Established in 1851, Mount Mora owes its current design to W. Angelo Powell in 1872. Like most of the cemeteries I show, this is a product of the rural cemetery movement begun at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. For a city of St. Joseph’s size, there are an insane number of mausolea! It just goes…
Tag: Sculpture
Three Downtown Office Buildings, St. Joseph
We’ll look at three important buildings in downtown St. Joseph; the first up is the Corby-Forsee Building, designed by the St. Louis architecture firm of Eames and Young, opening in 1910. Due to its importance, there was also a one story mercantile grain exchange room added later. It even sort of looks like a skyscraper…
St. Louis and the Mississippi
I was recently in 1520 Market Street, informally known as “City Hall West,” and before that the former Federal Building, when my curiosity was piqued by the sculpture in the middle of the lobby. It turns out it has a whole story, dating back to the construction of the building in the early 1960s. It…
Cassilly and Cassilly Shop
The Cassilly and Cassilly Shop on Lafayette Avenue has been in the news a lot recently when its owner, who also operates the currently closed Avyan Hotel to the east, tried to apply for a demolition permit again like he did last year (and failed). The building actually has a really interesting history. Built in…
Upcycled Garden At the City Museum
There’s a cool exhibit up on the fourth floor of the City Museum for the next couple of months featuring the sculpture of Daniel Seifert, entitled Upcycled Garden. The works are made of cardboard from Seifert’s normal everyday life, and painted in imaginative colors. It’s a lot of fun, and worth taking a look. While…
Matisse at the Saint Louis Art Museum
St. Louisans might not realize it, but one of the most important paintings of the early Twentieth Century is right here at the St. Louis Art Museum. Henri Matisse’s 1907-9 Bathers with a Turtle set a new standard in modern art in the decade before World War I, in a period of artistic exploration and…
Gumbo Cemetery, Chesterfield
Largely ignored by commuters and shoppers heading to the “lifestyle center” along Chesterfield Airport Road, Gumbo Cemetery has roots going back to the purchase of the land by German American immigrant George Krönung. It’s fairly large, and slopes up an incline. There are recent graves, including members of the Sappington Family. Long Road, which once…
Near North Riverfront, Early Fall 2023
Update: The building in the background was completely destroyed by fire on February 3, 2024. Oh, the Near North Riverfront! So potential and so much not going on. Well, a warehouse goes up in flames every so often, so that happens. There doesn’t seem to be any long term plans. I do like the new…
Oak Hill Cemetery, Youngstown
Located across the Mahoning River from downtown Youngstown, Oak Hill Cemetery takes its name from the neighborhood in which it is located. Founded in 1853 by a group of prominent citizens, the it fits in nicely with the Rural Cemetery Movement that took off in the years before the Civil War. Interestingly, the cemetery does…
Lake View Cemetery and Little Italy, Cleveland
A little bit of a latecomer in the Rural Cemetery Movement, Lake View Cemetery was founded in 1869, east of downtown Cleveland on rugged, steep terrain. While due to the growth of the city and mature trees, the name comes from what had once been a commanding view of Lake Erie. The grounds are lush,…