The Penrose neighborhood has whole streets lined with Gingerbread style houses, even though most people associate these houses with the St. Louis Hills area of South City. And they’re all well maintained, and the heart of the middle class community of North St. Louis. It’s pictures of houses such as these that I enjoy showing…
Tag: Penrose
Penrose in the Snow #1, Anderson Avenue
Can we quit spreading the myth that the entire North Side is a disaster? It’s not. While there are clearly neighborhoods, such as Wells-Goodfellow that are severely depressed, other parts of the upper half of the city, such as the Penrose neighborhood, are doing perfectly fine, with high home ownership and community pride. But they…
Modernist Pocket
Update: I revisited the area in the early fall of 2021 around North Newstead Avenue and again in July of 2022. I’ve been up this way before, several years ago, and I’ve always been fascinated with this downright rugged part of the city, just south of I-70 and west of West Florissant Avenue. I suspect…
Around St. Engelbert’s, Penrose
The neighborhood around St. Engelbert’s is mostly from the early Twentieth Century, but some older houses are scattered throughout. These businesses above probably served parishioners coming out of Mass, or school children at the nearby school. But then there are these older houses, such as the Second Empire duplex below. But most houses and apartments…
Old St. Engelbert’s Roman Catholic Church
Rechristened St. Elizabeth, Mother of John (the Baptist) when several North Side parishes were closed, including Most Holy Rosary, St. Engelbert was a German national church. I usually associate the English Gothic Revival with Presbyterian or Lutheran churches, and it’s interesting to see a Roman Catholic church of this style. The compressed Gothic arches form…
Somewhere Around Penrose or Fairgrounds Neighborhood
I always find it fascinating how a row of houses born together begin to die and transform as the decades go by.
Former Quarry, Back from the Dead, Penrose
Oops, someone didn’t fill in the old Union Quarry well enough and the houses have all settled! And now they’re being torn down one at a time. Essex Court, as it was called, was a common occurrence after the quarries were closed after World War II. Unfortunately, they’re now collapsing. Here you can see it…
Penrose, Revisited
Tucked away in between I-70 and Natural Bridge Avenue, the Penrose neighborhood seems both isolated and heavily populated at the same time. Yes, there is abandonment, but along the strangely narrow streets, there is a lot of life. There are no major institutions per se, so it is a place probably not familiar to most…
Carousel Motel
Years ago, I asked some of my students who live in North St. Louis about that intriguing Modernist hotel on Kingshighway just north of Natural Bridge Avenue. In response, one of my students replied, “That’s not a hotel, that’s a motel; that place is so sleazy they charge by the minute, not by the hour.”