I got back over to the West End, that neighborhood on the edge of the city limits and north of Delmar.  It is a neighborhood of impressive housing stock, often equal to the more famous Central West End to the southeast.  Sadly, it is not experiencing the growth that other neighborhood is enjoying.  I took the above picture near the famous pocket of concrete block houses off of Hamilton Avenue.

I’m often surprised by the housing stock of the North Side west of Grand–it developed much, much earlier than its equivalent on the South Side, and it seems to have been slower and more methodical.  The architectural heterogeneity is striking.

Take this stunning Second Empire house, across the street from this more eclectic house.

Will redevelopment come back to this area before it is too late?  I hope so.  I did recently see a house advertised as the “Central West End” that was in this neighborhood.  I knew from the price ($50,000) that our realtor friend was playing a bit of boundary fudging to increase the likelihood of a sale.