Stately Homes, East St. Louis

By no means is the entire city of East St. Louis a wasteland, and in fact many streets still retain their original houses.

They could easily be in Tower Grove South or any number of neighborhoods in St. Louis.

Rather interestingly, these two houses with their distinctive turrets are the same design, but one has brick and the other tan stone.

While many houses were originally built of wood in the city, these houses are brick or stone, and are still surviving the ravages of time.

Also, I will be presenting about the exciting future of St. Louis Patina at 7:00 PM at the Contemporary Art Museum on July 12th, in conjunction with PechaKucha St. Louis. I hope to see you there.

Ainad Temple, East St. Louis

Long known as one of the last surviving institutions from the "old" East St. Louis, the Ainad Temple is a fascinating mix of brick and Moorish Revival decorative elements.

Inspired by buildings such as the Alhambra in Granada, Spain, it reflects an architectural frame of mind that was willing to borrow from any style that suited architects and their clients.

There was talk of moving two years ago, but I hope that they've changed their minds and chosen to stay.

Also, I will be presenting about the exciting future of St. Louis Patina at 7:00 PM at the Contemporary Art Museum on July 12th, in conjunction with PechaKucha St. Louis. I hope to see you there.

Some More Downtown East St. Louis

I'm always amazed by some of the beautiful storefronts on Collinsville Avenue, many featuring terracotta decorative elements that are still in good condition after decades of neglect.

Sadly, the back sides of many of the most elegant buildings in downtown are beginning to fail, and are slowing falling down into piles of concrete and rebar.

Grass lots are replacing what were once businesses, leaving the long sides of building exposed to view.

This house looks like it caught on fire at some point; despite the vinyl siding, I suspect this house is much older.

Also, I will be presenting about the exciting future of St. Louis Patina at 7:00 PM at the Contemporary Art Museum on July 12th, in conjunction with PechaKucha St. Louis. I hope to see you there.

Salon 482, East St. Louis

Also, I will be presenting about the exciting future of St. Louis Patina at 7:00 PM at the Contemporary Art Museum on July 12th, in conjunction with PechaKucha St. Louis. I hope to see you there.

Wendy's, East St. Louis

For some reason, when they tore down the rest of the Wendy's, they left the sign. On the other side it says "CLSED."

Also, I will be presenting about the exciting future of St. Louis Patina at 7:00 PM at the Contemporary Art Museum on July 12th, in conjunction with PechaKucha St. Louis. I hope to see you there.

Spivey Building, Revisited

I had the opportunity to photograph the long-suffering Spivey Building, supposedly the tallest building in southern Illinois. You can see previous pictures of the exterior and interior.

I was concerned that there was some new damage to the pediment of the building, but I looked back at old pictures and realized that it has been like that for a while.

The city wants to tear it down, but it has no money to do it. In many ways, it's sort of an awkward building; individual floors don't have much square footage, and there's plenty of room to build new buildings in downtown East St. Louis.

Bank Drive-In, East St. Louis

East St. Louis was still thriving in the 50's and 60's, and these really cool drive-up bank teller windows are evidence of that.

Built along an alley behind the bank, you can imagine cars swinging into these spots, and then heading out into the traffic of a bustling downtown.

Some More East St. Louis

I find East St. Louis sad but interesting; between the vacant lots are often times very beautiful buildings.

Churches are just as high quality as across the river, and they stand out amongst the landscape.

There are also lots of well-maintained houses, standing proud amongst the weeds of nearby vacant lots.

These two commercial buildings still have remnants of their signs; what were their original purposes, I wonder?

Venice Power Plant, Half Gone

I've been fascinated by the demolition of the Venice Power Plant, which I've covered before in the past.

Unlike a lot of demolitions, which start with the clearing of the interior, the demolition here is proceeding from front to back, revealing the still intact interior spaces before they're torn down.

I know nothing about power plants, other than they burn coal, creating steam that powers a generator; perhaps what those giant funnels do is pour coal down into the boilers.

There are four of them, and there were once four smokestacks, so I presume that is what they are.

There is a whole complex of other outbuildings, which I presume will be torn down as well.

If you or anyone you know worked in this plant, I would love to hear from you.

Armour Meat Packing Plant's End Coming Soon

Armour Meat Packing Plant, June 23, 2012

A couple of years ago, the new Mississippi River Bridge website published the following satellite image of the path of the Illinois approaches to the new bridge. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that only a portion of the historic stockyards around the old mule pens were in the way of the new road. My favorite ruin in the St. Louis area, Armour Meat Packing, sat uncomfortably close, but nonetheless safe for the time being.

You can understand my chagrin when I recently visited the site and found this new satellite image had been uploaded. If you look closely, you can see that new access road planned to be perpendicular to the new I-70 ends right in front of the main buildings of Armour. I would assume they plan on extending that road further, which of course would go right through the plant. Perhaps it's time for you to see it before it's gone.

New Mississippi River Bridge, Revisited

I've begun to spot the towers of the new Mississippi Bridge all over town, whether at the corner of Washington and 14th, or in the photo above, as I was driving eastbound down Natural Bridge Avenue south of Fairgrounds Park.

The two towers are proceeding rapidly, and I imagine next year they'll start to lay the bridge deck. While I'm not claiming this is the second coming of the hugely important Eads Bridge, I think it is notable that this is the first bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Louis since the 1960's, when the Poplar Street Bridge was built.

All this means permanent change for the empty land on both sides of the river, particularly the vast open spaces of the old National Stockyards. Will Armour Meat Packing Plant soon face the fate of its two comrades?

Hunter Meat Packing Plant, Demolished at Last

I've watched the slow death of the Hunter Meat Packing Plant for close to four years now, and it's finally coming down into a pile of rubble, replaced at least for the time-being with a tanker truck lot.

I never like Hunter as much as Armour, but it still had its charms, from the paper-like slabs of concrete hanging by its rebar, to the smokestack itself.

Presumably, it is finally being torn down to make way for new industrial space or warehouses in anticipation of the new Mississippi River Bridge.

The view of the city from the stockyards is truly spectacular.

18th and Lake, East St. Louis

What happened to this neighborhood!? It looks like the houses were hit by tank shells, and the apartment buildings look like they were the scene of room-to-room urban warfare.

I stumbled across this cluster of houses, scattered with older houses but also relatively recent apartment buildings, and wondered, "At what point does it get to this?"

There is still a fair amount of people living around the neighborhood, between the burned out houses and forested lots. Because much of East St. Louis was built of wood, most of it has disappeared, leaving no vacant lots but often times dense copses of trees.

All of it only a five minute drive from the Arch.