Update: I revisited the stretch of Meramec in December of 2022.
While Meramec Street in Dutchtown is famous for St. Anthony of Padua and its commercial strip, it becomes more residential as it heads east towards South Broadway. Above, there is one of William B. Ittner’s amazing designs, Meramec Elementary from 1910. You can see the back of the school in this later post.
The remainder of the street is filled with classic Dutchtown houses, middle class but loaded with individual style that made each one unique.
Meramec Street, the site of St Anthony’s, was adjacent to the “old” Maryville College that dated back to the early 20th century. Once Maryville moved west to St Louis County, the building was ‘leased’ to the Augustinian Priests headquartered in Chicago, and became St Louis’ Augustinian Academy for 10 or 12 years. I am a 1969 graduate. Unfortunately, after closing its doors, the property burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances only to be replaced by a multi-family development.
The architecture included a bell tower dome, stained-glass main entry vestibule , five-foot high library paneling in hallways and classrooms, nine foot 1st floor windows, wide wooden stairways with worn step treads from long decades of student’s feet. Year books are the few remaining photographs of this grand architectural behemoth of Dutchtown. Sadly missed.
Interesting! I didn’t realize there was another school in the Maryville building after it moved out.
Chris: Happy to provide what Yearbook photos I have of the Augustinian Academy building and its’ architecture that was lost to alleged arson. It was truly a magnificent structure that taught me the value of historic structures, the human labors involved and the meticulous detail used in building that today would be considered wasteful and all too time consuming and expensive. Indeed, craftsmanship forever lost to the ages.
Maybe the Yearbook pictures would assist in finding Historical Society references. Shoot me your contact for the JPGS if you’re interested.
I am loving taking the neighborhood tours through your camera lenses.
Thanks!!
You can reach me at naffziger (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks!