Cruising by Mr. Fish on my to Grosse Pointe on the East Vernon Highway, I stumbled onto a mirage, a neighborhood of perfectly preserved houses along several long blocks with stately trees known as Indian Village due to several, but not all, of its streets being named after Native American nations. Indian Village is pretty…
Tag: Spanish Revival
West Boston Boulevard, Detroit
I took in a bit of the Boston-Edison Historic District, traveling east down West Boston Boulevard just west of the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament. Chicago Boulevard and some other streets compose the large neighborhood, where some of the most important figures in Detroit history, including automobile executives, lived. As would be expected, the…
The Grande Ballroom and Grand River Avenue, Detroit
One place I wanted to visit in Detroit was the Grande Ballroom on Grand River Avenue, northwest of downtown. While the building has been abandoned for decades, it once played a pivotal role in the development of rock and roll, particularly as it was where the band MC5 played early in their career. Other very…
Former Herman Kiefer Hospital, Detroit
Herman Kiefer Hospital sits vacant nowadays, but once it served as the contagious disease treatment facility for the City of Detroit. It’s a massive complex, sitting just to the west of the John C. Lodge Freeway on Taylor Street. It was designed by George D. Mason and opened in 1911. Albert Kahn later added buildings…
Mount Olive Lutheran, After The Fire
Fire struck the Mount Olive Lutheran Church on Shaw Boulevard just east of the Missouri Botanical Garden on July 30. I went by and photographed the building on August 4. The congregation was founded in 1926, the church was built in 1931 on the site of single family houses, and the newer wing was constructed…
Kühn House and Harrison Avenue, Florissant
The original central five bay wide Kühn House was built in 1840, an example of a central hall Greek Revival house in Florissant. As is typical of the style, several wings were added, but kept in a bisymmetrical balance on both sides. As would be expected by the name, it was built by a member…
Various Small Towns, Northeastern Iowa
Heading north of West Union, Iowa, there are a series of small towns with surprising large churches. It’s a testament to just how many more people used to live in the countryside, when agriculture was so much more labor intensive. Eldorado is first up, with the soaring St. Peter Lutheran Church, complete with an interesting…
The Former Faust Estate
Always take that strange narrow road and see where it goes. We were recently visiting Faust Park in Chesterfield to look at the collection of historic West County structures on display there (see them here and here) and noticed there was a little road going to the east. Before we knew it, we had discovered…
East Walnut Avenue, East of National Avenue, Springfield
East of National Avenue, the architecture of East Walnut Avenue progresses as one would expect in the course of the Twentieth Century, with revival styles predominating. It should be pointed out that the historic district encompasses side streets, and does not merely include Walnut Street. While there is still an occasional Queen Anne, there are…
Weird and Wonderful Tower Grove South: Oleatha Avenue Between Oak Hill and Roger Place
You never know what sort of surprises you’ll find when looking around the streets of St. Louis, and in this case I found these unique porches added to the fronts of otherwise common houses. A little bit of a mix of Spanish and Tudor influences, there were only about four or five of these in…