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…
Tag: Tudor Revival
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…
Scullin Elementary and Five Other Schools Slated for Demolition
Built in 1908, the John Scullin Elementary School has long languished in abandonment after closing years ago. It has now been targeted by Saint Louis Public Schools, along with five others, for demolition. The five other schools slated for demolition have all been examined in previous posts, and you can see them here: 1) Euclid…
Chamberlain Avenue Between Clara and Belt Avenues, West End, Revisited
I supposedly visited Chamberlain Avenue in between Clara and Belt avenues back in August of 2009, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out where half of the photos I included in that post seventeen years ago are actually from. A couple really are from Chamberlain Avenue, but the others–who knows. Anyway, I…
West Cabanne Place, West End, Revisited
I hadn’t been back to look at West Cabanne Place, platted in 1888, in a while, so I thought I would go take a look and check up on it. I first explored the street back in August of 2009, and revisited the Theodore Link House in September of 2014 and August of 2019. In…