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Northeast Peoria, August 2019
Perhaps I was being too optimistic when I first documented Peoria northeast of downtown back in 2013. I have been back, and while there is a wonderful group of houses that have been carefully restored...
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St. Mary’s Assumption Roman Catholic Church
Officially, in Church doctrine this is a chapel, but in form it is a church. Like many of the houses of worship in the older part of the city, this building needed a new use when the density of the...
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Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church
Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church sits in the dense neighborhood of Soulard, and sometimes falls off my radar because of the busy traffic that flies by on its rear on South 7th Street. But I...
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Minerva Avenue, Hamilton Heights, Revisited
I find myself drawn back to the block of identical duplexes on Minerva Avenue in Hamilton Heights between Hamilton and Goodfellow avenues. Sadly, I think they are almost all abandoned now, if they...
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North St. Louis, Late Summer, 2019
I met new people all over North St. Louis this summer, including members of the congregation of the Original Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in the Ville neighborhood, on St. Louis Avenue. Better...
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Old St. George’s Episcopal Church, Reimagined
No one I know who lives in the city likes seeing churches go dark, and I was concerned when this congregation closed a couple of years ago. But the goods news came when this was converted into...
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The Beauty of Dutchtown, Part 6, Iowa Avenue Between Osage and Keokuk Streets
My first post ever for Dutchtown was this block of Iowa between Osage and Keokuk streets, where the old St. Thomas of Aquinas Roman Catholic Church stands. It is now occupied by another congregation,...
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California Avenue Between Wyoming and Arsenal Streets, Benton Park West
North of Wyoming Street, California Avenue has the normal Benton Park West style houses, influences by the German immigrants who settled here around 1900. There is the heavy influence of the...
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Old Bethany Evangelical Church
The old Bethany Evangelical church existed from 1867 to 1971. It moved into this building in 1915. Sadly it is now abandoned again after serving as a ward community center for a few years. A corner...
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Details of the Spire, St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Oratory
You probably noticed over the last three to four months my photographs were becoming increasingly blurry, overexposed, underexposed and just all around incredibly lower quality (even more so than...
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St. John United Church of Christ
We realized we had never looked at St. John United Church of Christ up close, despite long admiring its unrivaled location sitting high upon a hill overlooking the intersection of Manchester and...
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Around the Gates, University City
The sun was setting as I took some pictures of the gates to University Heights, just to the west of the Loop. The lions are actually concrete casts of the originals, which are now in an undisclosed...
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Discovering Shaw, Part 4: Russell Boulevard Between Spring Avenue and Grand...
Moving east from the corner with Spring Avenue, there is a banquet of exceptional houses on Russell Boulevard, with large cut stone facades and complex dormers and towers on houses. While the house...
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Discovering Shaw, 16: St. Margaret of Scotland Roman Catholic Church
I finally took a closer look at St. Margaret of Scotland Roman Catholic Church, which has anchored the corner of Flad and 39th Street since 1906, though it was officially founded as a parish in 1899....
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Uplands Park and Nelson Presbyterian Church
Oh, so this is Uplands Park, I thought to myself, as I pulled off Natural Bridge Road just west of Pine Lawn and the City limits. There are several streets of beautiful and well-kept houses, of a...
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Bethel United Methodist Church, Wildwood
Bethel United Methodist Church is a congregation whose roots go deep into the history of West County, all the way back to 1858. In fact, I did not realize it, but I had photographed its original stone...
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Old State Road
Old State Road follows a ridge line through the foot hills, providing a link from Manchester Road near Ellisville down to Eureka. I imagine it is a very old road. It appears in Julius Pitzmann’s...
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The Resurrection of St. Augustine’s
As I wrote this Monday in St. Louis Magazine, the long suffering St. Augustine has been purchased by Brittany Breeden and is going to be rehabbed as a community center. No, it’s not going to be...
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Park Avenue Between MacKay and Benton Places
The block between MacKay (formerly Armstrong) and Benton places might be short, but it is jam-packed with history and beautiful architecture. It has also changed very little since 1876, when Compton...
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Checking In On St. Augustine’s
Elves have a long history in Western Civilization, going all the way back to Norse mythology. They are often tricksters, causing trouble for humans, but they also sometimes surreptitiously provide...
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