City Hospital Power Plant, Reinvisioned

I can't say enough positive words about the renovation of the old City Hospital power plant into a bouldering facility, envisioned by two brothers and I think some of their friends.

Left as a ruin when the City Hospital was abandoned, the power plant is a landmark on the near south side.

The interior, while stripped of the bulky boilers that once filled the room, still contains some nice elements alluding to its industrial past, such as a giant gantry crane that still hangs over the lobby.

Below you can see several angles of the artificial "rock wall" that climbers can now tackle in the renovated space.

More Collapse at St. Mary's Infirmary?

I can't tell for sure, but it looks like there might have been a little more collapse at St. Mary's Infirmary. I may be wrong, but it doesn't look good, if at the least in the long run.

St. Mary's Infirmary

I don't have much to say about the long-suffering St. Mary's Infirmary on Papin Street on the near South side. Stripped of all of its historical context, it sits vacant, and rapidly deteriorating a block from Chouteau Avenue.

I expect that it will be unceremoniously knocked down at the behest of AmerenUE some day in the next couple of years.

Plans for its conversion to condos seems to have died with the real estate bubble bursting.

A back wall has collapsed, and the evidence of spalling inside the wall on the east side of the building was apparent when viewed last week.

I'm afraid I'm going to drive by one day and see that the entire east wall has fallen off of the building.

Shortly thereafter, the news media, hungry for another story that supports their narrative that the city is falling apart, will report that an emergency demolition has commenced.

And one last vestige of one of the oldest parts of the cit will be gone forever.

See pictures of the interior, from several years ago, here.

Here is my post from three years ago of the same building; sadly nothing has changed except for the worse.

I-55

I wish I could go back in time and tell the mayor of St. Louis that he was making the biggest mistake of his life by building the interstates through the heart of the city. Sixty years later, our nation is addicted to a product that can only be procured through great expense or from nations who use the revenue to oppress their own people, or even attack us. And more importantly, the interstates eviscerated the city, robbing it of cohesion, thousands of houses, and customers who would have added millions in tax dollars every year.

French Market

Tucked away, right in the middle of the jumble of streets that head into Downtown, is a one block stretch of street, an alley really, named French Market Court.French Market? Only five or six blocks north of the more famous Soulard Market, the South Market, known as the French Market presumably because of its location in the Frenchtown neighborhood, was one of two markets built by the City of St. Louis in 1839 to expand market space from the original market on Market Street.The North Market, known as the Mound Market, was located up on the northside of what is now Downtown.But does anything survive that could have originally been part of the French Market? The buildings now lining the street seem to warehouses, not market buildings.I suspect, as Soulard Market took off, the French Market slowly died off, and as the area became more industrial the market buildings at Broadway and LaSalle Streets was torn down. Looking at the Sanborn maps, which are approximately one hundred years old depending on the edition and revisions, reveal large amounts of vacant land along the Court, suggesting that the buildings had only recently been torn down in the last decade before the map was published. I find it hard to believe that there would be so much vacant land otherwise in such a densely settled sector of the city. Seemingly, only the street survives as a remnant of one of the first market spaces in the rapidly expanding St. Louis.There is enormous potential in these buildings, as considering that most of the urban fabric has been annihilated for Rally's and White Castle parking lots, the relative intact stretch of warehouses and light industrial buildings would be perfect for rehabilitation.If you have any historic photos or paintings of the French Market, please let me know! There's next to no information out there about the market, and it is a fascinating relic of the past that deserves more attention.

Bombed Out Burger King

Bohemian Hill Moving Forward?

Woah, when no one was looking, the Bohemian Hill project has begun in earnest. While no signs of the grocery store construction are present, the Walgreen's is clearly almost done. How did we miss this?

For background, read my earlier posts here and here as well as that of other websites.

Frenchtown, LaSalle Park, Whatever It's Called

I don't think I can find a more butchered area of South St. Louis than the area around Purina along 12th Street (Tucker Blvd). Once known as Frenchtown, the area is a strange mix of beautiful homes, public housing that will have to be torn down (again) in twenty years, and interstates, lots and lots of interstates.But I'm being negative; what is left is certainly enough for an inspired in-fill project to create what St. Louis lacks so badly--a normal neighborhood within walking distance of Downtown. Chicago, Washington, New York, Philadelphia and even Baltimore all have strong, middle class neighborhoods a five minute walk from their downtowns.Why can't St. Louis? It will take real leadership, the rethinking of interstates and their roles in the central city, and more importantly, a break away from suburban style trash that is popping up all over the city.