When you’re caught up in the traffic flying down Forest Park Parkway, you might not have ever really noticed that Pershing Avenue peals off to the right at the bend as it sweeps off towards downtown Clayton. This is in fact University City right here; it dips down and blocks Clayton from reaching over and…
Tag: University City
University Hills
Laid out in 1923 by Cyrus Willmore, University Hills was another of the large early automobile age subdivisions platted just to the west of the lions in University City. University Heights is just adjacent to the east. As is typical of the time the Tudor Revival predominates, and likewise in University City subdivisions, the larger…
Forsyth Boulevard from Forest Park Parkway to Big Bend Boulevard
Update: This is actually in University City! Normally I photograph a lot of historic architecture because it is at risk of demolition due to the declining economic fortune of the neighborhood around it. But in the case of Forsyth Boulevard in the blocks just east of Clayton’s downtown, I am documenting these beauties due to…
University Heights
Did you know the famous gates in University City are actually the doorway to a massive housing development? Or that originally the City Hall was the real estate office for it? It’s true, and it’s a fascinating story. While the University Heights story revolves around many different subdivisions on both the north and south of…
Parkview, Again
I’ve looked at the entrances of Parkview twice before, once back in October of 2012, and then again in May of 2018. It straddles the City-University City boundary, as I think many people realize, and I suppose back when it was laid out by Julius Pitzman in 1905, it really didn’t matter; St. Louis was…
Other Fall Updates, Fires, Demolitions, Etc.
It finally happened, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, which I last looked at back in June of this year, caught on fire and burned to the ground on the night of September 14th. There is certainly no grand conspiracy, but simply the fact that overnight lows reached 50 degrees, and a squatter’s fire probably spread out…
Demolition Starts for the University City TIF
Update: Much of the redevelopment was complete in the fall of 2023. The demolition of the mid-Twentieth Century strip malls, a former synagogue and a church has commenced along Olive Boulevard just east of I-170 in University City. Olivette has also started on its own development to the west of the interstate. Below, the former…
Around the Gates, University City
The sun was setting as I took some pictures of the gates to University Heights, just to the west of the Loop. The lions are actually concrete casts of the originals, which are now in an undisclosed location. I still think University City’s city hall is one of the most beautiful in the area. Update:…
West of the City Limits in University City and Wellston
North of the Delmar Loop, and even north of Olive Boulevard, there is an intriguing cluster of old, very old houses, dating back to perhaps the late Nineteenth Century west of the City limits. The east-west streets have the same names as their counterparts to the east in the city, but are cut off by…
University City High School
The massive University City High School was designed by Hugo K. Graf and Wilber Tyson Trueblood, in what I would describe as an Art Deco style. It combines older sculpting traditions with more modern aesthetics in massing and line. It holds the roundabout where it sits with a strong presence. It opened in 1930.