I know from talking to many people that there is great frustration in the rash of out of town flippers, particularly from California, who have come in, flipped houses, gutting perfectly intact interiors with original woodwork and replaced it with cheap materials, and then for the final insult, slathered the beautiful red brick exterior with…
Tag: Tower Grove East
Sidewalk Medallions
I spotted some of these old sidewalk medallions in Tower Grove East. The one above is interesting in that it has the address of where it was laid. You can read about granitoid sidewalks here. Below, we even have the date of the construction, which is 1909.
Storm Damage
Oops, the junky old tree in the backyard of the absentee-owned apartment building down the alley from me had an accident during the historic storm that hit the region on March 14. Somehow, amazingly, the power line did not snap. There is an epidemic of unhealthy, dead and dying trees in St. Louis in the…
Arsenal Street Between Louisiana and South Compton Avenues
Heading east on Arsenal Street from Louisiana Avenue in Tower Grove East, we see more of the trat housing along the busy corridor. We move past the church that was never built past the first story; one of the walls is leaning so I suspect they never built the upper stories due to settling of…
Arsenal Street Between Arkansas and Louisiana Avenues
We cross over Arkansas Avenue in Tower Grove East where there are many corner storefronts such as the one you see above and below. There’s also Riley’s, famous for its pizza. Those front parapet walls below have obviously been truncated due to damage from the weather, which is common. We see more tracts houses below,…
Arsenal Street Between South Grand Boulevard and Arkansas Avenue
Let’s back east into Tower Grove East from South Grand Boulevard on Arsenal Street from the still bustling intersection. We sadly lost the building in the center above, but at least it was replaced with a one story urban-scaled storefront instead of it remaining a parking lot. It must have been something to see with…
Pestalozzi Street Between Arkansas Avenue and South Grand Boulevard
As is often the case in Tower Grove East, even among large single family areas, we get thrown for a loop and come across a huge multi-family house, like the one we see here. But then we go back to the standard houses we see in the Tower Grove Heights subdivision that is perhaps more…
Pestalozzi Street Between Louisiana and Arkansas Avenues
Heading west of Louisiana, we have the International Institute, the former St. Elizabeth’s Convent and High School on the left, or south, and a row of houses on the right, or north. Beyond a doubt every single one of these houses, with the exception of a couple outliers, were built by the same contractor and…
Pestalozzi Between South Compton and Louisiana Avenues
Heading west on Pestalozzi Street from South Compton Avenue in Tower Grove East, we see how rapidly the city grew in the early Twentieth Century as transport connections improved. In fact, the houses on these streets were largely built in one or two decades. There is a wide mix of one, two and four family…
A Totally Preventable Fire
Update: The house has been demolished and is now a vacant lot. 3113 Arsenal Street in the Tower Grove East neighborhood was gutted by fire on the night of November 12. It’s the usual story: the owner of an abandoned house who’s owned the building for decades deferred maintenance for so long that finally it…