I realized that I had never looked at California Avenue in Fox Park, just like I had never looked like Pennsylvania Avenue north of Cherokee Street in Benton Park West. This part of Fox Park was a wild and undeveloped section of the St. Louis Commons, filled with crevices, ponds and sinkholes. We’ll look at…
Tag: Second Empire
Pennsylvania Avenue Between Juniata and Arsenal Streets
Crossing Juniata Street in Benton Park West, there is this small corner store that has looked like this as long as I can remember. There are more of the standard houses that you’d be used to seeing in the neighborhood, including a Second Empire home, as seen above, though the dormer has been rebuilt. I’m…
Missouri Avenue Between Lynch and Sidney Streets
Heading north of Lynch Street, we continue north on Missouri Avenue. There’s this very old house above, and then a whole line of Second Empire houses. This house below was built before the street was graded, as can be seen by the heavily exposed foundation. Then we reach Sidney Street, which we looked at back…
Missouri Avenue Between Crittenden and Lynch Streets
I’ve only looked at a small portion of Missouri Avenue in Benton Park, the portion between Arsenal and Pestalozzi back in June of 2020. We’ll retread a bit of the portion between Crittenden and Pestalozzi, and then continue north into new territory. There are a lot of Second Empire houses, as would be expected. And…
Ruins in the Undergrowth
“Hey, I wonder how that one house is doing,” I thought to myself two Saturdays ago. I had checked in on a house I first found back in June of 2022 in April of 2024 and had discovered it had collapsed badly. At first, when I drove up the building, I thought it was completely…
West Main Street and East Capitol Avenue, Jefferson Avenue, Jefferson City
I visited Jefferson City recently, and I realized I had never really looked at the state capital outside of the capitol building. I discovered there is some great architecture, such as the building above and below, and over the next several days we’ll look at the city by street in the order I explored various…
North of Snake Alley, Burlington, Iowa
At the top of Snake Alley, and south of where a U.S. Highway cuts through and crosses the Mississippi River is a highly intact and beautiful neighborhood. I think Iowa has some of the most stunning examples of the Queen Anne Style, and there are many meticulously restored houses throughout the state. This particular house…
Late Summer Odds and Ends
I had some leftover photos I didn’t have a use for, so as usual, I do an odds and ends post. The building above is on Sidney Street in Soulard just to the east of Interstate 55. By comparison, this corner storefront above on the Near North Riverfront is a real survivor, with most of…
Osage Street Between Iowa and Ohio Avenues
And just like that, crossing over Iowa Avenue on Osage Street, and the houses go back about thirty years compared to the buildings we were looking at just two blocks to the west. The Second Empire, with its Mansard roods and wood cornices, as well as Romanesque Revival houses with its brick ornament line the…
Osage Street Between Nebraska and Oregon Avenues
Moving along, we see some construction going on to the side of a three story Second Empire house. But what’s interesting is that right next door is a four-family that is clearly decades newer, so development came in fits and starts. We even have some Permastone below! Nothing drives me more crazy than when smaller…