At Salisbury, we continue on past the fire station, which has been there for over a century, though the one below is not the original. The park is probably the original topography of the land. It starts to get very leafy north of the park as we continue up Blair Avenue. There have been many…
Tag: Vacant Lots
North Up Blair Avenue, Hyde Park, May 2026, Part One
Now, as we head north up Blair Avenue into Hyde Park, we see this substation. A pet peeve of mine is how AmerenUE makes no effort to integrate its utilities into city neighborhoods. They’re not so ugly and obtrusive in West County; trust me. I’ve seen lots of abandonment in southern Hyde Park in the…
North Up Blair Avenue, Old North, May 2026, Part Three
Continuing north up Blair Avenue, we leave St. Louis Avenue behind and enter the northern portion of Old North St. Louis. Perhaps what is most notable is the number of trees and how much more shaded the streets are, and how many more houses there are. Many of these houses appear in Compton and Dry’s…
North Up Blair Avenue, Old North, May 2026, Part Two
We continue north up Blair Avenue today, starting at the intersection of North Market Street and seeing the first Second Empire buildings. Vacant lots are interspersed with occupied and rehabbed houses. I’ve always liked the house below, with Italianate stylings. We now make it to Warren Street, where there are commercial buildings. More vacant lots….
Yet Another Fire on the Near North Riverfront
I’ve officially lost count of the number of times this remaining warehouse from the St. Louis Refrigeration and Cold Storage Company complex has caught fire. I think it’s at three. Here’s from the last time I documented a fire from January of 2017. As you can see, some nice new plywood, that has probably already…
Former Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church
There’s something deeply depressing about the vacant lot at University and and North 25th streets in the St. Louis Place neighborhood. There once stood one of the most unique churches in the Archdiocese, and it burned and was eventually demolished. Atypical for a Catholic church, it was an auditorium style sanctuary, and probably featured one…
Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: Hyde Park
Hyde Park was never in the footprint of the Northside TIF, but I can’t help think that it was affected by the disruption that was occurring in the neighborhoods to the south. This neighborhood is really suffering from the effects of abandonment, and the City’s reliance on McKee’s plans diverted attention from residents’ real needs…
Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: St. Augustine’s
Next, on my tour of the area damaged by Paul McKee’s Northside TIF, I headed towards what was left of St. Augustine. Illegal dumping is very common in the blocks where houses once stood but were demolished after brick theft destroyed homes. This private club is still going, I think. The tower of St. Augustine’s…
Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: St. Louis Avenue in JeffVanderLou
Turning right from Garrison Avenue onto St. Louis Avenue, we pass by the abandoned Grace Lutheran, and then past the Lindell Park subdivision, which has avoided much of the Northside TIF purchases. But east of here, there are vacant lots of many former McKee buildings, some of which were demolished now close to twenty years…
Twenty-Three Years of Paul McKee: JeffVanderLou
Over the next six days, starting today, we’ll look at areas in the footprint of the Northside TIF, and see the effects McKee’s purchases and land banking have stalled redevelopment and also accelerated decline, as properties he’s purchased have gone vacant and been demolished. We’ll start in JeffVanderLou, driving up Webster in the two photos…