So, let me get this straight–we spent years fighting Lux Living from demolishing the buildings at Oakland and Kingshighway, only to sell the properties to another developer and proceed to demolish them, loudly pronouncing that they were now structurally unstable (they weren’t)? And on top of it, now they’re seeking a twenty year tax abatement…
Tag: The Grove
Those Apartment Buildings, The Grove
Update: After all of the controversy to save them, they ended up being demolished anyway in late February for another one of those generic new apartment buildings the neighborhood has become known for. Those apartments. Sitting right at the t-bone intersection of South Kingshighway and Oakland Avenue, they’ve gone through quite the rigmarole over the…
Massive Redevelopment, The Grove
Ah yeah, so Vista Avenue has changed a bit since I first looked at it back in August of 2014 when the Grove was still at the cusp of a major redevelopment explosion. The affordable housing above was just about complete in June of 2018, but things sure have changed. Basically all of the old…
Demolition Coming, The Grove, Part Two
Update: The church is now gone. The old Emmaus church at Tower Grove and Chouteau avenues will be demolished for the new Ronald McDonald House and headquarters. The old warehouse to the east has already been demolished. The apartment buildings to the east down the block are in great condition, and are not part of…
Demolition Coming, The Grove, Part One
This row of houses on the south side of Manchester Avenue, just east of Kingshighway in the Grove, are slated for demolition for the now ubiquitous flimsy wood frame apartment buildings that are going up all over the neighborhood. Left vacant and unmaintained for years, of course they look a little rough around the edges….
End of Summer Odds and Ends
I first would like to invite readers out to my free lecture on the history of the Lemp Brewery tomorrow, at 11:00 AM, September 20, 2022 at the Missouri History Museum. Its architecture was born out of the designs of highly influential architects Edmund Jungenfeld; Theodore Krausch; Widman, Walsh and Boisselier; and Guy Tyler Norton. I will be…
Former Emmaus German Evangelisch Church
Update: The Preservation Board voted to demolish the church for a new Ronald McDonald House on October 25, 2022. Despite some reports that the church sat vacant for years, neighbors and members stated that the building was occupied by a congregation up until its purchase in 2018. It has now been demolished. I’m afraid this…
Chouteau Trust and Banking Building
The old Chouteau Trust and Banking Building is one of those landmarks that maybe gets taken for granted, sitting right at the eastern gateway to the Grove neighborhood. But it is significant for being such a large office building in what is otherwise a low-rise neighborhood. It is perhaps obvious that it once had a…
St. Crónán’s Roman Catholic Church
St. Crónán’s Roman Catholic Church is not the largest congregation in the Archdiocese, but it is still going strong in the Grove neighborhood, sandwiched on the short blocks in between Manchester and Vandeventer on Boyle. The church is most likely named after St. Crónán of Roscrea, though there is another lesser known Irish saint of…
The House on Vandeventer
Vandeventer Avenue is an interesting street, in that it has had many names over the years along different parts: Market Street Road, Manchester Road and then finally the current appellation. It was already platted out by the 1870s, and it is obvious that the road has been graded since some of the original houses along…