The last decade or so has been rough on nursing homes in St. Louis. While readers at first might find the link tenuous to history, they must be reminded that many are in historic buildings, and likewise, neighborhoods are kept healthy when members of society are able to “age in place,” meaning they do not…
Tag: Wells-Goodfellow
Northview Village, Former DePaul Hospital, December 2023
I think most people have heard the terrible news of the Northview Village Nursing Home closing unexpectedly, forcing the removal of residents and the laying off of employees. The front door is now sealed, a police camera wagon is installed, and of this writing, at least one man already has been charged with burglary for…
Wells-Goodfellow, Early Summer 2023, Part Two
Wow, things sure have changed north of the closed Gundlach School on Arlington Avenue. As part of Project Clear, MSD has been demolishing portions of the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood, replacing the cleared sites with retention basins. Looking at satellite images, it looks like this built several years ago, and MSD is reworking the basin. It’s a…
Wells-Goodfellow, Early Summer 2023, Part One
Crossing over MLK, I headed to one of the more interesting streets in Wells-Goodfellow, the 5600 block of Labadie. After passing by the western end of the block, which is still somewhat inhabited, we get to those four-family apartment buildings, which have always fascinated me, but even more so now that I recently discovered a…
The Streets Around Norwood Square
One of the most interesting neighborhoods in St. Louis is Norwood Square, which I first looked at way back in August of 2009. It sits on the site of an old quarry, which is settling badly (I tried to figure out what kind of quarry it was, but it does not show up on this…
Wells-Goodfellow, Post-Federal Conviction
Former alderman Jeffrey Boyd went off to federal prison a week ago today, and I thought I would go check up on the heart of his former ward, which is the Wells-Goodfellow neighborhood. It’s a huge neighborhood, and I discovered this church that I had never seen before at the northeast corner of Hodiamont and…
Former Blessed Sacrament, Revisited
It turns out that Most Blessed Sacrament, which I looked at back in December of 2020, was founded in 1907, and originally worship occurred in a wood frame structure with dimensions of 73 x 30 feet, that was built in six weeks at the behest of its first pastor, Father P.H. Bradley. The whole campus…
Union Boulevard Between Dr. Martin Luther King Drive and Wabada, West Side
Passing by MLK Dr., we see increasing abandonment to the west in Wells-Goodfellow. The houses are also more modest. Judging from the brick patterns on above the doorway and the two upper windows of this four-family, I suspect this buildings front façade was once far more ornamented. Storefront churches often fill the old corner spaces….
North Western Motel, Ventilated
The North Western Inn will be out of business for awhile, considering the FBI and other law enforcement fired tear gas canisters through each window of the small, weekly rate motel. Contrary to what the owner said to a news reporter the day of the raid, city records show he did not recently sell it…
A Tour of the Sites Mentioned in the Federal Indictment
Update: As of August 26, 2022, all three former aldermen plead guilty to the allegations made by federal prosecutors and have been sentenced by a judge. The text of the following post has been updated to reflect the changes from allegations at the time of the original writing to guilty pleas. By now I’m sure…