Demolition, The Workhouse

Regardless of your opinion of the Workhouse, or more properly called the Medium Security Institution, it is being demolished, and I thought I would swing by and take a look at the site. I had never actually stopped before, and really, driving along Hall Street, I’m generally looking out for maniac drivers around me so…

Eighteenth Anniversary of Saint Louis Patina: Bombed Out Jack in the Box

Update: A devastating tornado ended up striking the afternoon this post was published. The Jack in the Box is now a Mexican restaurant named Antonio’s. I really didn’t have much planned for the eighteenth anniversary of this website/blog/whatever you want to call it, but then I thought of the bombed out Jack in the Box…

Sears Demolished, Chesterfield Mall

The former Sears has been demolished at the Chesterfield Mall site, which culminates the clearing of the buildings for redevelopment. The former Macy’s and eventually reopened Dillard’s buildings will remain.

Dutchtown West of Grand Boulevard, Part Eight

While there are mostly multi-family apartment buildings in this area of Dutchtown, there are still many single family houses sprinkled in, as well. There is even this rare two story house, seen below. And there are plenty of Gingerbread houses in the neighborhood, too.

Dutchtown West of Grand Boulevard, Part Seven

As I’ve long said, duplexes in St. Louis are often concealed or hidden, made to look like they’re single family houses! And that’s no different in these houses from the World War II period in Dutchtown, where there is either a single gabled or hipped roof with the only way to tell it’s two units…

Dutchtown West of Grand Boulevard, Part Six

We’ll now head into the 1930s and 40s, when the World War II era came to St. Louis (yes, I know that the United States entered World War II in 1941), and Modernism via Streamline Moderne became common in the city’s architecture. While we normally associate these styles of four-family flats with St. Louis Hills,…

Plaza Square, New Paint Scheme

The Plaza Square Apartments, a major urban renewal project last century, have gotten a new paint scheme that have really jazzed them up. I’ve written in the past that I wasn’t the biggest fan of these buildings, but I have to admit I do like the new colors.

Ford Apartments

Designed by the famous St. Louis architect Preston J. Bradshaw, someone whom I’ve not looked at extensively, the Ford Apartments is an early example of a Modernist residential building in downtown St. Louis completed in 1950. In a dramatic turn away from the more ornate office buildings nearby, the Ford Apartments eschews decorative elements and…

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 &…