Full Moon Over Art Hill

Mike Stasny

Pevely Dairy Building Will Still Stand For Now

As of today, the Pevely Dairy Complex in Midtown will not be demolished, as SLU has withdrawn its appeal of the denial for a demolition permit.

Jefferson Avenue, South St. Louis

One of these days I'm actually going to get out of my car and walk the full length of Jefferson from I-44 to Broadway, and document what a wonderful street it is architecturally.

Kutis Funeral Home

I've always been intrigued by the Kutis Funeral Home on Gravois at Arsenal; it's an odd building architecturally, though certainly perhaps because of its use it needed to be.

A Little of Benton Park West

I love the streets and alleys of Benton Park West, where there's so much potential.

Gothic Revival Church, Benton Park West

I love Gothic architecture, and there's plenty of it in the city.

Dutchtown: Good and Bad

There are a lot of beautiful houses in Dutchtown, such as the well-kept one above. Below, I low this little detail of what was once a storefront, but apparently they also included an arched doorway through the front. I'm not sure about the story behind it.This Italianate house also is amazing on Chippewa; it just keep going out the back. I wonder if this was a smaller building that was built out over the years after it became an apartment building.All is not well in Dutchtown, as this building attests. It looks like it's in an advanced state of collapse on the upper floors.Likewise, this sturdy rowhouse is now boarded up, despite being well-built. It looks like something you might see in Hyde Park or St. Louis Place. I hope these abandoned buildings aren't harbingers for the future.

Varied Housing Stock, Dutchtown

I love the varied different types of housing in Dutchtown; while the neighborhood was first built in the first decades of the Twentieth Century, it has styles reaching all the way to the present day.Four family flats abound, but the Mansard roofed houses are some of the more unique.Three story houses stand next to one story houses, and the interesting mix makes the neighborhoods one of the most interesting in the city.

The Importance of the Street Wall, Dutchtown

I'm concerned about the future of Dutchtown; it has been wracked with some of the worst violence in the city this last year, and it is also the most dense neighborhood in the city. I've often said, so goes Dutchtown, so goes the rest of the South Side.The rowhouses create such a wonderful sense of being in a real neighborhood; the houses, often built in a row of identical or slightly different houses, create a rhythm that is pleasing to the eye.Whether it's one story shotguns with their crenelated tops, or two family flats with their facades of red brick, quality of construction always pervades.I am always amazed at the houses I see every time I'm down south of Chippewa and north of Meramec. It seems there are countless streets to be discovered in the huge area.

Bomb Door

Bell Telephone Building Detail

Plane over Cherokee Street

My House

Back when the Compton and Dry aerial print of the city of St. Louis was published, my street wasn't even cut through yet, but you could see how the small farmhouse that once sat just south of my house had a fence on the property line. I wonder if my neighbors north of me want to know that their houses are built on an filled-in sinkhole...My house appears on the Sanborn Map sometime after 1910, when my house was built along with five other shotguns houses on my block. The farmhouse seems to have been torn down shortly after that time, and two four-family apartments went up in the void.I never realized it, but my old garage, torn down before I bought the house, had its own address: Rear 2928 S. Compton, which is interesting because my house is 2929.

Chouteau at Grand Boulevard

One hundred years ago, there wasn't a lot at the intersection of Grand and Chouteau; there was a quarry, some houses, but no signs of the massive buildings that would one day fill the area.On a recent Saturday, I had the pleasure of joining a picnic at the intersection, in one of the large, empty lawns that stretch out to the southeast.It's striking how elevated the location is, and it provides stunning views of the the city from midtown all the way to downtown.As the Twentieth Century unfolded, institutions like SLU Hospital were built, along with the Pevely Dairy.Sadly, despite such huge building being around, the area is desolate, and not just because of the closure of the Grand Viaduct. Frankly, there is nowhere to walk to, or from in this area, and the only passersby seemed to be transferring bus lines.I understand on the edges of cities desolation is perhaps normal, but in the heart of the city?

Pevely Dairy Building

A sturdy, well-built building, the Pevely Dairy almost certainly was constructed with steel reinforced concrete piers that hold up the floors and roof. Consequently, its floor plan is easily adaptable to changing times. Bookending one side of the Mill Creek Valley with the Budweiser sign on the other, the complex is a landmark in Midtown, and must be saved, if nothing more than the building on the corner.

One House, One Hundred Years

I noticed that this storefront on Chouteau is not what it seems at first glance. Surrounded by what are now abandoned industrial sites and fast food restaurants, the area was originally residential.Looking closer, one realizes that there is actually a house buried in the structure, which you can see free standing in the above Sanborn Fire Insurance map from 1909.One of my favorite details is the small slanted roof that leads from the ground floor of the storefront to the first floor of the old house; you can actually still see the brick arch of the door peaking out from above the roof.It was actually very common, as streets became more commercial and dense, that old houses would receive a new life as a store. I wonder if this was a small factory or laundry, as there is a large back building with ample windows. I'm afraid for the future of this building.

Missing Roof

This house looks all messed up; judging from next door, there was once a much larger roof on this house.

City Hall, Cape Girardeau

Covered Bridge, Burfordsville

While now closed to traffic, the Burfordsville covered bridge still allows visitors to walk across the river to photograph the mill.One of only four or five covered bridges left in Missouri, the bridge used a new technology that included a steel tie bar in addition to the two crossed beams.The roof was not just to protect the bridge, but also offered shelter in thunderstorms to travelers caught in the rain.At harvest time, all of the farmers from the surrounding area would come together at the mill and bridge to grind their grain and celebrate the fall season.