Old North in the Morning Light

Update: The house above on the left and in the photo below was destroyed by fire before Thanksgiving of 2022. The view above featured in one of the earliest t-shirt designs of my friends Jeff and Randy Vines’s over a decade ago. Sadly, as I noted to them recently, that view no longer exists, with…

Post Fire, Montgomery Street, Old North, July 2018

Update: I went back a year later to survey the block and nearby streets. A street with most of its houses preserved is always only one fire away from being devastated and having much of its momentum taken away if the community does not rally. I was saddened to hear about the fire in a…

Old North St. Louis, Early July 2018

The houses of Old North are all so beautiful and there are still so many opportunities to pick up one to rehab close to the restaurants and stores along 14th Street. Update: I photographed this house back in January of 2014, and revisited the house again in the winter of 2022.

Checking In On Old North, “Post-McKee”

Update: See the house in the pictures above and below in the winter of 2019. The house was demolished by July of 2019. Its roof collapsed in 2014. Yes, there is a house in there, hidden by the giant volunteer trees. It’s owned by Paul McKee’s Northside TIF, and he was supposed to have divested himself…

Old North Possibilities

Update: I revisited the house above in the winter of 2022. There are so many wonderful houses that are still possible rehab opportunities. As long the side walls are stable (and sometimes when they’re not) a building can still be saved.

Row Houses, Revisited, 14th Street

I love this row of houses, still perfectly intact with their mouseholes and arched stone lintels. The Second Empire House on the end is interesting, built right up to the south wall of the older rowhouses.

Ruins, Old North

There is so much good happening in Old North, but there are still houses that haven’t been saved yet.

Times Are Changing

Bob’s Quality “Crackhouse” Market finally bit the dust. I see little evidence of any historic or noteworthy portions of the building needing to be saved. It is being replaced by a Family Dollar, which is being embraced by the community that currently has no place to shop in walking distance–which is the only way many…

Demolished, Old North St. Louis

I was wondering what would happen to this building on the northern edge of Old North St. Louis. Rumor is that it was actually rehabbed back in the 1980s. Guess I know what’s going to happen to it.