It’s long been accepted that Adler and Sullivan’s original design of the round windows on the second floor with bearcat terracotta sculptures and a Damascus arch entryway (seen here) for the 1892 Union Trust Building were removed at some point in the early Twentieth Century. However, we now know it was incorrect to believe that…
Tag: Rehabilitation
Washington Terrace Gates, Summer 2026
I’ve looked at the Washington Terrace gates before, first in January of 2012 and then again in November of 2014. I would probably describe the architecture as Norman Romanesque Revival, it seems like it was shrouded in ivy for much of its early existence. Readers have told me that college students or young men lived…
Essen Log Cabin, Reborn
There’s some good news to report for a change, since it seems like it’s been a lot of bad news lately. A log cabin, that was literally stolen and thankfully recovered, has been rebuilt in the new Village Green Park in Wildwood a decade after its theft. The Essen Family were longtime settlers in West…
Progress in LaSalle Park
I have some good news to report about the Second Empire corner storefront at 1000 Morrison Avenue in the LaSalle Park neighborhood which I looked at in June of 2019. Due to the efforts of Landmarks Association of St. Louis and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri, control of the building has been wrested away from…
Norwood, Birmingham, Alabama
Tucked up in a wedge north of downtown Birmingham is the Norwood neighborhood, in a transitional area between the grid and the more early Twentieth Century “suburban” communities in the hills. There is lots of good news happening in this neighborhood, with many homes being rehabbed and other at least being stabilized. It was laid…
Heaviest Corner on Earth, Birmingham, Alabama
We’ll start our Birmingham tour with the first landmark, the “Heaviest Corner on Earth,” whose name originated at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, referring to the four historic skyscrapers at the intersection of 20th Street and 1st Avenue North. As I remarked yesterday, I think Chicago actually has a heavier historic intersection at South…
North Up Blair Avenue, Old North, May 2026, Part Two
We continue north up Blair Avenue today, starting at the intersection of North Market Street and seeing the first Second Empire buildings. Vacant lots are interspersed with occupied and rehabbed houses. I’ve always liked the house below, with Italianate stylings. We now make it to Warren Street, where there are commercial buildings. More vacant lots….
Hickory Street Between South Jefferson Avenue and Missouri Avenue
After looking at the fascinating surviving urban fabric of Hickory Street and others in the Compton Hill neighborhood that survived urban renewal, I wondered if there were any similar streets across South Jefferson Avenue that weren’t mansions in Lafayette Square. And lo and behold, Hickory Street bears a similar working class character as the streets…
Geyer Avenue Between California and Ohio Avenues
Heading one block to the north to Geyer Avenue, it would be remiss to not talk about how Interstate 44, the Ozark Expressway, has altered the street forever. As I demonstrated above with the blue shaded area on the Compton and Dry Pictorial St. Louis from 1876, all of that land is now under the…
St. Mary’s of the Barrens, Perryville
St. Mary’s of the Barrens takes its name from the prairie early settlers could not plow; instead, they turned to the loamy soil of the bottomlands along the river to farm. Established in 1818, the church also served alongside the oldest seminary west of the Mississippi. The Vincentians have long been associated with the church…