Billiards and St. Louis

If you’ve been following the news, you might be familiar with the trials and tribulations of the Sts. Peter and Paul homeless shelter housed in the historic church in Soulard, looking to find a larger building to serve more people. They first tried to buy the former Sts. Mary and Joseph in Carondelet, but faced…

Odds and Ends from the Winter of 2022

Occasionally I build up some photos that don’t really go with anything else, and I present them to you here. Above is a nice house on Lemp Avenue across from the brewery that is now an AirBnB. For the longest time, it was a band practice space. Moving across the old St. Louis Commons to…

The Old Marine Quarry

Just beyond the lanes of Interstate 55 but west of the South Riverfront are the remnants of a very old quarry, whose original purpose has been lost. It zigzags back and forth, and even appears in Pictorial St. Louis. I originally thought these cliffs were caused by prehistoric water erosion in this post from August…

Merchant Street

Probably almost nobody in St. Louis remembers Merchant Street, and the bustling community that once lined its two blocks between Second Street and South Broadway. Originally named Carondelet Street, it was basically wiped away in the urban renewal plan for what we now call the Kosciusko neighborhood, but for over a century it represented the…

The Former Lemp Ice Houses and the South Riverfront

I looked at the town of DePue, Illinois, several years ago in an article at St. Louis Magazine, and how the Lemp and Anheuser-Busch breweries brought ice down from the Illinois River to St. Louis. But there is also fairly good evidence of how the ice houses along the river on the South Riverfront looked…

Manufacturers Bank and Trust Company of St. Louis, South Broadway

Originally known as the Manufacturers’ Bank and Trust Company, this financial institution changed its name to the American Bank of St. Louis, before being merged with Mercantile Bank, It’s a classic Beaux-Arts bank building, though it’s curious in its relatively low-slung design; most financial institutions normally tower over their other one-story neighbors.

South Riverfront, Revisited Again Late August 2019

The railroad tracks that snake around the South Riverfront are still used, but they seem more quiet than they used to be over a century ago. I was down this way back in 2017. The views of downtown are vast from down south, and it’s hard to believe that this was once a large residential…

Transmission Lines

I sometimes find it hard to believe there was once life on the riverfront. It’s just a giant empty expanse of concrete, partially buried train tracks and vacant lots awaiting “redevelopment” that’s probably never coming.

Sugar Loaf Mound, House Demolished

The house which sat on top of Sugar Load Mound has been demolished by the Osage Nation. The lower platform of the mound to the north still has one house left.