Starting at Broadway Street and heading east or more southeast on High Street, we first see the Roman Catholic Proto Cathedral of St. Peter, just across the street from the Missouri Capitol. A proto cathedral is a former cathedral; the present church dates from 1883, and it was the seat, or cathedra of the diocese…
Tag: Sculpture
Chapel of the Risen Christ, Resurrection Cemetery, Interior, Part Two
For our final look at the Chapel of the Risen Christ, we’ll examine the various works of art commissioned for the interior. First up is a Pietà sculpted by Christopher Alles. I couldn’t help but notice that the sculpture group bears a striking similarity to the figure of Nicodemus and Christ from Michelangelo’s late Bandini…
Oak Grove Cemetery, St. Charles
Oak Grove Cemetery in St. Charles, not to be confused with the one in North County, has a history that goes back to at least 1860. Interestingly, for whatever reason, the City of St. Charles took over ownership in 1860, which is the same date that I could find for the cemetery in the historical…
Nauvoo, Illinois
We visited the historic Mormon settlement of Nauvoo on our journey north up the Mississippi River looking at Iowa cities back in May. Of course, Nauvoo is in Illinois, and it is in an isolated corner of the state. There are numerous houses and other buildings from the historic period that have been restored, and…
St. Peter’s, St. John’s and Immanuel Lutheran Cemeteries
It’s a little confusing, but there are three cemeteries contiguous to each other to the west of downtown St. Charles, and each has its own section, but there are no boundaries between them. In the southeast corner of the huge area is St. John’s Cemetery. While in the north and west is Immanuel Lutheran Cemetery….
Bellefontaine Cemetery, August 2025
I hadn’t been by Bellefontaine Cemetery in a while so I thought I would swing by. The flowers by the gate house were looking wonderful. I tried to find monuments and mausolea that I hadn’t seen before.
Mount Carmel Cemetery, Belleville
Heading back towards St. Louis on Main Street in Belleville, we then visited Mount Carmel Cemetery, which is the diocesan cemetery. It is quite large. And while there is a fair amount of forest that has grown up at Mount Hope down the street, there are wide open lawns that show off the rolling terrain…
Ulyssess S. Grant Statue
Located at the northeast corner of Washington Square Park, the Ulysses S. Grant sculpture dates from 1888 and represents the most prominent future president to live in St. Louis. Sculpted in 1888 and dedicated in October of that year by Robert Porter Bringhurst, it also has a depiction of the Battle of Lookout Mountain, which…
Avenue E, Fort Madison, Iowa
We walked up two blocks to Avenue E, past Central Park, where there is a miniature Statue of Liberty. They even got the little fort at the base correct. Below is the Fort Madison United Methodist; it seems to have had two earlier buildings before this and even purchased their bell from Montgomery Ward. This…
Pierre Laclede Monument
A little known fact: the grassy area around City Hall is technically Washington Square Park, and on its western side, in the former right-of-way of 13th Street is the monument to Pierre Laclede, which interestingly enough ignores the contribution of Auguste Chouteau. I didn’t realize this, but the dedicatory text doesn’t lie: this was installed…