Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: St. Louis Place

St. Louis Place has whole streets that once had houses owned by Paul McKee, and one by one, I documented how they were destroyed by brick thieves back in 2008 St. Louis Avenue now is seeing real estate speculation due to the new NGA, which was part of the Northside TIF. In one of the…

Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: St. Louis Avenue in JeffVanderLou

Turning right from Garrison Avenue onto St. Louis Avenue, we pass by the abandoned Grace Lutheran, and then past the Lindell Park subdivision, which has avoided much of the Northside TIF purchases. But east of here, there are vacant lots of many former McKee buildings, some of which were demolished now close to twenty years…

St. Louis Avenue, St. Louis Place, Winter 2024

Heading east on St. Louis Avenue into the St. Louis Place neighborhood, perhaps I was struck at how little had changed since the last time I had examined this beautiful stretch. The same houses sit abandoned among vacant lots. The same houses sit in weird purgatory, while others are still well-preserved and in great shape….

St. Louis Avenue, JeffVanderLou, Winter 2024

I had originally headed west on St. Louis Avenue based on an unfounded tip that Sarah Lou’s had caught fire. Thankfully, it had not, and I ended up having a great conversation with an older gentleman waiting for the bus out front about the restaurant’s amazing fried chicken instead. Sadly, from the looks of it,…

JeffVanderLou and St. Louis Place, Early Summer 2023

Heading east of St. Louis Avenue, I looked at the north side of that thoroughfare, having looked at the south of the street in two parts, here and here back in July of 2022. There is still a large part of JeffVanderLou west of North Grand Boulevard, even if most of the huge neighborhood is…

St. Louis Avenue Between Euclid and Marcus Avenues

I’ve looked at this section of St. Louis Avenue before, back in December of 2018, but I spotted some houses that I hadn’t noticed before. It’s also always interesting to see how houses, such as the ones below, slowly evolve over the decades, with ornamentation, such as the ones in the attic, are removed. I’ve…

The Streets Around Norwood Square

One of the most interesting neighborhoods in St. Louis is Norwood Square, which I first looked at way back in August of 2009. It sits on the site of an old quarry, which is settling badly (I tried to figure out what kind of quarry it was, but it does not show up on this…

Northside Regeneration and the Future of North St. Louis

Update: There’s some great news to report on these two houses. For once this is not land speculation but rather the Sisters at Alpha Kappa Alpha rebuilding a founder’s home as part of what will be a museum and community center. Heading east on St. Louis Avenue just east of Garrison, I spotted a strange…