Pershing Place Between Euclid Avenue and Kingshighway

In between Euclid and Kingshighway, Pershing Place takes on a distinctively different character, with much more emphasis on English influences in architecture. Interestingly, the lots on the north side of the former Berlin Avenue, which Pershing Place once was before World War I, were actually platted as part of the larger Hortense Place addition. There…

Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio

Founded in 1844 and inspired like many American rural cemetery movement burial grounds by Père LaChaise Cemetery in Paris, Spring Grove Cemetery is the huge contributor to the field in Cincinnati. Like many others, a cholera epidemic and a desire to replace small urban cemeteries spurred its founding. An impressive Gothic Revival gatehouse welcomes the…

Euclid Avenue Between Lindell, Maryland and McPherson Avenues

I’ve always found it interesting how there is a quiet section of private streets off Euclid Avenue in the Central West End in between Maryland Avenue (which you can see here and here) in the south, and McPherson Avenue in the north (which you can see here and here). Above is the southeast corner of…

Neoclassicism and Beyond, Paris

Moving along now so we can get back to St. Louis, here is a smorgasbord of Paris buildings that have broader implications on world architectural history, including here in the Gateway City. First up is the Madeleine, which was originally built by Napoleon to glorify his reign, but was then converted into a church. It’s…

The Louvre

I get a good laugh out of the Louvre. It is an absurdity. Obscenely huge, the product of around twenty expansions and now the home of a gigantic museum with a stellar art collection as well as numerous other institutions in other wings, the Louvre was never the seat of the royal government in France….

Twin Silos

The question arose when we viewed the entrance gateway to this new development: was the name obtained a priori or a posteriori?

Around the Gates, University City

The sun was setting as I took some pictures of the gates to University Heights, just to the west of the Loop. The lions are actually concrete casts of the originals, which are now in an undisclosed location. I still think University City’s city hall is one of the most beautiful in the area. Update:…

Vandeventer Place Gates, Revisited Yet Again, December 2019

I was drawn back on a late December day to the Vandeventer Place gates in Forest Park. I’ve photographed them twice before, once back in 2012, and for the first time back in 2007, when this website was less than a year old. Every time I go back I see something new, and something beautiful.

Kingsbury Place Gates, Revisited

I took a look at the massive gates of Kingsbury Place back in October of 2014, and I returned and photographed them in early June of 2019. They are spectacular, and probably one of my favorite gates of all the private places in St. Louis.