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.
Tag: Houses
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…
Bluestone Coke and Environs, Birmingham, Alabama
There is still plenty of industry alive and well in Birmingham. We went by Bluestone Coke, which manufactures one of the components of producing steel. Coke is a carbon substance created by heating coal in an airtight furnace that removes impurities. The coke that is left behind burns extremely hot, perfect for smelting iron. It…
Former Carraway Methodist Medical Center, Birmingham, Alabama
I could go into incredible detail as to why this relatively new hospital is being demolished… slowly… but I’ll spare you the whole story. Its roots date back to 1916, founded by Dr. Charles Carraway, and no doubt seeing many of the terrible injuries from the steel mills and mines. It closed in 2008, and…