“Hey, I wonder how that one house is doing,” I thought to myself recently while driving down North Compton Avenue. I soon found out: Not very well at all!
Tag: Ruins
St. Augustine’s the Day After the Third Fire
To say the visit to the former St. Augustine’s the day after the towering inferno that gutted the church was depressing would be an understatement. About the only positive thing I could say is that at least all the timber, potential fuel for another fire (the gigantic piles of wood from the roof collapse), was…
St. Augustine’s a Week Before the Third Fire
I may have taken some of the only photos of the former St. Augustine’s after the collapse of the roof over the nave sometime in February and before the fire on the night of March 18th. Honestly, it probably wasn’t a terribly good idea for my friend and I to be inside the heavily compromised…
Third Fire at St. Augustine’s
A St. Louis Patina correspondent captured firefighters battling the towering inferno that broke out in the evening of March 18th, devastating St. Augustine’s. At this point, I reluctantly have to admit that it needs to be torn down in the interest of public safety. I think it’s probably arson. What else is there to say…
Pilgrim Green Missionary Church, Former Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church, East St. Louis
I had passed by this unique and beautiful church numerous times just east of Jones Park in East St. Louis, and I finally got around to photographing it and figuring out its history. Its current owner is Pilgrim Green Missionary Church, and they’re thriving, recently building a new hall out the back to the south….
Roof Collapse, St. Augustine’s
Sometimes there are things in life that are terrible, and no matter what you do, you can’t change them, and you just have to take it. I was driving north on the newly smooth Parnell, heading to St. Augustine’s to get some photography done for another project when the church came into view far in…
Roosevelt Apartments, Building Collapse, Dutchtown
St. Louis is at the point where abandoned, historic buildings are now just simply collapsing, not in out of the way places where the whole street is vacant lots and it’s the last house left on the block, but rather in the heart of one of the densest neighborhoods in the City, Dutchtown, and on…
Fire, Vulcan Street, February 2024
Bad news from the 7700 Block of Vulcan Street in the Patch neighborhood of Carondelet. While several homes are still occupied and maintained, fire broke out in the early evening on January 31, gutting the two stone houses and spreading to the brick house next door. I even think this house below might be occupied…
Norvell-Shapleigh, The Saturday After the Fire
I went back out the Saturday after the fire to check on the state of the demolition of the Norvell-Shapleigh warehouse after I had viewed it on Monday. A substantial amount of the building had been removed, particularly the former J. Kennard and Sons Carpet Co. portion on the north, including the part that had…
Norvell Shapleigh, Destroyed by Fire
Another warehouse on the Near North Riverfront has been destroyed by a suspicious fire. While certainly we can attribute some of the conflagrations to squatters accidentally allowing campfires to grow out of control, I was told that in some instances, including the one that hit the Norvell-Shapleigh Warehouse, that was most definitely not the case….