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…

Fire at the Former St. Liborius, SK8 Liborius

The unthinkable happened late on the night of June 28. The former St. Liborius Roman Catholic Church, which had been closed in 1992 by the Archdiocese. It became SK8 Liborius approximately ten years ago. The people behind SK8 Liborius had been working tirelessly over that time to fix up the former church, and I had…

Random Pile of Dirt

For some reason the famous billionaire Jim McKelvey owns this vacant plot of land at the northwest corner of Cass Avenue and 16th Street. There is a huge mound of dirt that is eroding onto the streets around the property. How do I know? Well, I looked up the owner and it is listed under…

5,500th Post at St. Louis Patina

Thinking back over 5,500 posts, give or take since some were lost when this website crashed a year ago, for some reason this post from February of 2015 popped into my head. It’s interesting in that my 5,000th post also dealt with a subject from the St. Louis Place neighborhood. I was always drawn to…

Dodier Street Between Parnell Avenue and North 25th Street

Apparently I have never photographed the sad and depopulated stretch of Dodier Street just to the east of Parnell Avenue, which is the main artery that peals off from North Jefferson Avenue (which becomes a quiet two lanes street to the west of here). I hadn’t realized just how bad of shape this twelve-family had…

Examining the Damage, St. Augustine’s

I think by now most of my readers know about the serious fire that struck the former St. Augustine’s on the night of December 8th on the western edge of the St. Louis Place neighborhood. I went out early on Saturday to take a look at the church and assess the seriousness of the structural…

Fire at Former St. Augustine’s

Update: I went back and surveyed the damage to St. Augustine’s in this post from December 20, 2022. The unthinkable finally happened. A fire broke out in the former St. Augustine’s which had finally been taken under the wing of Project Augustine, who were working to save the mighty church. Despite the (misogynistic) naysayers, Brittany…

St. Louis Place from North Florissant Avenue

Looking across North Florissant Avenue into the St. Louis Place neighborhood, we see the apse of the old St. Liborius, which we probably shouldn’t be able to do if it weren’t for the demolition of so many of the buildings between here and there. Below, we can see again how the street grid of Old…

The Last House, N. 20th Street, St. Louis Place

Update: This house seems to have been demolished. I don’t know why, but I have come to find this house fascinating in its ability to survive urban disinvestment, redevelopment and abandonment. It sits on a small parcel of land, backing up to new in-fill houses that face St. Louis Place Park, and for whatever reason,…

Checking Up on McKee Land

Little has changed where Paul McKee owns vast swaths of real estate since I went by this area last year. There are still abandoned and fire-gutted buildings. Update: By July of 2022, the ruins below were finally torn down. The large apartment building on St. Louis Avenue is still sitting as a burned out shell….