St. Louis voters recently overwhelmingly passed Prop S, which will allow the St. Louis Public Schools to issue bonds for much needed improvements to buildings, most of which are now over one hundred years old, though as anyone who will admit it, are extremely well built and will last for centuries if properly maintained. The…
Tag: JeffVanderLou
Mount Moriah Lodge #40
If you ever have trouble understanding what Egyptian Revival is, look no further than the old Mount Moriah Lodge #40 on North Garrison Avenue. It almost certainly does not preserve its original paint scheme, but nonetheless it is in an excellent state of preservation. Combining elements of the Temple of Karnak at Luxor, it shows…
Urban Density Surviving on Grand Boulevard
While all those demolitions are going on down south, there are actually a fair number of really nice buildings still standing just to the north, particularly on the west side of Grand Boulevard. Justine Peterson has a presence in one building, nice rehabbed above. There’s this spectacular Art-Deco storefront above, which is a rarity in…
St. Louis Avenue Between Prairie and Vandeventer Avenues, South Side, JeffVanderLou
I don’t think people realize just what a beautiful street St. Louis Avenue is for much of its path through North St. Louis. Yes, this block has some abandonment and demolition, but most of the houses are still occupied. Much of the housing stock has more in common with the Greater Ville to the west….
St. Louis Avenue Between Spring and Prairie Avenues, South Side, JeffVanderLou
I tend to look at JeffVanderLou east of Grand Boulevard, but there is still a section west of that major artery and east of Vandeventer Avenue. It is not doing well. I looked at some of the house on the north side of St. Louis Avenue a while back, which you see here after the…
Northside Regeneration and the Future of North St. Louis
Update: There’s some great news to report on these two houses. For once this is not land speculation but rather the Sisters at Alpha Kappa Alpha rebuilding a founder’s home as part of what will be a museum and community center. Heading east on St. Louis Avenue just east of Garrison, I spotted a strange…
Half Century Old Problems
Update: The motel was in fact closed by order of the City of St. Louis. It reopened illegally in February of 2023, and was ordered to shut down again in September of 2023. Its future remains uncertain. On the night of January 9, 2024, the motel was severely damaged by a major fire. I revisited…
JeffVanderLou, Late May 2022
It’s hard to believe sometimes that the JeffVanderLou neighborhood once held around 20,000 people considering that it is now one of the most decimated areas of the city. But here and there are houses that show the density of what once was. Wild, unkempt lots sit next to well-maintained, owner-occupied homes. And then, there are…
Checking Up on McKee Land
Little has changed where Paul McKee owns vast swaths of real estate since I went by this area last year. There are still abandoned and fire-gutted buildings. Update: By July of 2022, the ruins below were finally torn down. The large apartment building on St. Louis Avenue is still sitting as a burned out shell….
Laflin Street, JeffVanderLou, Early Fall 2021
Update: I went back in the winter of 2022. I checked in on Laflin Street, which once had far more houses, including two more to the north of the one above. You can see them in this post from September of 2017 (third photo down). A year later, it became a dumping ground for a…