Washington, Illinois, Spring 2024

At the intersection of Holland and South Main streets is an ensemble of Victorian Period houses in Washington, Illinois that I have revisited over the years, the first time in 2009 and the second time at least in 2022. This first house is on the northwest corner of the intersection. On the southwest corner is…

A Collapse, Midtown

“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!

Museum Hill, Part Three, St. Joseph

The Wyeth-Tootle Mansion Museum sits at what is probably the highest point in the neighborhood, and is a sight to behold. The mansion takes up an entire block, but arranged on the streets around it are a bevy of other interesting historic houses, many of which have been renovated, as well. There is even a…

Museum Hill, Part Two, St. Joseph

Not all of Museum Hill is so elaborate. This portion of the neighborhood is down near the Patee House, which we already looked at. There are many more duplexes in what was clearly a more working class part of town. Also, it was built very early. There is more abandonment. But then we ascend back…

Museum Hill, Part One, St. Joseph

East of the civic center of St. Joseph, the terrain rises quickly up to what is now called Museum Hill, which is a veritable treasure trove of late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century housing styles. There are also many churches near the bottom of the hill. Look at how much the houses to the east…

Around Hall Street, Cathedral Hill, St. Joseph

There’s more amazing architecture to the west on the slopes of Cathedral Hill, which we examined at different times of the day and dates. There has been some recent in-fill on what had been a recently cleared area of several blocks. There was an abandoned school, and I had to wonder if it was an…

Hall Street, Cathedral Hill, St. Joseph

The 600 through 800 blocks of Hall Street in St. Joseph contain some of the stunning houses in America, and running the gamut of different architectural styles and ornament. It is north of downtown and up a gently sloping rise named Cathedral Hill named after the nearby Roman Catholic cathedral. Above, this was the home…

North Up Blair Avenue, North of Penrose Street, Hyde Park, March 2024

Heading north from Penrose Street and continuing our tour in Hyde Park, we see that Ferry Street is blocked off again, no doubt due to another problem with the sewer underneath in what was originally a deep chasm in the natural topography of the earth before the neighborhood’s development. We detour to the east down…