The Second SLU Medical School

The founding of the second Saint Louis University Medical School is quite the convoluted story, and if I make any errors, please let me know in the comments! It is the story of two earlier schools, the Beaumont Medical School and the Marion Sims Medical School and their eventual uniting under the SLU aegis. There…

The First SLU Medical School

Saint Louis University’s medical college moved from its main campus at Washington and 9th, which had been founded in 1836, to a new location at Myrtle (present-day Clark) and 7th. In 1854-55, SLU and the medical college separated, and the latter became the St. Louis Medical College. What is interesting are these two prints, above…

Saint Louis University, Downtown

I think many people might know that Saint Louis University was once located downtown, but may not realize that the buildings were an elegant ensemble of Neo-Classical edifices. Originally beginning as the St. Louis Academy in 1818, it was then the St. Louis College in 1829 now under the Jesuit umbrella, and finally University in…

Chapel, Maryville University

When the old Maryville College and its chapel was left behind, the new Maryville University in West County soon built replacements for those accoutrements of the past. Built in 1981, the Huttig Chapel reflect the architecture of the time. I like it. The Crown of Thorns forms the handles for the front doors. Inside, a…

Maryville Gardens

Today, when you stand at the corner of Nebraska Avenue and Meramec Street and look to the southwest, you see the Maryville Gardens Station of the United States Post Office. But if you were to travel back in time to the 1870s, you would have seen the original location of Maryville College, back when Dutchtown…

Eureka College, Central Illinois

I bet you always wondered where Ronald Reagan went to college, didn’t you? I’d driven by a million times but I finally detoured and photographed the leafy campus of Eureka College in Central Illinois. Unlike many other small colleges around the country, it is holding on and continuing to enroll students. Like any Midwestern university,…

The End of Fontbonne University

Sadly, my prediction that Fontbonne University would not make it to 2030 proved to be correct. (I also predict that two or three other universities in the St. Louis region will not make it to that year, either.) It started out so promising, though, founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph, whose legacy still includes…

Downtown, Youngstown

Downtown Youngstown is really nice! Now, I’m defining it as the area enclosed by Highway 422, which surrounds it to the northeast, effectively cutting it off from the rest of the city; on the southwest, the Mahoning River forms the other border. Youngstown State University clearly breathes much of the life into the area northeast…

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…

Around Downtown, Galesburg, Illinois

Whiting Hall the Italianate style building above and below, was originally part of Knox College and functioned as a women’s seminary. The central core is from 1854-7, with the east wing added in 1885 and the west wing added in 1895, when it received its current name. It is now senior housing. The Knox County…