Starting in the south at 2nd Street, at the Hotel Julien Dubuque, named after the founder of the City of Dubuque, we head north through the southern part of downtown on Main Street. To the east, much of the old industrial area was destroyed by a highway built in the 1960s. There was even a…
Tag: Hotels
From the Vault: Union Station Grand Hall, February 2014
Back in February of 2014, the Grand Hall of Union Station was just starting to undergo its massive renovation into its current incarnation. I snapped some pictures of the public areas. It turns out that some of the original decorative elements had been callously covered up in the 1980s renovation, and they were finding the…
LaSalle Building Rehabilitated
The renovation of the historic LaSalle Building is now complete, and it has opened as a Hotel Indigo. I took a peek inside a couple of weeks ago and it is really beautiful inside and out. As I had mentioned before, despite being next to the densest concentration of workers in the St. Louis region…
Kingshighway, Fall 2019
Kingshighway south of Lindell is dominated by apartment buildings, but most importantly by the hospitals which have come to symbolize the east end of Forest Park. The Park Plaza tower to the north will always be a landmark, above, but below the “ABCD” buildings are still iconic examples of the high style of the early…
The Central West End in Transition
Twenty years ago, when I would spend time in my friend’s family restaurant, the Majestic, I would have never imagined the way in which the Central West End south of Lindell would have been transformed in the last ten years. The signs were appearing, of course. First was the towering Park East, seen above, which…
Downtown Hermann, Revisited
I first photographed Hermann, which is the county seat of Gasconade County, all the way back in November of 2007. I was surprised and impressed at many of the positive changes. I visited Hermannhof Winery, which I learned was originally a brewery that was ruined by Prohibition. In fact, the town’s economy never really recovered…
Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin
Built in the last years of the Civil War, the Dousman Hotel was built right along the Mississippi River. It is now an event space. Much of the historic portion of Prairie du Chien was demolished after a flood in the 1960s. It is a very historic town.
Family Photos
I found some old pictures my family took from the Arch back in 1986-7; in the upper left, you can see the Cupples Warehouses sitting vacant. The first Kiener Plaza, now demolished, was just starting construction. The ash trees are now gone, but they were relatively young thirty years ago. Below, the Metropolitan Square Building…
Missouri Athletic Club, Revisited
Sitting at one of the most prominent intersections of the city, 4th and Washington, the Missouri Athletic Club is one of the most interesting buildings in downtown. Part banqueting hall, sports club, hotel and lounge, it is still a center of the city’s social life. The current building was born of tragedy, when the former…