First opened in 1836, the former Missouri State Penitentiary operated until 2004, and was apparently the oldest prison west of the Mississippi, beating out the one we saw recently in Fort Madison, Iowa. It is located on East Capitol Street a few blocks east of the Missouri State Capitol. As is typical, based off the…
Tag: Missouri
West Main Street and East Capitol Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Jefferson City
I visited Jefferson City recently, and I realized I had never really looked at the state capital outside of the capitol building. I discovered there is some great architecture, such as the building above and below, and over the next several days we’ll look at the city by street in the order I explored various…
Kansas City, Baltimore, Dayton, Louisville and Indianapolis Skyscrapers
Rounding out our survey of early Twentieth Century centerpiece skyscrapers, we look at a couple more, starting first on the other side of Missouri in Kansas City. The Kansas City Power and Light Building, built in 1931, was the tallest building in Missouri until 1976. Designed by the Kansas City firm of Hoit, Price &…
Late Summer Odds and Ends
I have some leftover photos from the summer that I needed to clear out. Above, this house has collapsed on West Florissant Avenue just north of Grand Boulevard in the College Hill neighborhood, unfortunately. The house below is in Hyde Park, and I originally looked at it back in August of 2018. The infamous gas…
Fort D, Cape Girardeau
I was excited to learn there was a surviving Civil War era fort remaining in Cape Girardeau, high on a strategic hill on the south side of downtown. For whatever reason, it was never destroyed and survives in a residential neighborhood. Constructed by Union Army engineers sent down from St. Louis, the influence of those…
Museum Hill, Part Two, St. Joseph
Not all of Museum Hill is so elaborate. This portion of the neighborhood is down near the Patee House, which we already looked at. There are many more duplexes in what was clearly a more working class part of town. Also, it was built very early. There is more abandonment. But then we ascend back…
Museum Hill, Part One, St. Joseph
East of the civic center of St. Joseph, the terrain rises quickly up to what is now called Museum Hill, which is a veritable treasure trove of late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century housing styles. There are also many churches near the bottom of the hill. Look at how much the houses to the east…
Mount Mora Cemetery, St. Joseph
Established in 1851, Mount Mora owes its current design to W. Angelo Powell in 1872. Like most of the cemeteries I show, this is a product of the rural cemetery movement begun at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. For a city of St. Joseph’s size, there are an insane number of mausolea! It just goes…
Krug Park and Two Cemeteries, St. Joseph
One of the focal points of St. Joseph is Krug Park, which is a fairly rugged plot of land on the northern side of the city. There is a system of parkways that connects much of the city (and is difficult to photograph) and they sweep around St. Joseph connecting parks such as Krug. In…
North Twelfth Street, Cathedral Hill, St. Joseph
Over on the east side of Cathedral Hill, north of Frederick Street, is just another street full of amazing houses, just giving an impression of the architectural richness of St. Joseph.