Mullanphy Tenement

Built as quality apartments for immigrants, the building is in rough but stable shape; it was on the Landmarks Association of St. Louis's most endangered list for several years.

Cave House

Read about the Festus cave house.

Diminished Victorian, Kirksville, Missouri

The cruel irony of this house surviving demolition is that it has been relegated to a shadow of its former self. Stripped of its Victorian Period details, it exists as a stump, a fragment of its original sumptuousness.

Carondelet

Touring Mill Creek, 1940's

Scene from Mardi Gras, C. 1912?

Poplar Street Bridge Under Construction

If I could only go back in time and warn people about how much trouble the Poplar Street Bridge would become...

Champaign, Illinois Details

History in the Making: Scene from the First City Affair Meeting

Western St. Louis County

The far western stretches of St. Louis County, now the city of Wildwood, contain some of the most beautiful vistas I have encountered, and all within a 30 minute drive of my house in the city. While there is nothing urbanist about the country, the very thing that urbanists are fighting for is not only the revival of our cities, but in tandem, the preservation of our beautiful countryside that is ever continually being swallowed by sprawl.

Springfield Power Plants

A Beautiful Neo-Baroque Classical Chapel

In an undisclosed location on the Near North Side, I had the opportunity recently to view a truly unique chapel in a style that is not very common in St. Louis, a city of Romanesque and Gothic Revival churches. Combining elements of classical architecture with elements of 17th Century design, the chapel is stunning.Even in its ruined state, the quality of the stucco work is superbly preserved, despite the increasing threat of water damage.What is really disgusting is the looting of the beautiful marble altarpieces, shown above in a severely pillaged state. Of course, the looting didn't result in some new, beautiful work of art as the spolia of the Roman Empire often became, but rather the marble components lie shattered on the floor of the chapel, too heavy (obviously) to remove easily.The roof collapsed last May, and now the clock has begun to tick even faster.

Building Arts Foundation Mardi Gras Benefit

The St. Louis Building Arts Foundation invites you to its first ever:

MARDI GRAS PARTY
Saturday, February 21 from 9AM - 9PM
2412 Menard Avenue (at Victor) in Soulard

Featuring:
Lola van Ella and the Bon Bons

Plus live music:
John Chiecsek
John Bonham and Friends
Jive and Wail Dueling Pianos
and
Red Ass Jones and the Gold Bondsmen

$30 at the door gets you in for as long as you want. We'll have food and drink available, but also cooler valet if you bring your own.

Most important, we have a restroom!

www.buildingmuseum.org

For more information, call 573-760-3161 or email Leigh at leigh_ragsd...@yahoo.com.

Please help the Foundation raise money for its ongoing rehabilitation of the former Sterling Steel Casting foundry in Sauget, Illinois. Your contributions on Mardi Gras will help us keep our good work going!

Exciting New Walgreens in Ellisville

San Luis Love-In

Media attention of the event was generally positive at the Post-Dispatch. Read it here and here.

Funny and Out of Date City Ordinances

No spitting allowed

No necromancy allowed

No pinball wizards allowed

No margays, whatever they are.

And finally, ladies, make sure to invoke this law the next time you're at your dead-end job.

San Luis Dilapidation

Instead of fixing this window, the Archdiocese lets it sit, flapping in the wind.

St. Augustine at Twilight

Last Saturday in the Central West End, I found myself inexorably drawn to my favorite, forlorn friend in St. Louis Place, the august St. Augustine Church. The sun was setting, people were driving insanely around me, but I made it there and snapped this photo along Hebert.

San Luis Rally

Arcade/Wright Building