Only hours after I had posted on January 22 the good news that these houses were being rehabbed, a fire broke out and severely damaged this row of houses. I do not know what the future holds for these houses. Sometimes it feels like North St. Louis just cannot catch a break.
Tag: Old North St. Louis
Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: Old North
Old North was originally going to be in the footprint of the Northside TIF (Blairmont, one of the shell LLCs, takes its name from a property McKee bought at the intersection of Blair and Montgomery in the neighborhood). But neighborhood opposition caused the McKee to withdraw Old North from his plan. The only problem is…
Old North, January 2026
As Charles Dickens said in one of my favorite books, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Let’s get the worst of times out of the way first up in Old North. This act of deprivation committed against what was and could be a beautiful building on Hebert Street (I…
Demolition, Former Meier and Pohlmann Furniture Co.
For the life of me, I don’t think I ever photographed the old furniture factory at the corner of Blair and Palm, but the northwest corner of the massive complex in Old North was recently partially demolished due to some collapse onto the street. New grass has been sown, but from the looks of it…
North Up Blair Avenue, North of St. Louis Avenue, Old North, March 2024
North of St. Louis Avenue, things were quiet, and little has changed. There aren’t really any new collapses, or demolitions to speak of. We reach Branch Avenue, which is the border with Hyde Park.
North Up Blair Avenue, South of St. Louis Avenue, Old North, March 2024
I’ve decided to make “North Up Blair Avenue,” my periodic journey up that street through the inner Northside neighborhoods a tag. I also decided to take a much more detailed look, and start further south in the Old North neighborhood, around Howard Street. There is a lot of vacant land, including where the German Singing…
Other Fall Updates, Fires, Demolitions, Etc.
It finally happened, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, which I last looked at back in June of this year, caught on fire and burned to the ground on the night of September 14th. There is certainly no grand conspiracy, but simply the fact that overnight lows reached 50 degrees, and a squatter’s fire probably spread out…
Coming Soon: Nothing! North 13th Street
I’d heard about the impending doom of this building for years, and it’s finally happening now. I realized I never quite captured it very well, but you can see its front façade in this post from June of 2019 (last photo). I’ve long been worried about this end of Old North; this weed-choked lot, I…
Mullanphy Emigrant Home, June 2023
Update: Destroyed by fire on the night of September 14, 2023. I don’t know, has the Mullanphy Emigrant Home gotten worse since I photographed it back in November of 2021. I know one thing: it’s definitely not getting better. This whole southern area of Old North has really concerned me; it’s not getting any investment…
German Singing Society, Destroyed by Fire
On the same tragic night St. Louis lost Bob Kramer, the city also saw the destruction of the Old North Sängerbund, a German singing society located at the southwest corner of North 14th and Howard streets. Originally built as a church, and ending its life as a church known as the New Jerusalem Church of…