Update: Everything on this block has now been demolished. A catastrophic fire struck the buildings of what I understand to be the old Sligo Steel buildings on the Near North Side along North Broadway just north of Downtown. This is not the first time these buildings have been hit by fire; I covered a previous…
Tag: Near North Side
Out of Blood (and Money)
Update: All eighty employees were terminated at the end of February. The hospital surrendered its licenses and will not reopen. Absolutely no one was surprised that the new three bed hospital opened by Paul McKee failed only a short time after it opened, and years, I mean years after it was first proposed. Property taxes,…
Green Board-Ups, JeffVanderLou, Part Two: Dayton Street
As I mentioned yesterday, Missouri Preservation listed the “JeffVanderLou Green Board Buildings” as one of their 2024 Places in Peril. South of Cass Avenue, which I have erroneously included in my Near North Side neighborhood for years, is actually also part of JeffVanderLou, and the following photos are from the well-preserved (for now) 2800 block…
In Search of Francis Saler and the Old St. Patrick’s
I’d been doing some research lately on the old St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, which was completed around 1845 (the parish was founded in 1843 and closed in 1973), making it the third in St. Louis after the Old Cathedral and St. Mary of Victories, a German language parish. A familiar name came up, the…
Demolition, Former Star Bucket Pumping Co.
One of the last historic buildings of the Carr Square neighborhood is coming down, and coming down fast on land once owned by Anne Biddle. Built in 1906 or around that time (the date is a little suspect), it was a time when there were once thousands of houses surrounding it. Destroyed by urban renewal…
Neighborhood Gardens
Designed by architect Joseph Murphy of the firm of Hoener, Baume and Froese and opening in 1935, Neighborhood Gardens is a historic public housing project in the Columbus Square neighborhood just north of downtown. It is historic in that is the first example of the wealthy coming in with good intentions, clear-cutting a whole city…
Fire at the Former Fred J. Swaine Manufacturing Co.
Update: Everything on this block has now been demolished. The night after the fire at Jamison Memorial Church, a suspicious fire broke out at the former Fred. J Swaine Manufacturing Co. building on the north side of the vacant lots of what was supposed to be the ill-fated Bottle District. A descendant of the founder,…
Green Leaf Market Closed
Perhaps it should come as no surprise, but the Paul McKee grocery store at the intersection of Cass and Tucker has closed (remember when the bridge was just the beginning?) Sitting right at the approaches to the Stan Musial Veterans Bridge, I thought there would at least be some traffic, but I heard that during…
Thomas Street Between North Compton and Leffingwell Avenues
I have no idea if I’ve gone down Thomas Street before. I suspect I have, but I’ve lost track. It happens. But on a bright, sunny Saturday I though these buildings looked really nice, even though they are abandoned, and I feel like someone could come to their rescue. I love this building, having lived…
The Environs Around JeffVanderLou
The theme this summer in many divested neighborhoods seems to be green, where plants and trees have grown up and swallowed buildings. I looked at some of these houses back in May of 2021. I’ve looked at this building before; I think of the story of the three little pigs, and which houses were blown…