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Downtown, Alton
We’re going to swing back through Alton for a few days. Like Hannibal, Quincy or even Cairo, and a bunch of other towns, I can’t help but imagine that except for a few twists of fate, Alton could have...
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State Street and Environs, Alton
Working my way around on Mill Street over to Carroll, I saw some of the wide variety of houses on the steep slopes of the bluffs to the west of downtown Alton. Below is looking up William Street....
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Tennessee Avenue Between Chippewa and Miami Streets
I thought I would look at Tennessee Avenue in the Gravois Park neighborhood, starting at Chippewa Street, heading north. Skipping by some in-fill and vacant lots, we arrive at the southwest corner of...
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St. Louis Avenue, JeffVanderLou, Winter 2024
I had originally headed west on St. Louis Avenue based on an unfounded tip that Sarah Lou’s had caught fire. Thankfully, it had not, and I ended up having a great conversation with an older gentleman...
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St. Augustine’s in the Fog After the Latest Fire
On the afternoon of January 22, another fire broke out in the former St. Augustine’s, but this time it was apparently in the other end of the church, towards the front doors. The damage from the...
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Humboldt Elementary School
Emil Boehl, Humboldt School, Third Street Near Russell, c. 1890s, Missouri History Museum, N33235. I’ve driven by the Humboldt School so many times I was beginning to be a bit embarrassed that I had...
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St. Joseph’s, Manchester
St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, c. 1940, Courtesy of Archdiocesan Archives of St. Louis. “Kick out the jams!“ Thanks to the eagle eyes of readers, I discovered that St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic...
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Roof Collapse, St. Augustine’s
Sometimes there are things in life that are terrible, and no matter what you do, you can’t change them, and you just have to take it. I was driving north on the newly smooth Parnell, heading to St....
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Third Fire at St. Augustine’s
A St. Louis Patina correspondent captured firefighters battling the towering inferno that broke out in the evening of March 18th, devastating St. Augustine’s. At this point, I reluctantly have to...
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St. Augustine’s a Week Before the Third Fire
I may have taken some of the only photos of the former St. Augustine’s after the collapse of the roof over the nave sometime in February and before the fire on the night of March 18th. Honestly, it...
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St. Augustine’s the Day After the Third Fire
To say the visit to the former St. Augustine’s the day after the towering inferno that gutted the church was depressing would be an understatement. About the only positive thing I could say is that at...
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The Other Gateway to the West: St. Joseph
I was giving a lecture in St. Joseph, Missouri, in the northwestern corner of the state, and lo and behold, I found one of the most architecturally rich cities in the Midwest, if not in the whole...
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Downtown St. Joseph
Downtown St. Joseph is quite nice, with minimal amount of land turned over to pointless parking lots. There are many buildings being renovated, and there are many interesting businesses. There is this...
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Three Churches, St. Joseph
Originally organized in 1854, the current First Presbyterian Church dates from 1911, sitting at the corner of 7th and Jules streets. Bryan, John Albury. Missouri’s Contribution to Architecture. St....
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Krug Park and Two Cemeteries, St. Joseph
One of the focal points of St. Joseph is Krug Park, which is a fairly rugged plot of land on the northern side of the city. There is a system of parkways that connects much of the city (and is...
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Mount Mora Cemetery, St. Joseph
Established in 1851, Mount Mora owes its current design to W. Angelo Powell in 1872. Like most of the cemeteries I show, this is a product of the rural cemetery movement begun at Père Lachaise...
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The End of Rock Alva
Thanks to a tip, I learned that Rock Alva’s last central portion (the majority of the estate had already been sold off) was recently sold and subdivided off into a small housing development. The only...
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Around the Family Farm, Spring 2024
I checked up on the family farm east of Peoria in Central Illinois the last weekend of April, and things were looking good even if the fields were very wet, delaying spring planting. It was very...
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Washington, Illinois, Spring 2024
At the intersection of Holland and South Main streets is an ensemble of Victorian Period houses in Washington, Illinois that I have revisited over the years, the first time in 2009 and the second time...
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Demolition, Memory and Baltimore
Maryland Penitentiary-Metropolitan Transition Center, 401 E. Eager Street, Baltimore, Maryland, Photograph by Eli Pousson, June 9, 2017. A tree fell in the forest and I wasn’t around to hear it, so to...
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