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….
Tag: Parks
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…
Whiskey Island, Cleveland
Cutting a huge swath through the heart of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga River valley is a sublime sight to behold. It empties out into Lake Erie at Whiskey Island, itself a creation of human hands. Originally the river snaked around another bend, but early on a short new channel was dug, allowing ships to sail up…
Down by the River, Detroit
Let’s walk from the Campus Martius, named after the famous field in ancient Rome where soldiers trained (it later filled up with temples such as the Pantheon), and part of the original Woodward plan of Detroit and walk down the street of the same name towards the Detroit River. It’s here that I spot some…
Belle Isle, Detroit
As I drove onto Belle Isle, connected to the City of Detroit by the MacArthur Bridge, I blew by a small booth. Thinking I should stop after all, I backed up and talked to the woman and realized I had to pay $11 for the honor of driving my car around the park for around…
Michigan Central Train Station, Detroit
The Michigan Central Station, after sitting vacant for decades and held hostage by a billionaire’s greed, has almost reached its opening day. Towering over the northwest end of Corktown and overlooking an expansive park planted with beautiful flowers that links it to Michigan Avenue and downtown, the station replaced a smaller depot deeper in the…
Cannon Cemetery, Indian Camp Creek Park
Inside Indian Camp Creek Park, part of the St. Charles County parks system, is the Cannon Family Cemetery. Secured from the public now with a tall fence, it has numerous graves of the Cannon family, who first settled 180 acres that make up part of the park in 1811. I was particularly intrigued by the…
Former Jubilee College
I’m always fascinated by the big plans people had in the early half of the Nineteenth Century when the Midwest was opened up to settlement. The former Jubilee College, founded by Episcopal minister Philander Chase in 1839 northwest of Peoria, was to operate as a seminary for priests serving the surrounding states. Only a small…