Let’s head south, deep into South St. Louis County and check out some very old historic sites. Our first stop is St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Oakville, which was probably originally a German Evangelisch church. There are multiple expansions here, including a Modernist sanctuary as well as an English Gothic Revival church building facing…
Tag: Modernism
Grantwood Village
In the late 1920s, the R. Mederacke Realty and Investment Company began the development of what was originally known as Grantwood Terrace, just to the east of Grant’s Farm on Gravois Road. Lots were at least 100 feet wide and ranged from 240 to 350 feet deep. Architectural styles were typical of the time period…
Saint Andrew Presbyterian Church
Sited on a prominent stretch of Loughborough Avenue in St. Louis Hills, St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, designed by famed Modernist architect Harris Armstrong, was completed in 1960. See interior views at Built St. Louis; I agree with Rob’s appraisal that the clerestory was surely not originally painted sky blue, but was probably gray. The church…
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
Tucked away on a quiet side street in St. Louis Hills, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church might very well be one of the first expressions of Modernist ecclesiastic architecture in St. Louis. The church, constructed in 1939, created quite the stir when it opened, and was featured in a glowing review article in the Globe-Democrat by…
St. Louis Hills, November 2024
I was in St. Louis Hills so I thought I would see if I could find as many Spanish Revival houses as possible. I ran out of ones to find after awhile. The house above was probably not painted white originally. The houses and apartment buildings of St. Louis Hills represent an interesting transition from…
Normandy, Part Two
Crossing over Florissant Road, we are now on Bermuda Drive, which appears on the Normandy Park plat maps. We see the back of the house above which we saw back in May of 2019. Much like along Florissant Road that we saw back in May of 2019, there is a row of Gingerbread houses of…
Cote Brilliante Avenue from Goodfellow Boulevard to Union Boulevard
Continuing through Wells-Goodfellow, we pass by Stowe School, which closed in 2009 and is now for sale for $450,000. Built in 1967, I call this design, which appear throughout the northwest side, the last generation of schools before the dramatic decline in student population in the city. After the schoolyard there is this lone, abandoned…
Dr. Martin Luther King Drive From Union Boulevard to Hodiamont Avenue
We jump to Union Boulevard on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive (Wohl Community Center is one place we went by) and start to see some more interesting buildings along the former Easton Avenue. These one story commercial buildings look largely abandoned. We now arrive in the Wellston Loop, which I have looked at before back…
Mary, Queen of Peace Roman Catholic Church
While located just across the border in Webster Groves, the Roman Catholic church of Mary, Queen of Peace is often associated with the small suburb of Glendale. The current church was built in 1955 and features windows by Emil Frei & Associates. But I am interested in the sculptures in the high altar. I showed…
Iowa Avenue Between Cherokee and Utah Streets
Due to a large parking lot that demolished a large number of houses, the block of Iowa Avenue north of Cherokee Street is relatively short. There is this interesting office building, which pops up in the middle of the block. Then there is a row of houses with the last tinges of Romanesque Revival style…