John Poelker Park, part of the larger Gateway Mall, is looking better than ever, clean and well kept, with a new fence installed around the central statue. While Poelker was the fortieth mayor of St. Louis, the statue commemorates firefighters, dedicated in 1994 and sculpted by R.R. Daus. I find it fascinating that while there…
Tag: Monuments
American Legion Auxiliary Monument, Gateway Mall
I noticed this small monument a few yards away from the Schiller Monument a few weeks ago. It is the smallest memorial in the Gateway Mall, by far. You can read more about the American Legion Auxiliary here.
Schiller Monument
Originally installed in St. Louis Place Park in 1898, the statue commemorating Friedrich Schiller was moved to one of those squares of greenspace in the Gateway Mall in the 1970s. Schiller is one of the most famous poets in the German language, having written what would become the lyrics of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” The…
A Courthouse and A City Hall, Louisville, Kentucky
I was in the mood for looking at a little Greek Revival architecture so we’re heading into the recent archives and looking at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Louisville, Kentucky. Now, obviously they’ve built a bigger one nearby but this building still has some government functions inside. Like the Old Courthouse in St. Louis and…
Former Clay Pits, Reifsnider State Forest
We spotted another Boone’s Lick monument driving out west. We’d looked at another in Dardenne Prairie back in January of 2016. Our destination, however, was Reifsnider State Forest, which encompasses former clay pit mines, which have now been filled with water and stocked with fish. It is interesting that there was a brick industry out…
Urban Renewal and Historic Preservation, Mason City
I mentioned yesterday when discussing the City National Bank and Park Inn that South Federal Street was a pedestrian mall, but that is not even telling half of the story! In one of the more bizarre urban renewal machinations I have ever seen, the pedestrian mall then turns into an actual shopping mall, known as…
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…
South Bass Island and Perry’s Victory Monument
A critical moment in the early history of the United States, and also the Midwest, was the Battle of Lake Erie, where the Navy secured the large body of water for America from British control. On my journey from Toledo to Cleveland, I decided to take the ferry out to South Bass Island from Catawba…
New Harriett and Dred Scott Memorial, Calvary Cemetery
I was excited to attend the dedication of the new Dred and Harriett Scott memorial in Calvary Cemetery. There had been a small tombstone, but it was recently upgraded to an easier to find and much more fitting monument. As more and more Americans do not know who the Scotts are, it is more and…
Other Fall Updates, Fires, Demolitions, Etc.
It finally happened, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, which I last looked at back in June of this year, caught on fire and burned to the ground on the night of September 14th. There is certainly no grand conspiracy, but simply the fact that overnight lows reached 50 degrees, and a squatter’s fire probably spread out…