Continuing north up Blair in Hyde Park, we see a Gingerbread house and then the styles go back to what we would expect to see in the neighborhood. Windsor Park was a former quarry, which I’ve talked about before in the past. This little church is still in great condition. But there’s a lot of…
Tag: Parks
North Up Blair Avenue, Hyde Park, May 2026, Part Two
At Salisbury, we continue on past the fire station, which has been there for over a century, though the one below is not the original. The park is probably the original topography of the land. It starts to get very leafy north of the park as we continue up Blair Avenue. There have been many…
Anheuser Estate, Kimmswick
The Anheuser family had a country estate on the banks of the Mississippi just south of Kimmswick that is now a park. The house was originally built in 1867 but the Anheusers bought it in 1916. I suspect the family could have easily taken the train directly to their estate on the tracks, which may…
Byrne’s Mill, Jefferson County
Well, we discovered there’s not much left of Byrne’s Mill (not to be confused with Byrnesville, which wan named after a totally unrelated man) except a stone pier, but there is a nice write up at the city’s website about the historic site.
From the Vault: The Roof of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, October 2006
It’s hard to believe that just under twenty years ago I was allowed to run around on the roof of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and take these photographs. Above is looking west down Constitution Avenue NW and the National Archives and Federal Triangle. Above, this is looking east at the U.S….
Othaniel Castlio Cemetery, Busch Wildlife Conservation Area
Deep inside the August A. Busch Conservation Area, walking across the earthen dam that created Lake 37, we were on the hunt for a family cemetery that was left behind when the land was confiscated for the production of munitions for World War II. This was farmland, of course, that had been settled far back…
Ulyssess S. Grant Statue
Located at the northeast corner of Washington Square Park, the Ulysses S. Grant sculpture dates from 1888 and represents the most prominent future president to live in St. Louis. Sculpted in 1888 and dedicated in October of that year by Robert Porter Bringhurst, it also has a depiction of the Battle of Lookout Mountain, which…
Avenue E, Fort Madison, Iowa
We walked up two blocks to Avenue E, past Central Park, where there is a miniature Statue of Liberty. They even got the little fort at the base correct. Below is the Fort Madison United Methodist; it seems to have had two earlier buildings before this and even purchased their bell from Montgomery Ward. This…
Des Peres City Hall, Former Lutheran Children’s Home
Please join me on July 24 at 6:30 at the Central Library in downtown St. Louis for a lecture about my new book. Please register here. Today, Des Peres City Hall sits in a verdant park, but originally its building and the surrounding grounds was the Lutheran Children’s or Orphans’ Home. The last of what…
Pierre Laclede Monument
A little known fact: the grassy area around City Hall is technically Washington Square Park, and on its western side, in the former right-of-way of 13th Street is the monument to Pierre Laclede, which interestingly enough ignores the contribution of Auguste Chouteau. I didn’t realize this, but the dedicatory text doesn’t lie: this was installed…