North Taylor Through Lewis Place and The Ville

Wow, what a difference a few blocks can make. Heading north on Delmar, there's the inevitable feeling that disinvestment has taken its toll on the neighborhoods.

I agree that it looks like brick thieves have moved west past Grand and have begun to hit houses seemingly right out in the open.

I think the building below might be the old parish house for the now gone Holy Ghost Church. It's a great building, though isolated now.

I know that one of these two buildings is seriously out of kilter, but each one told me it's the other one. Who to believe?

The Ville #2

The Ville and Greater Ville, which I've compressed into just simply The Ville, was once the center of the African-American middle class in St. Louis.

I went back to the area last weekend to look around and check up on things; mostly nothing was different, though sadly many more buildings seem to have fallen vacant or worse since the time I visited two years ago.

I find the housing stock outside of Grand Blvd to be an interesting counterpoint to the Second Empire and Italianate so prevalent east of that major street.

I followed St. Louis Avenue, like last time, and I always get a kick out of the fact that the street is really a cobbling together of earlier streets of subdivisions that didn't match up.

So there are all of these strange curves where traffic engineers attempted to smooth out the dog legs in the street.

This burn-out is sadly too common of a feature in the area; while brick theft has come to The Ville, there obviously would be no motivation to burn a wooden house to harvest the bricks. Perhaps it was just a short circuit.

I caught this view of the skyscrapers downtown as I proceeded past a break in the street wall. The conclusion if obvious: why isn't land so close to downtown more valuable?

Sarah Lou Cafe Owner Dies

I just happened to overhear this on the news, and it helped me learn a little more about the history of the august Sarah Lou Cafe that I had photographed two summers ago. James Owens, Jr. had owned and operated the restaurant for thirty years. Sadly the storefront now sits empty; perhaps one day someone will resurrect Jimmy and his legacy. The Preservation Research Office reports that the building has suffered from years of abandonment.

St. Louis Avenue

Dragons! The Ville

A detail of the roof line of the first building here.

Various Churches, The Ville

Sarah Lou's, The Ville

Sara Lou's, resident walking by told us, was THE place to go out to eat back in the day; perhaps one day soon the restaurant will reopen. The location is prime with three other intact corner store fronts on this intersection of St. Louis Avenue.

The Ville

The Ville is one of the stronger neighborhoods in North St. Louis, in my opinion. While other neighborhoods have suffered severe deterioration in the last forty years, the Ville still has a fair amount of intact, viable and occupied storefronts and houses.I would be curious to know what caused the fire in this house, which sits among a row of occupied buildings.This corner features several beautiful and functional businesses, on a corner of St. Louis Avenue that still has all four of its corner stores--a rarity in St. Louis, sadly.Finally, at this corner is a fantastic building with a 1950's or 60's cement block wall in front. The corner bustled with life on a sultry Saturday afternoon, with people coming and going from the well-kept and stocked corner store nearby.

Betty's Mini Market, The Ville

Natural Bridge Avenue

On the heels of my pleasant trip down Page Blvd last weekend, I decided to check out Natural Bridge Ave, a possible route for the northern extension of Metrolink. Sadly, while there was more life along Natural Bridge, much of the historic fabric from Grand Blvd, where I started, out to Lucas-Hunt Road, has been obliterated for shabby, parking lot fronted strip malls. However, there were a few surprises, like this church across the street from Fairgrounds Park.Much of the housing, when it has survived, is your standard, unremarkable two family flat that can be seen throughout the northwestern portion of the city.The Wade Chapel is a great example of a operating business that looks more happy in suburban sprawl than in the city.
The Natural Bridge gas tank is a great landmark moving towards the county line. It sits unused, but still standing.The terrain becomes hilly, and the buildings begin to look more rural in nature, but with a fair amount of dilapidation and neglect.But there is a great example of Onassis Modernism across from the grand entrance to Pasadena Hills.

Chuck Berry House Added to Historic Register

The house on Whittier Street in the historic Ville neighborhood is now on the National Register of Historic Places.