I hadn’t been by Bellefontaine Cemetery in a while so I thought I would swing by. The flowers by the gate house were looking wonderful. I tried to find monuments and mausolea that I hadn’t seen before.
Tag: Gates
After the Tornado: Union Boulevard
Heading north on Union Boulevard, we see the damage to Waterman Place; normally the house above and below are largely shielded from view but with the trees destroyed, they are exposed. Many of the windows on the Chesterfield, below, have been blown out; I have been told that throughout the area affected by the tornado,…
After the Tornado: Photographing Destruction
I grappled with whether I should take or post any photographs of the tornado damage that struck St. Louis on May 16, 2025, which a reader noted will now be indelibly linked with the anniversary of the founding of this website on the same day. Is it ethical to photograph destruction, and in particular people’s…
Gatehouses, Bellefontaine Cemetery, Revisited
I was driving up North Broadway past Bellefontaine Cemetery when I noticed that the gatehouse was undergoing some renovation. With so many absentee landlords and other slumlords letting their properties fall into disrepair, its nice to see the Cemetery taking pride in their buildings. I’ve looked at these gates back in November of 2016. As…
Magnolia Place
Moving a half block to the north to Magnolia Place “proper,” there are a pair of handsome gates that mark the entrance to the one block street on both ends at Lawrence and Thurman. And the housing is distinctly different from the houses to the south on Magnolia Avenue that is apparent immediately. While they…
Friedens Cemetery, September 2024
I’d been concerned in previous years about the upkeep of the Friedens Cemetery, just across the boundary of the City on Bellefontaine Road. It was once the cemetery of Friedens Evangelisch Church in Hyde Park, but as is so common, when that congregation closed, the burial grounds’ fortunes went in a different direction. However, on…
Kingsland Court
Kingsland Court was first platted in late 1913, and judging from the photo about from 1920, was slow to develop. Interestingly, an ordinance was passed by the Board of Aldermen in 1916 to extend the street to Louisiana Avenue, but that never happened, with the court instead ending in a stone retaining wall. The Christian…
Virginia Place, East St. Louis
I mentioned Virginia Place yesterday, and there is actually a large number of houses left standing on the block between 29th and 33rd streets. There’s a central median, but unlike the two sides, there doesn’t seme to be any curb left. It is mowed, but there is minimal landscaping. Houses run the gamut from presumably…
Returning to Cairo, Ten Years Later
It’s been ten years since my last visit to Cairo, Illinois, and it felt like it was time to check in on the town that played a critical role in the history of America, and in St. Louis. It was from here that Ulysses S. Grant, formerly of St. Louis, launched his invasion south, changing…
Twin Silos, Revisited
We decided to check in on the status of Twin Silos, and see if there had been any progress since the last time we visited. One house’s foundations are being poured, we guess. Seems like kind of a wet place to build houses, but what do I know? We also saw this really nice barn.