None of my friends who live up north around the St. Louis Place and Old North St. Louis neighborhoods told me they were terribly surprised when the old Freie Gemeinde went up in flames on a bitterly cold night a week ago. It suffered a partial collapse way back in 2013, and when I checked…
Tag: St. Louis Place
St. Liborius, Early November 2021
It was a sunny day on Saturday and there was work being done on the continual restoration of the former German Roman Catholic parish of St. Liborius. I know many readers and former parishioners are upset about its current use as a skate park and arts center, but my continued opinion is that it is…
Outtakes, Spring 2021
They’re cleaning up the ruins of the John Loler House relatively quickly, though I was a little worried to see workers standing on the wood floors now loaded up with the debris of bricks and limestone as they stacked pallets. I had some leftover photographs from when I visited Dunbar Elementary this winter. I’ve always…
Another Loss on St. Louis Avenue
Updates: As of the winter of 2022, the burned out shell was still standing. By July of 2022, it was finally torn down. Right on the heels of the disastrous fire that destroyed the John Loler House, the historic fabric of St. Louis Avenue and the greater St. Louis Place neighborhood suffered another terrible loss this…
Abandoned House, Western St. Louis Place
Right off North Jefferson Avenue I spotted this house, the last one on the block, isolated from the rest of the St. Louis Place neighborhood from the busy thoroughfare on the east (construction signs for the new NGA say “watch for trucks entering and leaving highway”–how apropos to the speeds people drive) and the Sensient…
John Loler House, In Ruins
Update: The ruins have largely been cleared away. There’s not much to say, after the fire that destroyed the John Loler House two Saturdays ago. The ruins will probably sit for a little while, and then be torn down. There was a woman living inside, and she had some of her belongings on the side…
John Loler House, Destroyed by Fire
Update: See the house in ruins a week later; the site was cleared soon after. I was getting ready Saturday evening to head over to the Granite City Art and Design District when I glanced at Twitter, where I follow the St. Louis Fire Department. They were reporting a fire at a “three story house…
St. Augustine’s in the Snow, Mid February 2021
Things are proceeding well with the rehabbing of St. Augustine’s, I’ve been told; it even held up well under the stress of the recent severe cold weather. Thing are looking up.
Historic American Buildings Survey: The Clemens Mansion
It seems like it’s been far longer, but it’s coming up on three years since fire gutted the James Clemens Mansion, resulting in its final demolition. But back in November of 1960, Paul Piaget photographed the mansion when it was still part of a religious complex as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey, cataloged…
Little Sisters of the Poor, Revisited
Update: After a presence in North St. Louis for around 150 years, the Little Sisters of the Poor sold their campus on December 28, 2022. The new owner is operating a homeless shelter in the building called Sisters Mission. For whatever reason, the Little Sisters of the Poor is a difficult building to photograph adequately….