I want to tell you about a man you’ve never heard of outside of a news story last week, who died anonymously for unknown reasons less than a block from the center of our city’s government. My coworkers and I never knew the name his mother named him, but his nickname around City Hall was…
Tag: Parks
The Park at New Melle Lakes
Huh, this park sure looks like a golf course! It turns out it once was, and when it closed, it became a part of the St. Charles County Park System. The new park does have a disk golf course. It is curious the golf course closed considering the sport is becoming more popular in America,…
Krug Park and Two Cemeteries, St. Joseph
One of the focal points of St. Joseph is Krug Park, which is a fairly rugged plot of land on the northern side of the city. There is a system of parkways that connects much of the city (and is difficult to photograph) and they sweep around St. Joseph connecting parks such as Krug. In…
Civic Buildings, St. Joseph
The Buchanan County Courthouse in downtown St. Joseph is perhaps one of the most public impressive buildings I’ve seen in America. Constructed in 1873 and still largely identical in appearance other than its cupola (which now looks similar to the one in Lancaster, Wisconsin). Its sheer size, particularly in 1873 and second only to the…
Moorlands / Claverach Park
I almost certainly will go back, but I made a first foray into one of the most interesting and beautiful additions to Clayton, just west of Big Bend Boulevard and Forest Ridge and Southmoor, and south of Brentmoor. Developed by the Moorlands Land Company, Moorlands Park, now known as Claverach Park, was platted in May…
The Former Social Evils or Female Hospital
If the grass of Sublette Park could talk, it would have stories to tell. Most people don’t know this, but at one time in the 1870s, St. Louis dabbled in legalized prostitution. It didn’t last long, but one relic of that period was the Social Evils Hospital, or what later became known as the Female…
The Long Lost Bodemann’s Grove
Bodemann’s Grove was another country respite out Gravois Road, along with the old Schiller’s and Bamberger’s groves. While its address was listed as the southeast corner of Grand and Wyoming, it was actually at the northeast corner. The street grid was eliminated and Bough Street, seen below disappeared in the giant Tower Grove Heights Addition….
Parkview, Again
I’ve looked at the entrances of Parkview twice before, once back in October of 2012, and then again in May of 2018. It straddles the City-University City boundary, as I think many people realize, and I suppose back when it was laid out by Julius Pitzman in 1905, it really didn’t matter; St. Louis was…
Wick Park, Youngstown
My first stop off the interstate in Youngstown was Wick Park, which is a historic district up on a plateau of sorts just north of the downtown area. The outstanding focal point of the neighborhood and sitting at the end of Park Avenue where it t-bones with 5th Avenue is the Stambaugh Auditorium. I think…
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…