Clik here to view.
Dead Olive Boulevard
It starts out strong enough, rows of rehabbed buildings with award-winning restaurants around Compton Avenue. Then it starts to get a little more quiet, and the buildings, while well-maintained, start...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Monument Plumbing Supply Company
Records show that the tall, beautiful Beaux-Arts style warehouse was the part of the Monument Plumbing Supply Company in 1917. Its architecture shows the influence of Roman architecture, with a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Modernist Storefronts, Washington, Boulevard
Midtown has been reimagined several times, first as an extension of the downtown area in the early Twentieth Century, and then again in the 1950s as there seems to be an attempt at keeping the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Washington and Compton Presbyterian Church
The Washington and Compton Presbyterian Church was an outgrowth of 2nd Presbyterian, first known as Walnut Street Presbyterian in 1864. This church was built in the late 1870s, and served was occupied...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Scott Joplin House, Revisited
In the first year of this website, I visited the Scott Joplin House. I hadn’t been back on foot until last month; I drove through back in late July. Why is that? Scott Joplin is a fascinating...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Detritus, Samuel Shepard Drive
The broken limbs and trunks brought down in the midsummer storm were cleared out of the street relatively quickly, except on those forgotten streets of abandoned houses.
View ArticleClik here to view.
SaLees Kennard House, Midtown
I wrote about this desolate block of Samuel Shepard Drive last month, discovering that a daughter of the founder of the Veiled Prophet probably lived here. It is marked for demolition by the State of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Front, Row of Houses, Samuel Shepard Drive
I’m constantly drawn back to this row of houses, owned by the State of Missouri. Elegant, neighborly, and still full of potential since the State has stabilized them, they need to be sold to the right...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Backs, Row of Houses, Samuel Shepard Drive
Just look at how beautiful these backyards are (and could be), shaded by this large tree. This is living close to your neighbors, requiring to actually get to know them.
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Last of Its Kind, Samuel Shepard Drive
This little guy is the last of what was originally five row houses, perhaps only saved because it used its stout neighbors for support. But it gets even more exciting on the side, where obvious signs...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Givens Row, Late October 2016
The remnants of what St. Louis once was, and what it could be again, still pop up here and there on Delmar and other streets in the once posh Midtown. “New York Style” living, where there are bustling...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Demolition at Jamison Memorial Church
A demolition permit was issued for $10,000 in late October to wreck the old Second Empire townhouse that once stood connected to Jamison Memorial Church. A friend tipped me off to the recent events....
View ArticleClik here to view.
SaLees Kennard House Collapse
Your tax dollars at work! The State of Missouri has jealously owned a group of historic houses on Samuel Shepard Drive for a couple of decades, and now the SaLees Kennard House has suffered a collapse...
View ArticleClik here to view.
More Collapse, Last of Its Kind House
More brick has spalled out at collapse on the weakened chimney of the old house on Samuel Shepard. Looking back to my August pictures, I can now see that it was already weakened. It was never meant to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Old Jefferson Bank and Trust, Revisited
My wide angle lens is much better suited for capturing the long lines of the old Jefferson Bank and Trust building at Jefferson and Washington.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lone Survivor, Storm Damage
Bad news after recent storms; this old house from at least the 1870s or earlier suffered damage due to winds.
View ArticleClik here to view.
Midtown Survivors, Early Spring 2018
I checked up on those historic houses on Samuel Shepard Drive, the rare survivors of the upper middle class residential district built right after the Civil War. They are owned by the State of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Checking in on Midtown
I love finding these old houses in Midtown built right after the Civil War, such as the one above, right in the Gothic Revival shadow of St. Alphonsus Ligori, still an active parish church. It also...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Coming Soon: Nothing!
I had been following the demolition of the historic row house and wing of the church on Washington Avenue. I understand that there are reasons why buildings must be torn down, but to leave the vacant...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fences Go Up
I have been following these houses now for several years, and while there has been renewed interest in preserving them, I noticed that fences have gone up around two of these incredibly rare survivors...
View Article