The Beauty of Dutchtown, Part 40: Virginia Avenue Between Walsh and Delor Streets

I’ve looked at this stretch of Virginia Avenue between Walsh and Delor many times before; the Virginia Theater sits on a triangle of land where Vermont Avenue comes up from the left, and there’s a row of little 1950s in-fills houses.

But turning around and heading back south from Delor, there are several amazing apartment buildings I hadn’t noticed in the past on the east side of the street.

They were probably built around the same time, on land just north of the quarry, which I first looked at way back in 2011.

That quarry has now become a beautiful greenspace, having only been filled in during the last couple of decades. Wait a minute, what the heck happened to the gate?! It looks like someone rammed through it at high speed.

The photograph below gives an idea of what the quarry might have looked like, even though it is not the quarry on Virginia Avenue. I’ve mentioned before that I think the woodframe houses nearby on Hill Street and South Compton are the original quarrymen’s homes.

Rock Quarry, c. 1930, Richard Henry Fuhrmann, Missouri History Museum, P0764-00065-8g

Speaking of which, look at that little wood building on the left next to the Italianate woodframe storefront on the right. I suspect these stores or offices once served the quarry or its workers.

 

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