Sylvester Lewis opened The Fairgrounds Hotel in 1928 at a cost of one million dollars. This was at least the second hotel he owned, the first one being the Northwestern Hotel. The first manager was Edward T. McFarland, who came from the Hotel Buckingham. A. R. Riley from Chicago took over the management position in…
Tag: Yeatman
Former Continental Baking Company
I learned from some neighbors that the old “Hostess Factory” was at the northwest corner of Hebert Steet and Glasgow Avenue. This substantially deteriorated building does appear to be the former Continental Baking Company, which at one time produced Wonder Bread. The back portion of the building was collapsing along the alley, so I went…
JeffVanderLou, Late October 2026, Part Two
I then traveled north of St. Louis Avenue, and found some houses that I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, and they were very interesting. The wood frame house above might be a severely deteriorated Italianate cottage, but it is hard to tell. It sits up close to two brick neighbors. Another wood frame house…
JeffVanderLou, Late October 2026, Part One
I visited JeffVanderLou in the early morning light, and revisited many of the houses I’ve photographed over the years. The buildings above, I last saw back in December of 2022 (last photo). Much of the area is now abandoned, sadly. We’ll see if the NGA has any positive effect on the area, which hasn’t happened…
North Grand Boulevard Between North Market Street and Natural Bridge Avenue
Crossing North Market Street, we see the newly christened St. Josephine Bakhita Parish, which is the former Sts. Theresa and Bridget. Due to the closure of a number of other parishes, there was a consolidation of borders. A former convenience store has opened up with a new owners… Joseph Baker Wallpaper and Paint, from what…
North Grand Boulevard Between Finney Avenue and North Market Street
North Grand Boulevard is in transition; half of the right-of-way is being converted into a Great Rivers Greenway to connect Fairground Park to the center of the city. North Grand is also one of the most devastated stretches of a major thoroughfare. We’ll start at Finney Avenue and head north for two days. Above, this…
Dodier Street Between North Garrison Avenue and North Grand Boulevard
Let’s look at these houses along Dodier Street more closely. It turns out that some, such as the one above, are actually two family buildings, and quite large ones at that. Single and two family houses are mixed together, without any stigma of multi-family living existing. I’ve been told that judges and doctors often lived…
Dodier Street Between Glasgow and North Garrison Avenues
I might have mentioned this before, but if you ever wonder why there are a bunch of houses that are in way better shape and a couple of decades older in the blocks to the northeast of the intersection of North Grand Boulevard and St. Louis Avenue, I can explain. In 1893, Julius Pitzman was…
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…