A Unique House Outside Pella, Iowa

I have driven by this house on US 163 numerous times, and this time I actually got the driver to pull over.It is unique in many ways, from the date of its construction spelled out in the roof to the great detailing all around.I discussed with my travel companions how there are literally thousands of anonymous, local styles across the country. The oval windows, which feature prominently in this house, also appear in other, smaller buildings near this one. Who was the builder who added these small details throughout their field of work?

This house is worth driving between Ottumwa and Des Moines.

Left Behind

No, I'm not referring to the Evangelical Christian series, but rather the houses that were left behind when I-70 went crashing through North St. Louis, bizarrely and cruelly leaving large portions of old residential areas literally "on the wrong side of the interstate," sandwiched between a highway and the industrial North Riverfront. No wonder they're mostly abandoned. Take a look here from the air.

Filler

A Great Rehab

I saw this great house under renovation on Geyer, just south of I-44. It is still a work in progress, but will be truly spectacular when it is finished.

House Under Renovation

Random House Collapses

Finding myself in Old North St. Louis, I discovered that a couple of houses had collapsed mysteriously over the weekend.This one is right in the middle of other inhabited houses.The other one is right in the middle of the Old North redevelopment area, and sits right next to successfully rehabbed houses.If you look carefully, you can see that there are still dishes in the cabinets on the second floor.

Tower Grove Park Superintendent House

I was able to tour the inside of the Tower Grove Park House, which is restored back to its original appearance.The house sits in a grove of trees, surrounded by the park.I would find it a little unsettling to live in the middle of a park in the city, with no neighbors.Check out an aerial view here.

Random Mansions in Compton Heights

Row House

St. Louis Ave Streetscapes

St. Louis Ave is a strange street; if you look at the street grid you can see that over the course of its length through most of North St. Louis that it is actually a series of older streets that were combined together to form one continuous artery, of sorts.What has always amazed me about this street is that its architecture is very similar to its more famous cousin, Lafayette Square to the south. I think the portion in St. Louis Place dates from about the same time, looking at the old lithograph of the city at the Missouri Historical Society.Nut what is truly amazing is the difference in prices from Lafayette Square and the North Side. You can literally pay an extra million dollars for houses in the South Side that are identical to much cheaper ones up north.I am still amazed that the streetscape is so well maintained along this street. Check out an aerial view here.

St. Louis Ave Original

St. Louis Ave passing through St. Louis Place is one of the most unique streets in the city, and one of the most valuable architecturally. Luckily, most houses seem occupied, including this stout example of a hybridization of several styles.

St. Francis de Sales and Its Corner

St. Francis de Sales anchors a multi-cornered intersection, as can be seen here.The building above is a great example of a Mansard roofed store front with some funky 1950's fake stone added to it. Below is what should not happen to a major intersection; parking has replaced a business. There's plenty of street parking in the area, I assure you.Another corner seems to have adopted the fake stone decades ago to update their storefront.Below, an essentially dead corner due to the presence of a completely vacant parking lot.And finally, a storefront that once perhaps served churchgoers that streamed out for lunch on Sunday afternoon, much as Amighetti's is still packed on the weekend. The demotion of the church from parish status does little to help the intersection.

Dutchtown

I ran into these houses when I was out and about one day in South St. Louis.The one below is my favorite; it looks like a French chateau in the middle of the neighborhood.

Two Mansions on Lindell

While the more exclusive private streets nearby hold a vast wealth of stunning architecture, there are a couple of stately homes on the corner of Kingshighway and Lindell that deserve mentioning. I like the one below more than the one above, because it reminds me of one of my favorite mansions in Washington, DC. Look at that house here, at the Indonesian Embassy website and you can see the similarities.The most striking aspect of the house is the round turret, which seems almost to be a distant holdover from Richardsonian Romanesque, but in a Beaux-Arts, Gilded Age sort of way. Note the false windows that contain the chimney flues, presumably.The port-coacher is a great detail, if a bit narrow for a modern automobile.I imagine that Lindell and Kingshighway were not the racetracks that they are nowadays; sadly, these houses now sit in what I would consider a traffic purgatory.

Benton Park

One of my favorite neighborhoods in the city is Benton Park, an area just west of I-55 from the more well known Soulard neighborhood. Benton Park is a beautiful part of town, and not really because it has dozens of mansions. Rather, it is a compilation of simple and elegant houses that work together to create some of the most intact and urban streetscapes in the city. Here is a bird's eye view of the neighborhood. Below is a typical house in the area, that is set back far from the street; I suspect that it was originally meant to be an alley house.Below are two great examples of houses that were clearly built at the same time, and show evidence that they are now being carefully restored simultaneously as well. I love Mansard roofs.Here is a house that is three stories tall next door; personally I think two story houses work better with Mansard roofs from a proportion standpoint.Below is a storefront that features apartments above; it would be perfect for a small, but classy, convenience store or coffee shop.The streetscape below illustrates well how each building is an integral part of a greater architectural "canvas." The four houses on the left appear to have been built speculatively at the same time. The rest are also very well preserved.This house, next to the four siblings, is a one-off design that looks well restored.Modern accoutrements, including a satellite dish, show how these 100 year old houses can still adapt to modern usage and habitation.Below is a type of rowhouse that is not very common in St. Louis: the three houses are essentially one big building that is made to look like three houses.I love the little one story rowhouses like the one below; the classical, Italianate cornice makes the little shotgun house distinct.Here is an apartment building or condo conversion, supplying the neighborhood with a variety of housing sizes and prices (though they are increasingly rising in the neighborhood).Below is an example of a more elaborate house sitting on the south side of Benton Park itself. The rounded windows, now nightmares for the modern restorer, were once very common in the houses of the middle class in the city.Even though I grew up in St. Louis, I had never even heard of Benton Park until about 2004. To be fair, if I-55 hadn't been built, we would probably just call it west Soulard. Crime seems low in the neighborhood, and there is great access to the rest of the city. Benton Park stands as the model for the rehabbing of nearby neighborhoods such as Dutchtown or Benton Park West.