St. Louis Patina

Located just northeast of downtown Peoria, the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception has recently gained greater prominence as the burial place of the Venerable Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. I’ve looked at some of the houses nearby, once… Continue Reading →

I had known for awhile that Richard Pryor was from Peoria, but I had always assumed it was one of those situations where he was born there and had moved away when he was a small child. That is far… Continue Reading →

It is amazing how quickly we lose the memory of the huge old factories that once powered America through peacetime, and then when war came, helped defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Few people probably know the LeTourneau name anymore,… Continue Reading →

When I first woke up the sun was shining, but then the fog materialized an hour after sunrise. As I drove up the road to the north to photograph the longhorns at a neighbor’s farm, the mists suddenly lifted only… Continue Reading →

The sun sets early in December but I was still able to get these photos of the family farm.

The giant grain elevator in Secor had long attracted my attention on my drive west of El Paso on U.S. Highway 24 on my way to Eureka, Illinois, but this time I decided to go visit and take a look… Continue Reading →

Oregon Avenue was the site of a country estate set among a grove of trees owned by a B.W. Alexander back in 1875. Back to the present day and crossing over Potomac Street, which I looked at back in October… Continue Reading →

Back in 1875, there was little to give us an impression of what would one day be the block of Oregon Avenue between Miami and Potomac streets. There was a large Second Empire mansion, owned by a Mrs. W.L. Ewing,… Continue Reading →

Oregon Avenue between Winnebago and Miami was fairly developed in 1875 when the draughtsman came by to look at it, with a row of working class houses and orchards along its length. Back to 2021, crossing over Winnebago Street, which… Continue Reading →

Oregon Avenue was only a grassy strip hemmed in by a grove of trees on the east, and a vineyard on the west in 1875, but development must have started in earnest shortly thereafter. Leaving Chippewa Street behind, where this… Continue Reading →

While it’s now painted “Big Bird Yellow,” the old school house seen in Pictorial St. Louis and labeled as No. 7 is still standing on the northwest corner of Potomac and Ohio. The large sinkhole on the northeast corner, which… Continue Reading →

Looking at Compton and Dry’s Pictorial St. Louis in 1876, Ohio Avenue is a winding path, with massive sinkholes on what would become the west side of the street. The east side of the street was lined with Italianate country… Continue Reading →

Ohio Avenue between Winnebago and Miami streets has long been one of the more fascinating blocks in the city for me, creating a residential district on the edge of the South St. Louis “Lutheran Civic Center,” as I call it.… Continue Reading →

Leaving Dutchtown, we cross over Chippewa into the Gravois Park neighborhood. Historically, this was all Greater Dutchtown, I have been told by longtime residents, but today they are two distinct areas. Looking at the Greek Revival storefront above facing Chippewa… Continue Reading →

Ohio Avenue continued to be nothing more than a line on a surveyor’s map in between Keokuk and Chippewa streets in 1875, though you can clearly see its right-of-way between two rows of fences (note that Texas Avenue was still… Continue Reading →

In 1875, Ohio Avenue between Osage and Keokuk streets consisted of nothing more than a wood fence and a grove of trees on the back side of the first building of St. Alexius Hospital, which no doubt opened so early… Continue Reading →

Opposite Minnie Wood Memorial Square Park and Carnahan High School of the Future, we will now head north up Ohio Avenue, looking at the west side of the street starting at Meramec. There is a large Second Empire house on… Continue Reading →

Minnie Wood Memorial Square Park is a irregular parallelogram-shaped park at the busy intersection of South Broadway, Meramec, Ohio and and vacated Gasconade streets. Wood was a wealthy woman who donated the land for the park, and it was created… Continue Reading →

As we cross over Keokuk Street heading north on Oregon Avenue, we pop out on Compton and Dry’s 1876 Pictorial St. Louis. I always remind people that while our city was founded in 1764, the vast majority of the built… Continue Reading →

The houses above to the west of Oregon Avenue on Osage Street were probably all built at the same time, but it’s interesting to see how their fates have diverged over the last one hundred years. The four-families on the… Continue Reading →