at any of the buildings on North Twenty-First Street, but there are some nice houses along. There are some Second Empire apartment buildings, but also some never ones from the early Twentieth Century, like the ones above. These two houses below are just totally trashed. Sadly, there…
Bonaparte, Iowa
The next town is Bonaparte, which is named after Napoleon, of course. Many people don’t realize that many Americans admired the supposedly Enlightenment-inspired French emperor due to his conflict with ancient monarchies in Europe. The beginning of the town centered around William Meek’s founding of mills (he named the town) in 1837. The building above…
Late Summer Odds and Ends
I have some leftover photos from the summer that I needed to clear out. Above, this house has collapsed on West Florissant Avenue just north of Grand Boulevard in the College Hill neighborhood, unfortunately. The house below is in Hyde Park, and I originally looked at it back in August of 2018. The infamous gas…
North Florissant Avenue North of Salisbury, Hyde Park, July 2024
On my way somewhere, I passed by these old Second Empire houses, which have long intrigued me for many years. See older posts October of 2017 and August of 2018. Amazingly, six years later, they are all still here, both abandoned and occupied. This one below is the really rare one: a wood frame Second…
Gumbo
Where there is now a Walgreen’s, a McDonald’s, a gas station and an entrance ramp onto Interstate 64/Highway 40, there was once a small town named Gumbo, which lay in the larger area known as Gumbo Flats, rechristened Chesterfield Valley nowadays. Settlement occurred out here early with the Long Family being prominent; Chesterfield Airport Road…
St. Louis Avenue, JeffVanderLou, Winter 2024
I had originally headed west on St. Louis Avenue based on an unfounded tip that Sarah Lou’s had caught fire. Thankfully, it had not, and I ended up having a great conversation with an older gentleman waiting for the bus out front about the restaurant’s amazing fried chicken instead. Sadly, from the looks of it,…
Wally’s, Fenton
Coming back from a wonderful lecture on the history of the John Busch Brewery at the Washington Historical Society, I thought it would be fun to stop at Wally’s Great American Roadtrip in Fenton off Interstate 44. It is huge! Just look at all of those gas pumps! I assume this is Wally? Your kids…