I missed two schools that might also be closed in the St. Louis Public Schools’ plans for reduction of its footprint. They are Mann and Buder. I looked at Mann way back in 2009, when ironically it was threatened with demolition. Despite being fully enrolled with strong test scores, the District has still proposed its…
Tag: Tudor Revival
Bryan Hill Elementary School
Opened in 1911, Bryan Hill Elementary School serves the College Park neighborhood. Designed by William Ittner, it is squeezed into a narrow parcel of land, making photographs of the building difficult. Named after Dr. John Gano Bryan, a famous educator in the late Nineteenth Century, that appellation still does not explain the “Hill” portion. Perhaps…
Meramec Elementary School
Meramec Elementary School is another example of an earlier building, built when Dutchtown was well out in the exurbs of St. Louis, was replaced by a later commission. In this case it was William Ittner in 1911, having adopted his famous mature style of a central portal and two matching wings with some asymmetry. And…
Balson Avenue East of University City High School
I never give University City enough of its due. I headed down Balson Avenue east of University City High School, itself a work of art, and checked out some of the amazing single family, two family and four family houses a look. The architecture of these houses are just stunning, at a time, from my…
End of Spring 2026 Odds and Ends
It’s that time of year, so it’s time for odds and ends! Above is a spandrel from a storefront in downtown Belleville, looking suspiciously like something Louis Sullivan would design. Below is just another house we found while driving around town. Cleveland High School is looking really, really bad compared to earlier visits; I first…
Redmont Park, Birmingham, Alabama
South of downtown is Redmont Park, and a host of other exclusive neighborhoods and I’ll admit that we probably wandered into other areas as well. I can say without a doubt that it is one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the United States, and these photographs do not do justice showing that. It got…
Dale and Spring Avenues, Old Orchard, Webster Groves
We next turned into the residential streets to the north of the commercial strip along Big Bend in the Old Orchard area. As was typical of suburban neighborhood movements in the late Nineteenth Century, and as can be seen in Julius Pitzman’s Clifton Heights and Compton Heights additions, there is a move away from rigid…
Madison Elementary School
Designed by William B. Ittner, Madison Elementary once sat in what was a bustling, crowded and dense neighborhood. Now, the stretch of South 7th Street is sits on is desolate, largely devoid of buildings, and certainly empty of the residences that were once full of thousands of residents whose children attended this school. But these…
North Taylor Avenue, Kirkwood
Looking at other houses on North Taylor Avenue, it becomes obvious that the overall context of the streetscape is that of large lots and houses. So when I read about these lots being cut up and stuffed with four or five houses, or replaced with a house that is not architecturally sympathetic, it weakens the…
Bristol Elementary School, Webster Groves
I couldn’t find a cornerstone for the Bristol School in Webster Groves, and there might be a very good reason, and a very fascinating one at that. Most likely the work of William Ittner, it was built in stages, just like many of his schools were designed to be. But at this school which was…