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Recent Collapses
I know many people told me they could care less that the SaLees Kennard House was in danger of being demolished, since she was the daughter of one of the founders of the Veiled Prophet Parade. Well...
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Updates on Demolitions, Fires and Other Collapses
There is much to report on this spring, starting with a collapse of an out building on Utah Street in Benton Park. It can still be salvaged, though. Below, as I suspected would happen, another of the...
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Demolition, Samuel Shepard Drive
They did in fact go ahead and demolish the small house (seventh photo down) across the street from the SaLees Kennard House sometime in the first week of May. Senior citizens interested in attending...
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Under the Viaducts in the Mill Creek Valley
Historic photographs prove the valley between Chouteau and Forest Park Avenue was never some Lafayette Square-type neighborhood full of beautiful houses that deteriorated into a wasteland. No, it was...
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Under the Viaducts in the Mill Creek Valley, Part 2
I looked at some of the industrial areas under the bridges and viaducts that cross over the Mill Creek Valley and its extensions west previously. Now we will look at some redevelopment around Grand...
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Under the Viaducts in the Mill Creek Valley, Part 3
There are still some buildings just south of Highway 40 that were designed when Market Street still passed by their northern facades, such as the one above. But when the highway was built after World...
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Lake Grand Center
They’re building some houses here designed by a bunch of starchitects, but for the time being, it is a giant muddy mess with a lake down at one end. I still think the house they demolished years ago...
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3765 Lindell Boulevard, the Theophile Papin Residence, Later the Odd Fellows...
Wait a minute, I thought to myself, as I looked at the front facade of the Odd Fellows Hall on Lindell Boulevard, there’s something suspicious about that building. As I suspected, as many buildings in...
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Roof Collapse at the Old Palladium
I learned on Twitter that the historic Palladium, which I wrote about years ago due to its link to African American musical history in America, has suffered a roof collapse, most likely due to the...
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The End of MO-755
Readers will probably have two reactions to the discussion of the closure of the five entrances and exits in this post. It will either be, “I’ve never heard of these in my entire life,” or “Oh no,...
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Current Affairs This Summer
I went by the Theophile Papin House on the last Saturday of June. It’s being demolished. It’s sad, but honestly, it had been so heavily altered that it wouldn’t really have been feasible or worthwhile...
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Former Kennard Elementary School
Kennard School, 5031 Potomac Avenue, c. 1930, Photograph by W.C. Persons, Missouri History Museum, N33239 Samuel M. Kennard Elementary School has been in the news recently, so I thought I would check...
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Fruin-Bambrick Quarry
I never got a chance to photograph them, but there used to be a row of one story buildings that lined the west side of Grand Boulevard just south of the viaduct over the railroad tracks, just north of...
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Demolition of Ewing Avenue Bridge
Highway 40 (Interstate 64) was closed last weekend due to the demolition of the Ewing Avenue overpass. I went out to take a look. It’s amazing how large machines can chisel away and destroy concrete...
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West Olive, Grand Center
They’re coming along on building the $300,000 houses on West Olive Street in Grand Center, and the lake I had photographed before is now gone. The new houses actually have some panache, and are...
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Views of Central St. Louis from St. Louis University Hospital’s Parking Garage
I was checking out the beautiful Emil Frei & Associates stained glass windows in the chapel of the new St. Louis University Hospital, and when I looked out from my perch in the parking garage, I...
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Washington Tabernacle Congregation and the Corner of North Compton Avenue and...
Washington Tabernacle Baptist Church has called this building home since 1926, and survived a destructive fire in 1945, bringing the building back to life in 1948. It was previously a Presbyterian...
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Hubertus Schotten House
This exemplary example of the Romanesque Revival sits in the western end of Saint Louis University’s campus on the West Pine Boulevard pedestrian mall. Like its more famous neighbor to the east, the...
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Stephen Allen Bemis House
This amazing survivor in Grand Center, just behind Powell Hall, used to be the home of Portfolio Gallery, but I don’t know what it is being used for now. As you can see below, it was once part of a...
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Old Carter Carburetor Offices and Pythias Hall
I’ve looked at the old Carter Carburetor Plant on North Grand Boulevard before many times in the past, and it has been demolished and remediated for PCBs. But the office building for the company was...
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