While there is the typical suburban sprawl on the edge of Lincoln, I was impressed by the overall strength and health of the downtown area of the city. There is little loss of the street wall around the courthouse square, and there is even a little theater district! There are two restored theaters, and rather…
Tag: Theaters
Chesterfield, Post-Chesterfield Mall
Big things are happening out to the west of the now almost completely defunct Chesterfield Mall, which entered the hallowed halls of my Crumby Run-Down Malls of St. Louis pantheon with this post in June of 2017. But Chesterfield still boasts some of the highest income levels in the region (even if other zip codes…
Front Street, New Haven, Franklin County
Perhaps it’s illogical that Front Street faces a bluff and not the Missouri River, but nonetheless, the businesses lining the side of the thoroughfare that runs parallel to the train tracks is a wholly intact row of storefronts. The town has a website promoting the downtown’s stores and events. The buildings are all occupied or…
Cincinnati Music Hall, Over the Rhine, Cincinnati, Ohio
The Cincinnati Music Hall, built in 1878, is one of those monumental buildings in America that might very well have been swept away by urban renewal, replaced by a new performing arts center. Instead, it has been revitalized, and almost 150 years later, is still very much part of the cultural fabric of the city…
TopGolf and the District, Chesterfield
In case readers living outside of a metropolitan region where there is currently no TopGolf, I thought I would take a couple of photos to show what such facilities look like. This is the one out in Chesterfield. Perhaps the most prominent feature is the giant net which wraps around the field where players seek…
Neoclassicism and Beyond, Paris
Moving along now so we can get back to St. Louis, here is a smorgasbord of Paris buildings that have broader implications on world architectural history, including here in the Gateway City. First up is the Madeleine, which was originally built by Napoleon to glorify his reign, but was then converted into a church. It’s…
Mount Airy Missionary Baptist Church
I learned an interesting story about this church and its parking lot at the southwest corner of Marcus and Maffitt in the Greater Ville neighborhood. If you look closely, it becomes obvious that the large white rectangle on the brick wall is in fact an old movie screen, and the parking lot is a former…
Central Park, Downtown Jacksonville, Illinois
Jacksonville was founded by groups of “Yankees,” from New England, many of whom were graduates of Yale University. I can’t help but think the influence of the large town commons and greens of cities such as New Haven played a part in the design of Central Park, the outsized town square of Jacksonville. The center…
Second Avenue Northeast, Independence, Iowa
Praise the Lord for Frederick J. Bandholtz and his panoramic photos of several towns around northeastern Iowa, including the downtown of Independence. Above you can see straight ahead Second Avenue Northeast, which looks much the same now as it did then. We’ll start up at the north end of the block at Second Street Northeast…
Ivory Theater, Former St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church
Founded in 1860, though the building is clearly from later in the 19th Century, St. Boniface closed in 2005 and was sold to developers who turned it into the Ivory Theater. It’s Romanesque Revival in many ways, but not compeletely. The towers have more of a Baroque Revival feel to them, and the pediment reminds…