Update: The two billboards were removed by their owner in August of 2020. The City of Berkeley apparently never took over ownership of the property. I stopped by Washington Park Cemetery to check on how it was doing since the City of Berkeley took over custody of the historic African American burial ground. It had…
Tag: North County
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, Florissant
It’s a little difficult to photograph Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in the middle of downtown Florissant, but it is a fantastic example of Gothic Revival architecture, replacing the original church in 1893. Apparently the spire remains from the old church; the parish was founded for German speaking immigrants, despite the French heritage of Florissant,…
Former St. Stanislaus Seminary
The old Jesuit St. Stanislaus Semimary is perhaps one of the oldest and most historic buildings in St. Louis County. When it was first built, it was far out in the country, and as the aerial photograph below demonstrates, was still very much so well into the early Twentieth Century. Its address on Howderschell Road,…
Kinloch, Early February 2020
I realized I had not been up to Kinloch in a decade, and I decided to revisit, having heard that a new documentary is coming out soon chronicling the history of the famous town. Things sure have changed. The whole west half of the historic African American town has been turned into two huge distribution…
Uplands Park and Nelson Presbyterian Church
Oh, so this is Uplands Park, I thought to myself, as I pulled off Natural Bridge Road just west of Pine Lawn and the City limits. There are several streets of beautiful and well-kept houses, of a variety of styles that are reminiscent of Southwest St. Louis. One could easily imagine you were in St….
Valhalla, Damage Another Year Later
It’s been another year, and it’s still hasn’t been fixed, as photos from a concerned citizens provided to me show.
Hamilton Heights, The West End, The Greater Ville and Wellston, Late Summer 2019
East of Kingshighway, in and near the western tail of the upside-down U-shaped Greater Ville neighborhood, there is a lot of abandonment, just a couple of blocks off of Martin Luther King Drive. Further west, in the Wellston Loop, there are signs of life, such as this rehabbed storefront, on the south side of the…
Greenwood Cemetery, Summer 2019
I made a detour by Greenwood Cemetery, which is the last resting place of Harriett Scott among many other famous African Americans, and I was excited to see that volunteers working under the direction of the non-profit that now manages the historic burial ground have made amazing progress. Update: There are in fact still some…
Jennings into Walnut Park
I spotted this interesting church off of Jennings Station Road just off of Interstate 70, so I thought I would take a look at the surrounding streets. At some point I crossed from Jennings into the Walnut Park West neighborhood, but it was hard to tell because the streets were equally beaten up and huge,…
Village Church
There are not as many Colonial Revival churches in St. Louis City or the inner suburbs of St. Louis. This one is an exception. I don’t think the Village Church is the original congregation.