The former Normandy Presbyterian Church was not within the city boundaries of Normandy, but rather Pasadena Park, not to be confused with Pasadena Hills. It operated from 1940 to 2003, it seems. As is fairly obvious, the church clearly grew rapidly, requiring a Modernist addition with a cool arcade that attached a Sunday School wing…
Tag: Modernism
St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church, Normandy
St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church in Normandy along Natural Bridge Road dates to 1953 and is not the first building on the site. The parish dates back to 1854, when Ann Lucas Hunt donated land for the church. The current church was designed by Joseph Murphy, who along with Eugene Mackey, also designed Resurrection in…
Demolition Commences, Former Stouffer’s Riverfront Hotel
Apparently it was a big deal when the Stouffer’s Riverfront Hotel opened downtown. Personally, I see it as a symptom of a larger problem: the belief that turning St. Louis into a giant showpiece of Modernist superblocks would save the city. I think we can all agree it failed miserably. One thing that always sticks…
Trinity Lutheran Church, Town and Country
Sometimes ironically called the “cash register church,” Trinity Lutheran Church, Chesterfield at the intersection of Clayton Road and Missouri Highway 141 is actually a historically rich and interesting congregation. It’s actually within the boundaries of the suburb of Town and Country but identifies with Chesterfield, further to the west. This Trinity is in the Evangelical…
Former Epiphany Episcopal Church
Known as Church of the Epiphany or Epiphany Episcopal Church, it seems that the congregation moved to its final location at Dougherty Ferry and Ballas roads in 1960 and lasted until 2007. The interior featured a sculpture by Elizabeth Phelan of bronze and walnut entitled “Christus Rex,” or Christ the King. I do not know…
St. Clare of Assisi Roman Catholic Church
The current church of St. Clare of Assisi dates from 1965, though the parish was formed several years before. The congregation used the chapel of the adjacent Passionists nuns, who still exist next door until its own church was built. As we have discussed lately, the church is similar to St. Martin de Porres in…
Grace Episcopal Church
Leaving behind their original church to the west, Grace Episcopal moved into their new sanctuary in 1961 at 514 East Argonne. A newspaper article related the details of the new church: designed by Frederick Dunn & Associates, it was to be built in two parts. Earlier this year I looked at Dunn’s National Garden Club…
Emma and Lucille Avenues Between Mimika Avenue and Goodfellow Boulevard, Walnut Park West
We save what I found to be the most interesting part of Walnut Park, which is actually older but further away from downtown St. Louis. This is the Jennings Heights Addition, from 1888, almost twenty years older than the West Walnut Park subdivision to the southeast that we looked at previously. As can be seen…
River Roads, Then and Now
It had been awhile since I’d checked in at the site of the former River Roads Mall, and the contrast between 1962 and 2025 cannot be greater. But perhaps it also reflects the changing pattern of suburban shopping; large, anchor-based shopping centers are being demolished and replaced with single parcel stores, each with their own…
Claymont, Today
Today, the houses of Claymont look much the same as they did when they were built, but there is pressure in the economically desirable city of Ballwin for “tear downs,” where lots are worth more than the houses on them. While that has spelled the end of many ranch houses in West County, so far…