Through the Leafless Trees

I’d been having some conversations lately about the former Jewish Orthodox Old Home, and I was poking around and realized you can see an old entrance pavilion facing East Grand Boulevard just to the east of the large Modernist wing on the corner with Blair Avenue. It has severely deteriorated, so much so that I’m…

Updates East of North Grand

The two beleaguered four-family flats owned by out-of-town slumlords on DeSoto Avenue in College Hill have been torn down, which considering their condition, I was not surprised. Their owners may have never even seen them in real life (yes, people from around the world buy property in St. Louis sight unseen). You can see them…

South Down Blair Avenue, Afternoon, Early February 2019

The undergrowth has been cleared from around the old Jewish Orthodox Old Home, and it looks like it has been secured to keep people out. It is still owned by a non-profit in Florida, though it owes considerable back property taxes. Moving further south down Blair Avenue, there is such an interesting mix of wood…

North Up Blair Avenue, Fall 2018

Update: I retraced my path in early and late summer of 2019. Many of the buildings seen below have now been demolished and are now vacant lots. The house featured in the pictures above and below was demolished in 2019. Blair Avenue gives you a great cross section of the neighborhoods just to the west…

Jewish Orthodox Old Home, April 2018

Update: See the nursing home in February of 2019. Why do I keep coming back to the old abandoned nursing home at Blair and Grand? Its sudden, rapid vandalism is still so shocking to me, and others. Its out of town owners don’t seem to care. I do know one thing; the trees and bushes…

Signs of Life, Jewish Orthodox Old Home

We were stopped at the light on Grand at Blair, so I decided to kill some time and roll my window down and snap the above picture of the abandoned Orthodox Jewish Old Home, whose despoliation I have covered for several years. Much to our astonishment, there was clearly loud music blaring from the upper…

Old Jewish Orthodox Old Home, Up For Auction

Have you ever wanted to own your own bombed-out, utterly destroyed nursing home? You can, if the price is right. Bidding ended December 8, but I’m sure if you called them they’d be willing to talk. The long-suffering Jewish Orthodox Old Home holds the distinction, among many urbanists, of having been destroyed by vandalism and…

Northern Hyde Park Revisited, Again

The terrain rises rapidly on the streets heading up towards the College Hill neighborhood. Look at the house on the right, carefully restored. Up at the top, open lots await. The infamous old nursing home, shut down for unsanitary conditions, sits as a vacant shell, the graffiti back in full force. But these stately homes…

Jewish Orthodox Old Home, In Transition

Update: The old nursing home has continued to deteriorate as of 2018. Thanks to a tip from a reader, I was alerted to the removal of all of the windows and the painting over of graffiti at the old Jewish Orthodox Old Home. What is happening? I do not know. Perhaps it is being renovated,…