Update: The on-ramp above has been permanently removed. The Ewing Avenue Bridge was demolished the last week of February 2021 for replacement. The final exit ramp from westbound Highway 40 to Market Street was closed by the winter of 2022. Readers will probably have two reactions to the discussion of the closure of the five…
Tag: Interstates
Under the Viaducts in the Mill Creek Valley, Part 3
Update: The building above was demolished in the fall of 2022. There are still some buildings just south of Highway 40 that were designed when Market Street still passed by their northern facades, such as the one above. But when the highway was built after World War II, they suddenly found themselves in limbo. See…
Under the Viaducts in the Mill Creek Valley, Part 2
I looked at some of the industrial areas under the bridges and viaducts that cross over the Mill Creek Valley and its extensions west previously. Now we will look at some redevelopment around Grand Boulevard. Some of the buildings that have been sitting abandoned for decades, or just a few years, around Highway 40’s western…
Bircher Boulevard
Update: I revisited Bircher Boulevard in July of 2022. See North Newstead Avenue, which intersects Bircher Boulevard nearby. Historic aerial photography reveals that Bircher Boulevard used to be just that, a tree-lined, elegant boulevard in North St. Louis, separating the Penrose and Walnut Park neighborhoods. But then Interstate 70 came along, and annihilated it, turning…
South Thirteenth Street, Sunset, December 2018
I’ve photographed these houses before, but I’ve been drawn back to this perfectly restored row just east of Interstate 55 several times over the years in Soulard. As I’ve said before, I can only assume that were just as beautiful houses on the west side of the street originally, just south of Sidney Street and…
Coming Soon: Nothing! The Historic Apartments On Branch
Update: Replaced with a vacant lot, which will probably be here for a very, very long time. The only positive thing I can say about the demolition of the beautiful apartment buildings on Branch Street, cut off from viability in the 1950s by the interstate, is that I thought the small corner building on the end…
Old Kingshighway
A long time ago, Kingshighway went straight north, and then doglegged right in front of Barnes Hospital, before turning right in front of Forest Park (did you know technically there are a couple of acres of Forest Park east of the current curved alignment to this day?). When Highway 40 was built, that giant cloverleaf…
Interstate 44 Under Reconstruction
I’m intrigued by the idea of interstates that have been temporarily removed from service, such as Interstate 64/Highway 40 back in 2008 and 2009. This time, of course, it is Interstate 44, which is one of the “younger” interstates in St. Louis, but still caused a severe rift in the fabric of South City. McRee…
The End for the Historic Apartments, Near North Riverfront
Update: The site is now a vacant lot. Many of us had always held out hope for this beautiful series of buildings on Branch Avenue, just on the other side of the interstate from Old North and Hyde Park. But it was not to be, and they are now being demolished, and pretty soon there’ll…
Hyde Park in the Morning Light #19, 1400 Block of Angelica
Angelica Street east of 11th Street is gone, replaced by this foreboding overpass, which effectively kills the neighborhood from expanding any further. I’ve photographed these little guys before; they replaced an old country estate that finally was demolished and redeveloped. Then, on the south side of the street, it is normal, late 19th and early…