I was heading up South Seventh Street (no, it’s not South Broadway) north of Geyer, which is the eastern border of Soulard, and I was admiring the buildings to my left. Of course, it must be terribly loud with all the trucks driving up and down the street to the interstate, making quality of life…
Tag: Libraries
Moline, Illinois
Moline is contiguous with Rock Island, so we entered the former from the west. Moline is famous for being the home of several industries, including an elevator manufacturer and John Deere, which everyone has heard of. First up is the former headquarters of Montgomery Elevator Company, which is now abandoned. The tower functioned as the…
Mid-City, Cairo, Part One
Did you ever see that weird movie, Return to Oz? That’s how I felt when we first parked at that cluster of civic buildings in the middle of town in Cairo, much as my visit had begun ten years ago. We were greeted with a closed U.S. Customs House Museum, which had been open back…
The End of Fontbonne University
Sadly, my prediction that Fontbonne University would not make it to 2030 proved to be correct. (I also predict that two or three other universities in the St. Louis region will not make it to that year, either.) It started out so promising, though, founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph, whose legacy still includes…
Macon, Sixteen Years Later
Fast forward to February, and I was back in Macon for the first time in sixteen years, and this is what I saw. There were some fresh coats of paint, here and there. The former bank building has a new business in it, which I learned was originally the Macon Building and Loan Association, later…
Downtown, Part Two, Cleveland
Moving along through downtown Cleveland, we reach the “Beaux-Arts” or “City Beautiful” portion of the city, which every metropolitan area seemed to have dabbled with in the early Twentieth Century to better or adverse effect. Below is the Cuyahoga County Courthouse, completed in 1913. Moving along, we spot the 1922 Public Auditorium, which sits along…
Churches Around the Courthouse Square, Decorah, Iowa
The ensemble of buildings around the Winneshiek Courthouse in Decorah is extraordinary in that churches fill a full two dies of the square, and the remaining two are partially filled with civic buildings. Starting on the west side and working in a counter-clockwise direction, we see St Benedict’s Roman Catholic Church. As is common with…
Downtown Civic Buildings, Lincoln, Illinois
Oh no, they pulled a Chambord on me! But anyway, the Logan County Courthouse, constructed in 1905, is a beautiful building, nonetheless. It is relatively unadorned, and seems to be constructed out of yellow limestone or sandstone. Like many palaces in Europe, the first floor possesses rusticated stonework, while the upper stories features polished finish….
End of Winter 2023 Odds and Ends
The old Soulard Branch of the St. Louis Public Library has had several uses over the last decade besides the commercial space facing 7th Boulevard. There was “The Library” and then “The Archives.” They’re both gone. Below, in McKinley Heights, I still can’t believe that Second Empire house below is sitting vacant; the property values…
Shaw’s City House
Originally located at the southwest corner of 7th and Locust streets, Henry Shaw’s city or “winter” house was moved to the Missouri Botanical Garden after his death in 1891 (Harriett Scott died in an alley dwelling behind Shaw’s house). Honestly, by 1891 his house would have been surrounded by the first skyscrapers and I wonder…