Darst-Webbe, which like many housing projects in the United States, is spoken about as a single complex today, but like Pruitt-Igoe on the Near North Side of St. Louis or Cabrini-Green in Chicago, was really two different projects originally. It was built on the grounds of the neighborhood annihilated in the 1940s between Soulard and…
Tag: Modernism
Clinton Peabody, Today
Over the next week, we’ll be examining the Near South Side, the area seen above around 1961, and how it has changed over the last eighty years due to government urban renewal plans. Clinton Peabody, built in 1942 on the Near South Side, is being demolished. Long known for crime and entrenched poverty, it will…
Moline, Illinois
Moline is contiguous with Rock Island, so we entered the former from the west. Moline is famous for being the home of several industries, including an elevator manufacturer and John Deere, which everyone has heard of. First up is the former headquarters of Montgomery Elevator Company, which is now abandoned. The tower functioned as the…
North of Downtown, Davenport, Iowa
Leaving the Hamburg neighborhood, we wandered up Brady Street, I think, and looked at the Cork Hill area, I think, and other neighborhoods north of downtown Davenport. First up on the list of major landmarks we spotted is Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Cathedral, built in 1891 according to designs by architect James Egan. Mass was…
Downtown, Davenport, Iowa
Continuing and ending our end of the month look at Mississippi River towns north of St. Louis for the time being, we come to the Quad Cities, and first we will look at Davenport, Iowa. Of course, Davenport, and Rock Island, Illinois on the opposite bank (which we’ll look at in a few days) are…
Crossroads Presbyterian Fellowship, Maplewood
Originally built as Maplewood Christian Church, which broke ground for its new sanctuary on April 21, 1957 to replace an earlier building destroyed by fire, today houses Crossroads Presbyterian Church. It is located on Oakview Terrace just north of Manchester Road in Maplewood. The church and wings originally cost $188,430. Kenneth W. Wischmeyer was the…
Lohmeyer Avenue and Oakview Terrace, Maplewood
Heading up Sutton Boulevard around the giant grocery store parking lot, we turn right onto Lohmeyer Avenue, part of the Lohmeyer Heights Addition. I am curious about this house, as it looks like it is older than the rest of the homes in the addition. Was it the Lohmeyer house? I’m curious if anyone knows….
Muscatine, Iowa, Part Two
Downtown Muscatine was really nice, with most of the storefronts occupied and many buildings looking like they had recently been renovated. As would be expected, there are a plethora of Italianate storefronts, as one often sees in cities along the river. The Laurel Building, below, was built in 1917 and was designed by William Hyland…
Arlington Avenue, Wells-Goodfellow
I’ve looked at Arlington Avenue in Wells-Goodfellow further to the north in these two posts from March of 2017 and July of 2023, but this time I started at Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. and went north. There’s a wide variety of housing styles, from four-family flats… …to in-fill that looks like it was damaged…
Former Federal Building, 1520 Market Street
The former Federal Building, which is all that it was called when it first opened, relieved office space pressures from the Old Post Office, which actually again holds offices for the federal government. It’s interesting reading old newspaper articles at the time, because it was at the height of the dislike for the Second Empire,…