Jackson Park Elementary School, University City

Designed by Hugo K. Graf and Wilber Tyson Trueblood, Jackson Park Elementary School opened in 1933. Famed architect William Ittner added on some additions in 1952, late in his career. The school is a wonderful example of late Romanesque Revival architecture, much like would be seen in Italy, such as I recently covered in Bologna.

St. Andrew Kim, University City

Update: The church was demolished in 2021. Formerly dedicated to St. Patrick, this Modernist Roman Catholic church near the intersection of Olive and I-170 is now the Korean national church of St. Andrew Kim Taegon, a martyr who died in the Nineteenth Century. He is the patron saint of Korea and the first Roman Catholic priest…

Parkview, Revisited

Update: I revisited Parkview in January of 2024. Yes, it’s sort of weird, but a couple hundred feet of Parkview is in St. Louis, in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood, and the vast majority is in University City. The community has its own website. But one thing is for sure; the architecture and the urban planning, the…

The Delmar Loop and its Environs, Revisited

The Loop still has some great architecture, and the street is still busy with the construction of the trolley moving further east. Narrowing the street to encourage pedestrian traffic is a winning formula, even as it is still considered to be counter-intuitive. Thinking that more lanes will solve traffic problems is the false belief. There…

Shaare Emeth, Temple of the Gates of Truth

After writing my recent St. Louis Magazine article about Centenary United Methodist Church, one of the oldest continually operating congregations in downtown St. Louis, and in the city in general, I became interested in the synagogue that backed right up to the church. It was dramatically named Temple of the Gates of Truth, and I…

City Hall, University City

Update: I photographed City Hall in January of 2020 again (second and third photos). Who isn’t captivated by the ornate beauty of University City‘s city hall? Originally built as a women’s magazine office building, it was part of a planned ensemble of unique buildings at the entrance of University Heights. It also served as the…

University Heights Gates, University City

Update: I went back in January of 2020 to photograph the area on the inside and outside of the gates. Also, the two statues are a lion and a tiger. See University Heights No. 1, which is on the right just past the gates. I finally figured out why the lions, which also happen to…

Parkview

Update: I went back and visited again in 2018 and in January of 2024. Straddling the border between St. Louis and University City on Skinker, Parkview was another private subdivision laid out by Julius Pitzmann. What was once farmland now is heavily forested, with houses peeking out from behind the stately trees.

Garage, University City

Update: See the house this garage belongs to in Parkview. I’ve seen this garage a million times, just south of Delmar in University City, and I’ve always been impressed with the beauty of the green terracotta tiles. And coupled with the roof of the main house, it creates a wonderful ensemble of green in a…