St. Louis Patina

One thing I notice about the east-west streets in Dutchtown, such as Gasconade Street above, is that they are lined with buildings facing them, unlike in other parts of the city. Past the alley, though, moving north, the street wall… Continue Reading →

Heading north of Meramec Street looking at the west side of Oregon Avenue, we see some interesting tuckpointing on a storefront’s side, and then the buildings turn into houses. There’s a mix of houses, both new and old, and four-families,… Continue Reading →

Heading north of Chariton Street and looking at the west side of Oregon Avenue, we see that there are houses that are in excellent condition, and also houses with new plywood in their windows. The house below with Formstone also… Continue Reading →

I’m continuing the Beauty of Dutchtown series, which I left off with a short look at the southwest side of the intersection of South Jefferson, Chippewa and South Broadway. I decided to look at the two “O” streets, Oregon and… Continue Reading →

Like many of my discoveries, I find interesting buildings and stories by scanning around on Google Satellite, and in the course of doing so, I spot something anomalous, such as an obvious feed lot in the middle of the city,… Continue Reading →

I’ve looked at a little bit of Cabanne Avenue in between Union and Kingshighway boulevards before, but I decided to take a look at another section of the street between Clarendon and Academy avenues one Saturday morning. The housing stock… Continue Reading →

I’ve actually photographed the houses above and below before, back when I looked at Maple Avenue in April of this year (last photo), but they were on the other side of a street closure, which are common throughout this part… Continue Reading →

As I noticed back in April of this year, the Cabanne Castle was undergoing a gutting and presumed rehab. A building permit for $2,000,000 had been pulled in February, and hopes were high. When I drove by recently, it seemed… Continue Reading →

None of my friends who live up north around the St. Louis Place and Old North St. Louis neighborhoods told me they were terribly surprised when the old Freie Gemeinde when up in flames on a bitterly cold night a… Continue Reading →

I was driving somewhere else when I spotted this row of houses on North Nineteenth Street, on the far south side of Hyde Park. I don’t think I’ve photographed them before. The house below looks like it might be seeing… Continue Reading →

Due to the giant no trespassing signs written in gold lettering, I had to look at Shaw Place, laid out by Henry Shaw himself, from the public right-of-way. The eight houses, designed by George I. Barnett, were originally intended as… Continue Reading →

I’ve looked at the super rare Carpenter Gothic house before, but there are also other extremely unique and very old houses located in the northern reaches of Carondelet that date back to the earliest days of the then-independent city and… Continue Reading →

This house, which I suspect is one of the earliest examples of the Second Empire style in St. Louis, was the home of Frank W. Choisel, editor of the The Realty and Builder Record, which published information on new buildings… Continue Reading →

I drove into Germantown, Ohio from the east, and was greeted by a row of beautifully restored houses from the Nineteenth through early Twentieth Centuries Orangish-red brick was used to build Italianate style houses along the main road into town.… Continue Reading →

The Fayette County Courthouse is one of the more impressive that I have seen in America, and it is well preserved and maintained. Opened in 1885, it was built between 1882-1884. It is built in what I might call a… Continue Reading →

As I was planning out my short drive between Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, I spotted a town slightly off the interstate named Washington Court House. That sounds interesting, I thought, I wonder if there’s a nice courthouse there. Google Street… Continue Reading →

The parish complex of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary cuts a stunning profile down the west side of Main Street north of the railroad tracks in the historic section of O’Fallon. The church is over 150 years old,… Continue Reading →

I had never seen the Convent of the Sisters of the Most Precious Blood of O’Fallon, and it is an impressive presence on Main Street in the historic area of town. Portions of the complex were sold to the City… Continue Reading →

Fort Zumwalt is a real place, and not just the name of four high schools, and this reconstruction of the fortified log cabin that gives its name to the surrounding park and area gives us an idea of early settler… Continue Reading →

All Saints Roman Catholic Church in St. Peters traces its origins to 1823 when it was first founded by French settlers. It was known as St. Peter’s at first, which gives its name to the city and area. Only later,… Continue Reading →