Save 750 North Taylor!

I know the house is expensive, but really, should we destroy what is otherwise a perfectly intact street wall that stretches for approximately a miles in the historic core of Kirkwood?

Meramec Highlands

I think I found one of the most interesting and hidden gems of West County, the former resort area of the Meramec Highlands. After taking a wrong turn, my traveling companions and I stumbled on this unique hamlet of cottages dating from the 1890s.Each cottage has its own name, which originally functioned as the address. Of the original cottages, only two are gone, leaving an almost intact subdivision of late Victorian shingle style houses.
I think every house is unique, with its own paint scheme and slightly different style of architecture.The original hotel is gone, but it sat on the summit of this hill, which I have seen referred to as "Sunset Hill."Above and below are two wonderful cottages, each with their original name tag affixed to the side of the houses.The Meramec Highlands train station, sold by the original developer to the railroad for one dollar (to encourage train service to the new resort), sat empty for years, until an architect fixed it up for his own house.I think this blue house was one of my favorites in the community.The last building, now a house, was originally a store for the resort, and where bank robbers once hid from the police.

Meramec Highlands Abandoned School

This old school building served southwest Kirkwood for many years before being shuttered many years ago.Unfortunately, I saw a "Future Home of..." sign in the front yard, so I am afraid this little gem's days might be numbered.

Signal Hills Lane

I stumbled upon this great street of modernist houses in the Meramec Highlands area of Kirkwood, a stone's throw away from I-270. They are all unique, but I captured two of the more interesting ones.I love the use of stone in this house to give the impression of a mesa or rocky outcropping on both the side of the house and the chimney.This other house makes great use of a massive rubble masonry wall that continues from the outside into the interior of the house, much as Frank Lloyd Wright pioneered.Much to my chagrin, a McMansion has already replaced one of the houses on this unique street, demolishing all the mature trees in the yard in the process. Talk about a typical example of destroying what makes a neighborhood desirable in the process of relocating to it.

Meramec Highlands Quarry

I set out to find the quarry that provided some of the stone for Union Station, as well as many of the stone for houses--perhaps the Lemp Mansion, Cragwold--in the Meramec Highlands resort area of southwest St. Louis County.I found the edge of the quarry, but my traveling companions wanted to get going, so I will have to return in the future to find the quarry itself.See an aerial view of the quarry here; it is located southeast of I-270 at Big Bend.

Cragwold, Revisited

One of my most popular posts concerned Cragwold, the estate of Edwin Lemp on the bluffs above the Meramec River. I went back and got a couple of new pictures this last weekend.

In Search of Cragwold

It came to my attention recently that the Lemp family had a western outpost in St. Louis County named Cragwold, now in Kirkwood. You can read about the Lemp family here; Edwin Lemp, the last son, built the Cragwold Estate. The mansion overlooks the Meramec Valley on the edge of a cliff; it is a bit confusing to explain how to get to the Lemp Estate.Originally, Cragwold was reached via Lemp Road, off of Forest Avenue just south of Big Bend Road. Below is what I believe to be the original entrance to the estate; if you look carefully, you can see a stone house that was probably the caretaker's house.What has changed since 1911, when Cragwold was built, is the addition of a superhighway we all know well: I-270. Looking at this map, you can see that Lemp Road originally went straight towards Cragwold. First the interstate, and then a subdivision, slowly erased Lemp Road's original trajectory to the river bluffs. Look at a map of the area here; the mansion in the lower left corner is Cragwold. Lemp Road now makes an angled turn at the old gateway, instead of following a straight course through the gates.Cragwold is accessible from the aptly named Cragwold Road, but don't go trying to knock on the front door. The current owners have "no trespassing" signs posted along the road, so to catch a view of the mansion, you must head across the Meramec River to Unger Park, where the mansion comes into splendid view from the flood plains below. You can read more about the mansion here on page two of this pdf. The house is essentially one story, but clearly has a basement on the bluffs side of the house. The house is listed as having 9,015 square feet, five bedrooms and five bathrooms. An observation tower complements the house, providing what must have been stunning views of the valley before the Chrysler Plant was built.Here is a bird's eye view of the mansion, which is no longer owned by the Lemp family. Supposedly when Edwin Lemp died, he ordered his butler to burn all of the family heirlooms in an attempt to end the curse that had haunted the family for so long.