Tag: Hotels
St. Louis Institutions, Consigned to Museums
The Museum of Transportation possesses some of the best examples of steam engines in the world, but they’ve also taken in other transportation-related lost souls as well. The last remnant of the famous Coral Courts Motel, ignominiously demolished in the name of “progress”– ie McMansions, as well the trains from the Famous Barr display windows…
North Grand Boulevard, JeffVanderLou
Once bustling with pedestrian traffic, North Grand feels more like a highway nowadays, with stoplights for deserted side streets that don’t have anyone waiting at anyway. It’s hard to imagine what the boulevard would have been like in its heyday, when streetcars went to and from Sportmans’ Park. An old funeral home, clearly a modification…
Natural Bridge Avenue Institutions
Just northwest of the intersection with Grand Boulevard, Natural Bridge Avenue has a series of St. Louis institutions, each of a different variety. The first one, the old Fairgrounds Hotel, once housed Cardinals and Browns players who played at Sportsman’s Park a mere four blocks away. Stan Musial even lived there for a time, but…
Historic Pond Drying Up
Remember last year when I posted about all the great historic, if abandoned buildings out in Pond, a small hamlet along Manchester Road in Wildwood? Well, the historic Pond Hotel was demolished, and so was the Italianate farmhouse I documented.
Union Station, In Transition
Update: The train shed out back has undergone a dramatic renovation, having been converted into a convention center and a new aquarium. The hotel, including the Grand Hall, has been dramatically re-envisioned. I went by Union Station to check out the renovations to the train shed; the hotel is taking over a portion of the…
Kingshighway Viaduct, Wabash Railroad
Update: See the dramatic change in the streetscape in the fall of 2019. Normally, when driving down Kingshighway, you’re just trying to pay attention to the traffic, and you miss the hidden corners of the city, often right in the open. The old Wabash Railroad tunnel, which now serves MetroLink, passes under Kingshighway by Children’s…
Castlewood Lodges, Revisited
I photographed the old hotels and ruins around Castlewood again a couple of weekends ago; I would be interested to hear from readers if they can identify these structures. Is this house below once a rental cottage from the resort era? I know with some certainty that this apartment building was once a hotel; does…
Saint Louis University
The SLU campus has a wide variety of buildings, including this old Jesuit church, which is now the Museum of Contemporary Religious Art. Nearby was an interesting, almost Modernist grade school. I really like the severe features of this depiction of Christ, on the front facade. There’s something weird about the windows on the large…
Old Motel, Chesterfield Airport Road
Update: Demolished at some point after September of 2018 but before May of 2019. This old motel, out Chesterfield Airport Road, is a mystery to me. I vaguely remember the motel being in business several years ago, but I don’t remember much about it. I like the log cabin theme, and many motels of the…