St. Joseph possesses two fantastic historic theaters in its downtown from two different eras. The first, the Missouri Theater, was built in a sort of Moorish Revival in 1927. Waylande Gregory was the architect. I can’t help but see the resemblance to the Majestic Theater in East St. Louis. Now owned by the City of…
Tag: Theaters
Novelty Theater Under Demolition
Due to more failure of Paul McKee’s Northside Regeneration to properly maintain its buildings, the historic Novelty Theater is being torn down. The two-screen theater, designed by Charles Deitring in 1910 possessed a capacity of over one thousand. It has sat empty for a long time. As far as whether the structure to the east’s…
Macon, Sixteen Years Later
Fast forward to February, and I was back in Macon for the first time in sixteen years, and this is what I saw. There were some fresh coats of paint, here and there. The former bank building has a new business in it, which I learned was originally the Macon Building and Loan Association, later…
From the Vault: Macon, Sixteen Years Ago
We found ourselves in Macon, in Northeast Missouri recently, and I wanted to check up on the downtown area. It had been sixteen years since my first and last visit to downtown Macon, and I only posted a few pictures: some pealing lead paint, and a Beaux-Arts and a Modernist bank. I dug these photos…
Former St. Boniface, Winter 2024
The former St. Boniface, and now the former Ivory Theatre, has seen some theft of the metal on the upper portions of the two towers in the last couple of years. But I’m told that there are new owners who are taking care of it now, and hopefully they’ll have it back open soon. For…
Fairfield Avenue, Newport, Kentucky
We’ve looked at Newport, Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati before, but this time we’re going to look at Fairfield Avenue, starting at Ward Avenue and heading east. As I’ve said before, one of the great tragedies of St. Louis and its relationship to the Metro East is that civic and business leaders have not…
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…
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…
Book Tower and the Michigan Building, Detroit
I find the Book Tower, the creation of three brothers, one of the more humorous but enjoyable skyscrapers built at the height of Detroit’s golden age. It was actually the product of two building campaigns: the tower and the lower structure. You can see the Book Building, which is sort of the yellowish building to…