Welcome (Back) to Saint Louis Patina

Maybe this is your first time here, or maybe you're a long time reader. Regardless, I want to welcome you to my site dedicated to the beauty, the patina of St. Louis. What began almost five years ago as a hobby has grown into an integral part of my life, and I want you to understand how lucky St. Louisans are to be blessed with some of the most stunning architecture in America.

I'm coming up on my 1500th post, so perhaps as a good way to start getting acquainted with my site is with these three tags, which break the city down into geographical parts:

North St. Louis

Central St. Louis

South St. Louis

If you have great memories, or even historic photos from the past of St. Louis architecture, I would love to hear from you. I have many contributors who have provided me with a wealth of fascinating stories about our great city.

In closing, I think my words I wrote a week ago, when speaking of the demolition of an historic church in Rock Hill, actually sums up perfectly the purpose behind this website:

I remarked to myself recently that Americans spend billions of dollars each year as tourists traveling to iconic, beautiful cities such as Rome, London or Paris in order to experience what humanity has accomplished in the fine art of building great, memorable and iconic cities. How sad it is that many Americans don't realize or care that we are free to make our own cities as beautiful as the aforementioned cities, but we choose a gas station over an historic structure. Let me ask you, would the city of Rome allow the demolition of an historic church for a gas station? If not, then why do we?