Downtown Granite City, Spring 2024

I was visiting Granite City to see another amazing GCADD exhibit, so I thought I would photograph the downtown again, it having been five years since the last time. Everything looked the same, but there were some differences. For starters, the Moose Lodge has been demolished. The steel mill is still there for the time…

The Stockyards and Industry Today, St. Joseph

Opening in 1887, the St. Joseph Stockyards was just one indication of the importance of the city to the burgeoning trade in the West. It once stretched to 413 acres and moved a half million animals a year in the 1920s. A beautiful exchange building sat at the front door, and according to my research,…

Lemp Avenue Between Utah and Arsenal Streets

We’ve looked at Lemp Avenue between Cherokee and Utah streets before, so heading north, we pass by buildings that face the east-west streets. On the east side is Cherokee Park, formerly the location of Lemp Park. We cross over Withnell Avenue, which was the central street of John Withnell’s Addition, who bought, if I remember…

Downtown, Alton

We’re going to swing back through Alton for a few days. Like Hannibal, Quincy or even Cairo, and a bunch of other towns, I can’t help but imagine that except for a few twists of fate, Alton could have been the center of a metropolitan area of two million people, or at least maybe a…

Vine Street Over to Race Street, Over the Rhine, Cincinnati

“Lord, on this day of thanksgiving, we thank you for our loved ones, family and friends. We also thank you, oh Lord, that Chris has almost run out of photos from his trip back in August.” Heading down the hill from Clifton, passing through some other neighborhoods, I reached what I call “upper” Vine Street…

Clifton, Cincinnati

Up north, the Clifton neighborhood was an independent town dating to the 1850s, but street car lines, which made the arduous climb up the steep hills feasible, transformed the area in the 1890s. Much of the housing dates to the first years of the Twentieth Century, however, and filled in what had originally been the…

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…

Stop Me Before I Paint Again!

Disclaimer: This post is not an attack at homeowners, who due to economic hardship have painted their house, or who inherited a painted brick house. St. Louis Patina legal disclaimer: In no way is St. Louis Patina accusing or insinuating that the current owner of the building depicted in the above and below photos is…

Indian Village, Detroit

Cruising by Mr. Fish on my to Grosse Pointe on the East Vernon Highway, I stumbled onto a mirage, a neighborhood of perfectly preserved houses along several long blocks with stately trees known as Indian Village due to several, but not all, of its streets being named after Native American nations. Indian Village is pretty…

North Brush Park and Eastern Market, Detroit

We head back south on Woodward Avenue to the 1888 Frank J. Hecker House, which sits on the northeast corner of East Ferry Street. Hecker was a partner of Charles Lang Freer, and together they made a fortune in their Peninsular Railroad Car Company. The house is based off Chenonceaux, which I visited last year….