Perhaps two of the most interesting blocks in Soulard are 13th Street between Barton and Shenandoah. I’ve looked at this stretch before, but mainly on the east side, back in November of 2019. There are a host of interesting houses, including these which I also examined around the same time. The first thing to realize…
Tag: Soulard
St. Joseph Croatian Catholic Church and Former Ursuline Convent
The old Ursuline Convent was built in 1850, on land purchased by Archbishop Kenrick with money apparently donated by the King of Bavaria. Devoted to teaching, at one point they managed nineteen schools around the Archdiocese. You can read about the Ursuline Sisters here at their website. They were named after St. Ursula, a famous…
Former Most Holy Trinity Slovak Catholic Church
The former Most Holy Trinity Slovak Catholic Church on South Ninth Street in Soulard has an interesting story. It began its life as St. Paul’s German Evangelisch Church, and this is even the second church built by that earlier congregation. The first building, visible in Compton and Dry’s Pictorial St. Louis from 1876 and labeled…
St. Agatha’s Roman Catholic Church, Revisited
St. Agatha’s Roman Catholic Church is one of the more handsome religious buildings in the inner neighborhoods of St. Louis. As can be seen in this historic photograph below, it has changed little in appearance since the 1890s. Update: The configuration seen here was in fact very common in St. Louis, as the model was…
Lami Street in Between 12th and 13th Streets
In between the big houses and mansions of the elite of Soulard on 12th and 13th streets, the less wealthy lived in more “normal” residential architecture. This is normal; throughout major American cities classes were rigidly stratified on different types of streets. Ironically, before the invention of the loud internal combustion engine, the grandest houses…
Menard Street and Environs
Menard Street continues the theme of older Greek Revival construction, and they even have some of their original (or at least tastefully reconstructed) balconies. Look closely at the houses below; the two Second Empire houses at the right are traitors to their earlier roots. As I always say, brick can never lie: those houses are…
Allen Avenue and Eleventh Street, Soulard
Allen Avenue and nearby has an interesting collection of houses, in that they are much older, Greek Revival buildings with the distinctive pedimented dormers, simple post and lintel windows and dentillated cornices made of brick. They probably date to the years around the Civil War, and are the oldest buildings in Soulard. If you look…
International Hat Company
The gigantic International Hat Company building hides a secret that most people miss; there is a short street named Allen Market Lane right behind it parallel to Russell Boulevard. You can see it below just to the left of the building.
Second Empire House, Soulard Street, Revisited
This is one of my favorite Second Empire houses in the city, and it sits right around the corner from Soulard Market. I photographed it way back in 2011.
Geyer Avenue and Environs, Soulard
The house above is on Menard right on the interstate; there are in-fill houses being built right next to it on a little triangle of land. Below, on Geyer, we see some of the oldest houses in Soulard, with Greek Revival elements such as the pedimented dormers. They also have the dentillated cornices, which you…