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 old quarry map, perhaps it post-dates it–looks like a stone quarry) as seen here when I revisited it in the summer of 2021.

But I’ve become intrigued with the idea of dramatically changed streetscapes, and how the houses and apartments near the enclave would have seen a totally different view out their front doors for decades before the houses were built in the mid Twentieth Century. In one direction, a gigantic pit, and then in the other direction, the huge Public Schools Stadium on North Kingshighway, which like so many buildings in that organization’s portfolio, was allowed to be abandoned and left open to vandals before being demolished in 1969 after only 41 years of use. I had the happy coincidence of just talking to a woman on Monday who fondly remembers the stadium, and also registered her annoyance that it was torn down when it was still in good condition.

The streets around these two landmarks are in varying degrees of repair, and I’ve looked at this section of St. Louis Avenue before, back in December of 2018.

To the north, the streets which were “attached” to Norwood Court included Labadie and Greer avenues. There are many of your standard two- and four-family apartment buildings.

On one section of Labadie east of Norwood, it looks like there were some repairs going on; I do not know what was happening.

But there is so much abandonment, otherwise.