Praise the Lord for Frederick J. Bandholtz and his panoramic photos of several towns around northeastern Iowa, including the downtown of Independence. Above you can see straight ahead Second Avenue Northeast, which looks much the same now as it did then. We’ll start up at the north end of the block at Second Street Northeast…
Tag: Streamline Moderne
Union Boulevard, Walnut Park, Revisited
Starting at the corner of West Florissant Avenue and Union Boulevard, we discover the southwest corner once held a beautiful Italianate mansion, now long gone. I am curious about the inordinate number of children spilling out of the front porch. I’ve looked at Union Boulevard between West Florissant and I-70 before, back in July of…
Downtown Wentzille
Downtown Wentzville, which straddles the railroad, has a wealth of interesting historic buildings, including these on the southeast corner of Main Street and Linn Avenue. The storefronts are full of restaurants and other businesses. The Trinity Executive Building is further west down Main Street on the south side facing the railroad tracks. There is a…
Odds and Ends
Update: Demolished in the spring of 2024. When I’m out and about, I sometimes snap pictures of interesting buildings that later expand into larger posts, but other times, I can’t figure out what to do with them. These photos are “outtakes;” buildings that are worth publishing but didn’t grow into anything else. Above, this is…
St. Louis Avenue West of North Florissant Avenue
I’ve sporadically photographed the block just to the west of North Florissant Avenue, and mainly the buildings on the south side of the street. They’ve all been destroyed on the south side: first the Winkelmann Mansion, then a row of houses in a fire. But the north side of the street has some amazing buildings…
Arsenal Street Between Oregon and Nebraska Avenues, Benton Park West, Fall 2020
Update: I revisited the block in May of 2022, going east to west. Arsenal Street in between Oregon and Nebraska avenues is an interesting mix of houses and businesses, some of which have a long history in South St. Louis. First up is an old florist’s shop, which once had coolers in the basement. It…
French Market Area, Revisited
I looked at the French Market area almost a decade ago in February of 2011 when there was a thick coat of ice on the ground in the area south of the elevated lanes of Highway 40 in the area that is known as Frenchtown. It was once a bustling area, anchored by the French…
The Beauty of Dutchtown, Part 44: Virginia Avenue Between Taft and Osceola
This section of Virginia Avenue is one of the first I looked at, way back in February of 2011, when I was seeking out the Stork Inn, which I revisited again in May of 2014. I was saddened to see the two story house on the left on Idaho Avenue, which comes in at sharp…
The Beauty of Dutchtown, Part 41: Virginia Avenue Between Delor and Itaska Streets
Passing by Delor, we see this Second Empire house on the west side of the street. Much of this section of Virginia was built in the Twentieth Century after this house, as the Whipple Fire Insurance map shows. After these two Arts and Crafts bungalows, there is a huge swath of vacant land, which was…
Uranium, Venice and Madison, Illinois
Update: Due to reader feedback, this post has been modified to reflect that the majority of the plant and a portion of the neighborhood are in fact in Venice. Portions of the plant and the neighborhood are in Madison. There’s a portion of Venice and Madison, Illinois that’s literally, not figuratively, on the wrong side…