Update: Demolished as planned in July of 2022. You might have heard in the news about the expansion planned by the St. Louis Symphony, which will add new wings out the east and south of the original building built as the St. Louis Theater. Not mentioned is the demolition of the Culver House, which I…
Tag: Midtown
New Target Coming to the Mill Creek Valley
Update: I revisited the area in November of 2022. I’m sure readers have heard about proposed Target going in on the east side of Grand Boulevard just north of Chouteau Avenue. This has long been an industrial area, and the site of quarries. As can be seen in the above photograph and in the fire…
Old Carter Carburetor Offices and Pythias Hall
I’ve looked at the old Carter Carburetor Plant on North Grand Boulevard before many times in the past, and it has been demolished and remediated for PCBs. But the office building for the company was located in the heart of Grand Center. Originally intended to be a skyscraper in 1925, only the first two stories…
Stephen Allen Bemis House
Update: The St. Louis Symphony announced the house, more commonly known as the Culver House, would be demolished for a planned expansion of Powell Hall in the spring of 2022. It was demolished as planned in July of 2022. This amazing survivor in Grand Center, just behind Powell Hall, used to be the home of…
Hubertus Schotten House
This exemplary example of the Romanesque Revival sits in the western end of Saint Louis University’s campus on the West Pine Boulevard pedestrian mall. Like its more famous neighbor to the east, the Samuel Cupples House, it features massive tower with hulking proportions. An ornate terracotta panel accents the second floor. Hubertus Schotten, whose picture…
Washington Tabernacle Congregation and the Corner of North Compton Avenue and Washington Boulevard
Washington Tabernacle Baptist Church has called this building home since 1926, and survived a destructive fire in 1945, bringing the building back to life in 1948. It was previously a Presbyterian church. The church is one of many that gave the area the nickname Piety Hill. Built St. Louis has much better pictures including ones…
Views of Central St. Louis from St. Louis University Hospital’s Parking Garage
I was checking out the beautiful Emil Frei & Associates stained glass windows in the chapel of the new St. Louis University Hospital, and when I looked out from my perch in the parking garage, I captured the stunning view of the skyline of the central corridor of St. Louis. Above is the Central West…
West Olive, Grand Center
Update: More like $500,000 to $1,000,000. They’re coming along on building the $300,000 houses on West Olive Street in Grand Center, and the lake I had photographed before is now gone. The new houses actually have some panache, and are turning out better than I expected. However, what was demolished could have easily been saved….
Demolition of Ewing Avenue Bridge
Highway 40 (Interstate 64) was closed last weekend due to the demolition of the Ewing Avenue overpass. I went out to take a look. It’s amazing how large machines can chisel away and destroy concrete in a matter of hours what originally took years to plan and months to build. It will be replaced. What…
Fruin-Bambrick Quarry
I never got a chance to photograph them, but there used to be a row of one story buildings that lined the west side of Grand Boulevard just south of the viaduct over the railroad tracks, just north of the intersection with Chouteau Avenue where this vacant lot now lies. Little did I know that…