Northeast Adams Street, Northeast Peoria, Late June 2026

The primaries for the 2026 midterm elections are coming up, so it’s time to see how Peoria is doing, and in particular, I like to look at Northeast Peoria. I drove up Northeast Adams Street, which is one-way to the northeast through much of downtown and northeast of the central business district, paired with Northeast…

Grafton, Jersey County, Illinois

Founded in 1832, Grafton is the oldest town in Jersey County. There were once large numbers of limestone quarries in the area very early on in the town’s history, and it reflects in the building materials of Grafton. Above is the Slaten LaMarsh House, dating from 1840 and the home of the first mayor of…

Elsah, Revisited

It has been almost twelve years since the last time I visited Elsah, so we took a quick look around. It is a sleepy little hamlet nowadays. I am always intrigued at the large number of stone houses, though there certainly are plenty of brick buildings, as well.

Enright Avenue and Delmar Boulevard, June 2026

I wandered around Enright Avenue and Delmar Boulevard west of Vandeventer and took in some of the sights. There’s an old fires station that looks to have been converted into a house. There are a lot of original buildings but there’s also a lot in-fill from the early Twenty-First Century, such as the houses below….

Washington Boulevard, Revisited June 2026

I’ve looked at Washington Boulevard before west of North Jefferson Avenue, but I took another look a few weeks ago. Nothing has happened at the Jamison Memorial Church since the fire. Above is Central Baptist Church, an African American congregation which is over 180 years old, and I’ve always like its current Modernist home. This…

Balson Avenue East of University City High School

I never give University City enough of its due. I headed down Balson Avenue east of University City High School, itself a work of art, and checked out some of the amazing single family, two family and four family houses a look. The architecture of these houses are just stunning, at a time, from my…

Champ

I am pleased to announce that I have achieved an accomplishment few if any other person has ever reached. I have photographed all the houses in a single image of an entire city. Welcome to Champ, whose residential neighborhood is reached by driving through what is essentially the parking lot of a large church. And…

End of Spring 2026 Odds and Ends

It’s that time of year, so it’s time for odds and ends! Above is a spandrel from a storefront in downtown Belleville, looking suspiciously like something Louis Sullivan would design. Below is just another house we found while driving around town. Cleveland High School is looking really, really bad compared to earlier visits; I first…

Elvis Presley Birthplace, Tupelo, Mississippi

On my way back to St. Louis from Birmingham, I passed through Tupelo, Mississippi, the birthplace of Elvis Presley. The house is now a museum. Tupelo is a beautiful town that has successfully parlayed its major tourist attraction into a boon for the local economy. Instead of massive parking lots, the downtown has embraced new-urbanism,…

Redmont Park, Birmingham, Alabama

South of downtown is Redmont Park, and a host of other exclusive neighborhoods and I’ll admit that we probably wandered into other areas as well. I can say without a doubt that it is one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the United States, and these photographs do not do justice showing that. It got…