Lemay Houses

All the way out in Lemay one hundred years ago, they were building houses that looked just like their counterparts in the city. I love the optimism of their belief that the city would soon be out that far.

St. Martin of Tours, Lemay

Dominating the intersection of Ripa Avenue and Telegraph Road, St. Martin of Tours represents a moment in St. Louis architecture where tradition was beginning to evolve into innovation.

While the church's massing and design is certainly modernist, the stonework almost seems to be harkening back to an earlier age.

The bell tower is perhaps the most striking feature of the church, and can be seen from far up and down Telegraph Road.

Back in the 1950's no element of design was forgotten, as the matching bus shelter attests.

It almost seems like the church was introducing the public to more radical modernist designs, but did so slowly and over the construction of several churches, slowly acclimating the people to the new style of modernism becoming popular around the world.

The stonework around the round windows are of particular interest to me; the stone laying is very old fashioned, even though this is a modernist church.

Hancock Middle School Gymnasium, Revisited

I was out near Hancock Middle School, so I took some more pictures of the place.

While the rest of the building seems to have been torn down and replaced by two new additions, the original, iconic domed gymnasium seems to have garnered enough pride that it was spared.

Something I did not realize last time was that it has a wooden understructure.

Likewise, this is one of the coolest smokestacks I've ever seen.

Here is the old high school, which was apparently on the grounds of the current school.

Guest Post: Taverns in the Town

Mark, a reader of my website, sent me some photos of corner bars in South St. Louis and Lemay; long-time neighborhood institutions, these taverns are rapidly disappearing.

But luckily, many of them still carry on, beneficiaries of a loyal clientele and stable neighborhoods.

It seems like the southern end of our city and the near suburbs have a larger portion of these corner bars, where you could once get brain sandwiches or a bucket of beer delivered by your children to your house, so they say.

I want to thank Mark for taking the time to send me these images, and for reminding me how cool many of these bars are, and how they help anchor the neighborhoods they serve.

All photos by Mark Preston