I had visited this section of California Avenue back in October of 2019, but it looked different with the foliage all grown up, so I inadvertently photographed it again.
It’s interesting to see how the landscape changes over the course of the seasons. The house above is totally transformed by the increased growth of trees and weeds.
It’s also interesting to see how I again see houses that I missed the first time around, or had not found interesting at first glance.
I’m very fascinated by this old house here. We can tell by its form that it is one of the oldest houses in the neighborhood.
Its lot wraps around the corner onto Osage.
Turning around and looking at the east side of the street, there are those long apartment buildings, which, as usual, are really just the standard four-family built right next to each other in pairs or triplets.
Here is the back of the old St. Thomas of Aquin parish school, which is a beautiful building, but is still sitting empty.
There is sadly increasing amount of abandonment on this block.
My great grandfather built the brick box at 4056 California in the late 1800s. He built his bakery on to the back of the house. My late mother was born in that house in 1925 (when it still had only an outhouse, no indoor bathroom) and lived there with her large family till 1929 when they moved to Gasconade Street. It pained her to see the homes in Dutchtown physically decline…in fact, I tried to drive her by the California St. house shortly before she passed but the streets were closed off by police because of a shooting that day. So much of my entire family history revolves around Dutchtown and Meramec St. I hope someday things turn around for the better.