Built St. Louis > > Previous Updates - 2001-2010

The Holland Building, demolished in the early 1970s.

Previous Updates - 2011-present

  • 5/22/10: A new North Side map and a new neighborhood tour, through the Baden area.
  • 5/05/10: A complete update of the Syndicate Trust pages, with photographs of the building before, during and after renovation.
  • 2/25/10: A specialized north side tour: The Forgotten Houses of North Broadway.
  • 12/07/09: The first of many tours of South City is up: Soulard.
  • 8/29/09: It's with a sense of deja vu that I move the San Luis apartments from "endangered" to "demolished". New photos from July 2009 are here.
  • 2/08/09: A new addition to the Crumbling Landmarks tour, as the riverboat Admiral faces an uncertain future.
  • 1/18/09: The Washington Avenue tour has been completely reworked and updated, with current photos of every building, hi-res scans of older photos, and greatly expanded information on their histories. Come explore and see how profoundly Washington Avenue has changed since 2001.

    12/12/08: A collection of photos from my latest St. Louis adventures may be seen here.

    11/09/08: At midnight Monday night, the Daily Dose of Blairmont will resume for a two-week run, chronicling recent property purchases as well as a few buildings I missed the first time around.

    9/23/08: The Daily Dose of Blairmont has finally reached its conclusion, with a lengthy overview and commentary on Blairmont's holdings and plans.

    9/16/08: Two more Central West End buildings that are under consideration for demolition:

  • The Shriners Hospital
  • The Central Institute for the Deaf
    And a third CWE building that was torn down earlier this year: The Doctors Building

    9/14/08: The McPheeters Warehouse on the north riverfront has been demolished.

    9/13/08: The Woolworth Building in Midtown has been spectacularly renovated.

    9/06/08: The first of several endangered Central West End buildings: the San Luis Apartments on Lindell.

    9/04/08: After 12 days off, the Daily Dose of Blairmont resumes tonight at midnight, beginning a final run towards a cataclysmic conclusion.

    9/03/08: Thirty photos from my St. Louis adventures this weekend can be seen at my Flickr space.

    7/18/08: The Daily Dose of Blairmont continues to update daily in July, with photographs of Paul McKee's neglected properties in north St. Louis.

    5/14/08: A large sampling of photographs from this weekend, mostly focusing on the north side, can be seen at my Flickr space.

    5/03/08: Updating daily in May, A Daily Dose of Blairmont shows the historic buildings held by Paul McKee's speculative holding companies in north St. Louis.

    4/16/08: Reworked the What Should I See? section of the FAQ, making it a bit more cohesive, complete and diverse.

    3/29/08: A small update on the Clemens mansion, which, hey, is yet another Blairmont property.

    3/27/08: The march of technology has forced me to move the blog yet again. It's now at BuiltStLouis.blogspot.com and will remain there indefinately.
    - I've found a few more Blairmont houses among my older photographs, buildings whose current disposition I don't yet know. They're shown here.

    3/21/08: In conjunction with today's Daily Dose, an update on the Mullanphy Emmigrant Home.

    3/19/08: On the down side of things, the Daily Dose of Blairmont rolls on, with no end in sight. On the lighter side, here's a look inside the Compton Hill standpipe tower, as well as views from the top.

    3/17/08: From just north of downtown, an update on Neighborhood Gardens, and the demolition of the Cochran Gardens public housing complex.

    3/16/08: An update on the fates of my thesis project houses in St. Louis Place. Click to see what brick rustlers have done to:
    - 1937-39 Montgomery Avenue
    - 1917-19 Montgomery Avenue
    - 1915 Montgomery Avenue

    3/10/08: I've been having some trouble with the blog, but I believe it's fixed now. Meanwhile, the Daily Dose of Blairmont rolls on, with daily photos and info on the historic north side houses owned by Blairmont Associates and its related shell companies.

    3/04/08: New on the blog, A Daily Dose of Blairmont, chronicling the historic properties of this speculative holding company.

    2/14/08: A large sampling of my exploits in St. Louis last weekend may be seen at Flickr.com.

    2/02/08: The Switzer Building is long gone; its page has been updated to reflect its demolition.

    1/29/08: Shots from the ornate interior of South Side National Bank, and a gallery of views from the roof!

    1/09/08: Various updates from hither and yon include...
    - Brick Rustling in St. Louis Place -- a Flickr photo set showing the latest outrages from the near North Side.
    - Blog post: Heard you can't find Mill Creek Anywhere, reviewing the astonishing text Mill Creek Valley: A Soul of Saint Louis.
    - Blog post: Making It Expensive in the 9th Ward, a look at Brad Pitt's Make It Right 9 initiative in New Orleans.
    - Blog post: Washington Avenue Aglow
    - New Orleans Mid-Century Modern, a Flickr photo set.

    1/08/08: An update from the North Side, with an expanded look at the long-suffering inner ring suburb of Wellston, Missouri.

    12/03/07
    An enormous update and complete re-working of the East St. Louis tour, with hundreds of new photos and coverage expanded to include Brooklyn, Venice, Madison, Granite City, Washington Park, Fairmont City and Sauget.

    12/02/07
    I am still job hunting in Chicago! Know an architecture firm that's looking for help? Drop me a line! More details, including my resume, are here.

    11/21/07
    A sampling of photos from my latest St. Louis expedition may be seen here.

    11/17/07
    Blog post: The Changing Face of the South 40.

    10/28/07
    In anticipation of an upcoming St. Louis expedition, I gave the East St. Louis tour a thorough working over, with cleaned-up formatting, some additional photographs, updated info and outside links.

    9/22/07
    A personal note: some folks have noted that the site hasn't updated much in recent months. That's because I've been preoccupied -- I'm preparing to move from Milwaukee to Chicago! I leave the Brew City at the end of this month. Site updates will be forthcoming as the weather cools off and photographing becomes less appealing.

    In the meantime, you can check out what I've been up to here in Milwaukee at my Flickr space.

    8/23/07
    Good news -- that all-too-rare change of status, from doomed to saved. The St. Louis Hills Office Center will undergo only partial demolition; the front portion -- the major point of architectural interest -- will remain standing. Updated page also includes detailed commentary from one of the building's owners.

    8/06/07
    Miscellaneous photos from my most recent St. Louis trip at my Flickr space.

    7/30/07
    The St. Louis Hills Office Center, a vintage 1950s brick office building, is being demolished.

    7/20/07
    New on the Modernism tour: St. Catherine of Sienna-Pagedale.

    7/17/07
    Blog post: SLU's Long, Slow Mistake

    5/07/07
    Brick rustlers! Workers have been illegally attacking and destoying -- yes, destroying! -- entire houses for the sole purpose of shipping the bricks out of town. Click here for more, including recent photos of the destruction.

    5/02/07
    With some help from my web host, restored the Guestbook after it was hacked by some assholes from Turkey.

    (Hacked?? People still do that? Losers.)

    4/29/07
    What's happening on the site of the demolished St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church? Photos from November 2006.

    4/28/07
    Photos of an Art Deco apartment building that was torn down for a Walgreens parking lot, and the unique streetscape that was ruined in the process.

    4/27/07
    Some new and nicer photos on the Ittner/Milligan tour:
    - Gundlach School
    - Arlington School
    - Beaumont High
    - Sigel School
    - Shepard School

    4/26/07
    An update from the site of the obliterated McRee Town neighborhood.

    4/25/07
    A lengthy gallery of photographs of Fountain Park and the buildings surrounding it.

    4/24/07
    Two updates from the north side:
    - the Wellston Loop, including the Modernist JC Penney building
    - nearby Wellston High School, including vintage shots from the 1940s.

    4/23/07
    A small gallery of photos from the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in Midtown.

    4/22/07
    Rescanned photos from the demolished Arena, as well as new shots of what's standing on the site today.

    4/21/07
    New on the Modernism tour:
    - Famous-Barr Clayton
    - Famous-Barr Westfield
    - First Presbyterian Church in Kirkwood
    - The anomalous ranch houses of Norwood Court
    - More ranch houses at Copa Villa
    - And in a preview of another update still to come: new photos from the Wellston State Bank.

    4/20/07
    An update from Blewett High School, where renovation and new construction are underway.

    4/19/07
    Three new churches:
    - Westminster Presbyterian
    - Union Avenue Christian
    - St. Roch

    4/18/07
    New on the Industrial City tour:
    - The Natural Bridge Gasometer, and an update from the FPSE Gasometer, where demolition is underway.
    - The far north Riverfront, as revealed from the riverfront bike trail -- including dedicated sections for the McKinley and Merchants Bridges.
    - The Venice Power Plant
    - Night shots of the Granite City Steel works.

    4/17/07
    The renovation of Homer G. Phillips Hospital was completed in 2002. A gallery of new and old photos shows it both in abandonment and in its new capacity as a senior's home.

    4/16/07
    New photos from South Side National Bank, currently undergoing conversion to condominiums.

    4/15/07
    An update from the Franklin School, where renovation is underway.

    4/14/07
    New on the Crumbling Landmarks list: St. Mary's Infirmary, a tall building hiding in plain sight south of downtown.

    4/13/07
    And on a related note, an update on the long-empty Woolworth Building next door.

    4/12/07
    Some recent photos of the Continental Building, looking good five years after its renovation.

    4/11/07
    Additional photos of the Switzer Building, slated for demolition down to the second floor (bottom of page.)

    4/10/07
    Photos of the Brecht Butcher Supply buildings undergoing demolition (bottom of page.)

    4/09/07
    An update from River Roads Mall, where the beautiful 1960s Stix Building is undergoing demolition.

    4/08/07
    - Many new photographs from the badly-deteriorated Carr School.
    - Updates and new photos from the Kiel Opera House

    4/07/07
    - Photo galleries from a walk all around Bohemian HIll show the surviving houses on the site.

    3/06/07
    A stroll through Old North St. Louis -- random photos from a beautiful day last September.

    3/05/07
    Some updates and additions at the Historic Downtown tour:
    - The Haggerty Building has had its 1960s coverup removed, revealing a beautiful Romanesque facade beneath.
    - Added the 1950s-reskinned Farm and Home Savings Association.
    - Added the small building which is home to Charlie Gitto's Pasta House.
    Posted new photos of
    - the Pennsylvania Building
    - the Lofts @ 315
    - the Lasalle Building
    - the Alverne Hotel, including a historic then-and-now comparison
    - the Marquette Building

    3/04/07
    From Old North St. Louis: Barb's Story, a personal account of renovating a long-neglected 1880s home. It is the sort of local, by-the-bootstraps spirit that is threatened when developers are silent about their plans for a neighborhood.

    3/03/07
    Ecology of Absence reports an upcoming renovation of Lambert Field. Prompted by the news, I have added a page on it at the Modernism tour.

    3/02/07
    Rescanned South Side National Bank.

    3/01/07
    Fresh photos from City Hospital, where the renovation of Old Main is now complete.

    2/28/07
    Two new churches:
    - St. Mary of Victories
    - St. Vincent de Paul
    Plus, added a handy index page to the St. Louis Churches tour.

    2/27/07
    Fresh scans and beautiful nighttime shots of the Chase Hotel.

    2/26/07
    New scans and photos as well as updates for the renovated Paul Brown Building.

    2/25/07
    Good news about the former Blewett High School in the West End, abandoned since 1994, but now undergoing renovation.

    2/24/07
    Since it's getting a bit of attention today, I figured I'd give the What's Wrong With This Riverfront? tour a working over. New scans, new photos, new rants... same uninspiring riverfront.

    2/23/07
    Better photos of the storm-damaged Switzer Building in Laclede's Landing.

    2/22/07
    Update on the now-demolished Army Ammunition Plant, with photos of the stripped-down building from November 2006.

    2/21/07
    An update from River Roads Mall, with new galleries from November 2006.

    2/11/07
    Bohemian Hill: A development proposal unveiled last week would wipe out the last remnants of the Bohemian Hill neighborhood. The area needs new development on the site -- but not at the cost of historic houses. Read more about the proposal, the site, and who to contact about it.
    2/15/07: Updated with additional information about the proposal.

    2/13/07
    The Brecht Butcher Supply Company buildings are no more, and St. Louis is a poorer place for it.

    1/30/07
    WHAT
    It's the RETURN OF THE GUEST BOOK. And about damn time, too.

    1/29/07:
    A return visit to the old St. Louis State Hospital, with a bit of the building's history, much better photo scans, and a couple of new shots... and even a fresh look at that 1962 building I used to loathe so much.

    1/28/07:
    It's Blairmont round 2 as Ecology of Absence sheds further light on the extent of the landbanking company's holdings.

    Also, a spate of new entries on the Modernism tour:
    - Wohl Community Center
    - Calvary Cemetery Mausoleum
    - Two Hearts Banquet Center
    - The Record Exchange
    - St. Peter Catholic Church (Kirkwood)
    - DuBourg House
    - Our Holy Redeemer Catholic Church
    - The ranch houses of Halls Ferry Road
    - Interior shots at St. Martin de Porres
    - Additional shots of the Granite City Steel Building

    1/24/07: New Tour! A diversion from the site's usual focus, as we go On the Road in New Orleans. Photographs from across the city, from the famous French Quarter and Garden Districts, to the ordinary city neighborhoods that suffered flooding and evacuation, and have barely begun to recover. Come see the state of this most beautiful city, 16 months after the storms.

    1/22/07: A short page showing some of Blairmont Associates, LC's holdings on the Near North Side.

    1/21/07: In November, I went on a tour of the long-abandoned Arcade Building, slated for renovation starting within a year or so. Several dozen photos of the ruinous and decaying building are now posted at Arcade Building: Interior Tour.

    1/04/07:
    The Catholic Church needs to fix the roof at Corpus Christi before things get out of hand.

    12/17/06:
    Added a search feature at the Site Map -- no more wondering if a building is or isn't mentioned on the site!

    12/11/06:
    New tour!! Bear witness to the manufacturing might of St. Louis at The Industrial City, a tour of scattered factories, plants, and warehouses at sites around the city.

    12/04/06:
    Added a header link to my Flicker.com account, a prolific dumping ground for my photos from St. Louis and elsewhere. Short summaries of my last three St. Louis visits can be found there:
    - Thanksgiving weekend
    - November 4th-6th
    - Labor Day weekend
    There's also Mid-Century Modernism and industrial architecture in Milwaukee, a large collection of Louis Sullivan's works, a smaller set for Frank Furness, and other miscellany. Check it out!

    11/30/06:
    Many new and re-scanned photos of the Statler Hotel as well as a more orderly page layout.

    11/19/06:
    Updates on the fates of several Catholic churches on the Modernism tour:
    - Corpus Christi
    - Our Lady of Good Counsel
    - Resurrection
    - St. Hedwig
    And, many new photographs of Saint Louis University's Pius XII Library.

    10/27/06:
    Long overdue: River Roads Mall, an elegant 1960s department store with a dilapidated mall attached to it, currently undergoing demolition.

    10/25/06:
    Revisited: the A.S. Aloe Co. Building, demolished in 1996, and one of the first buildings featured on Built St. Louis's predecessor site.

    10/24/06:
    Many updates!

    Old but new: a separate page on the long-empty Woolworth Building in Midtown, previously subordinated to the Continental Building's pages.

    Old but sorta new: I've done a lot of editing on the three core tours, consolidating pages, renaming files, and adding rescanned and new photos of:
    - The Coral Court Motel
    - The Round Building
    - St. Philomena's Technical School
    - The Wellston Loop Building
    - The Statler (Gateway) Hotel
    - The Merchandise Mart
    - The Ambassador Building and Theater

    10/19/06:
    Added a small page on the Switzer Building in Laclede's Landing, severly damaged by the storms of July 2006.

    10/11/06:
    Set 'em up, set 'em up, we'll be knockin' 'em down: added a couple of pre-demolition photos of a house on St. Louis Avenue which is being torn down this week. Thanks to Michael Allen for the info.

    9/22/06:
    New on the Modernism tour:
    - St. Ann Catholic Church, from 1951;
    - a look at Natural Bridge Road, with Mid-Century Modern buildings in a variety of styles that evolve from the 1940s to the 1960s as one moves further west.

    9/21/06:
    New church: Richmond Heights' Little Flower Catholic Church, a very late neo-Gothic building with overtones of Modernism.

    9/20/06:
    An update to the Hyde Park tour, including an endangered church and the fate of the Nord St. Louis Turnverein, decimated by fire over the summer.

    9/19/06:
    New on the Crumbling Landmark tour: the long-vacant Avalon Cinema in south city.

    9/18/06:
    New church: the Old Cathedral.

    9/17/06:
    Reorganized the City Hospital pages, and uploaded some photos from the past year showing the renovation, as well as the fate of the remains of the original cupolas.

    9/16/06:
    A sizeable update the Old North St. Louis tour, with updates on many previously photographed buildings -- including an excitingly large number of reconstructions and restorations.

    9/11/06:
    Another Modernism addition: the Granite City Steel Building, a classic Mid-Century Modern office building with an astonishing amount of intact original detail.

    9/10/06:
    New on the Churches tour: Holy Corners.

    9/09/06:
    Added the State Bank in Wellston to the Modernism tour.

    7/23/06:
    Added a small, long-overdue page on the Mullanphy Emigrant Home.

    6/25/06:
    Additions to the Modernism tour:
    - St. Andrew Presbyterian (interior)
    - Christ the King United Church
    - Pius XII Memorial Library (SLU)
    - Kirkwood Methodist Church

    6/19/06:
    An improved gallery of Prince Hall's demolition.

    6/06/06:
    Before the strippers and salvagers can have their way, before the wrecking ball obliterates history and beauty -- a last look at Prince Hall.

    6/03/06:
    St. Aloysius Gonzaga is being demolished.

    5/23/06:
    I'm stunned: Washington University plans to tear down Prince Hall, one of the campus's original 9 Tudor Gothic buildings. Witness the insanity here.

    5/18/06:
    Site reader Jordon Agee went on a Preservation Week tour of the Arcade Building, and shared his photos of the interior arcade space. It's battered and dirty, but still lovely!

    5/16/06:
    Not content with my final design project's pages, I did some heavy editting on the text. It's much better now.

    5/14/06:
    A large update to the St. Louis Place tour, with dozens of new photographs and lots of panoramic views.

    5/11/06:
    Web log: Goodbye and Good Riddance to Milwaukee's whale mural, demolished last week.

    4/25/06:
    Uploaded a very abrieviated version of my final design project for grad school -- and more importantly, a close look at the project site, the 1900 block of Montgomery Street, in the St. Louis Place neighborhood.

    4/13/06:
    A long-overdue update to the Old North St. Louis tour, with updates to past buildings and many new ones -- including the new construction and renovations of the North Market Place development.

    4/01/06:
    Web log: Modernist Churches in Milwaukee.

    3/26/06:
    Web log: Thoughts on the Philadelphia skyline.

    2/26/06:
    Web log: Farewell to West Milwaukee.

    2/14/06:
    - Announcing the site's newly-started Web Log!

    2/08/06:
    - New church: the South Side's St. Anthony of Padua.

    1/29/06:
    A massive update to the Historic Downtown tour, with a vastly improved map, reformatted pages, numerous new photos, streamlined navigation, updated info, and additonal demolished buildings.

    1/26/06:
    What's happened to the cleared site of Gaslight Square? Find out here.

    1/25/06:
    New on the Vanished Buildings tour: the massive former home of Vashon High School, demolished in early 2003.

    1/24/06:
    - Posted interior photos of the former B'Nai Amoona Synagogue on the Modernism tour.

    1/23/06:
    - New church: the South Side's St. Cecilia.

    1/22/06:
    - New skyline shot: looking north from City Hospital's grounds.
    - One nice little photo of the American Zinc Building.

    1/21/06:
    New church: St. Marks Episcopal, the area's earliest example of Modernist design in a religious structure.

    1/20/06:
    New on the Crumbling Landmarks tour: the abandoned St. Louis Army Ammunition Plant.

    1/19/06:
    Posted interior photos of:
    - Holy Trinity Catholic Church
    - St. John Nepomuk Chapel (formerly church).

    1/18/06:
    I've dipped into the archives of the Historic American Buildings Survey to put together a virtual recreation of the 4900 block of Page Boulevard, now demolished and the site of a grocery store.

    1/17/06:
    The Egyptian-themed Vitrolite lobby of the Hadley-Dean Glass Company building on Washington Avenue was destroyed in September 2004. I've posted a couple of interior photos here.

    1/16/06:
    Post-demolition photos of the site of Northland Shopping Center -- scraped clean.

    1/15/06:
    New on the Churches tour:
    - St. Stanislaus
    - Interior photos of Zion Lutheran

    1/14/06:
    New and updated school buildings:
    - Maddox (Delaney) School
    - Sigel School
    - the recently closed Hempstead
    - Wyman
    - Harris Teachers' College
    - Farragut Elementary

    1/13/06:
    Abandoned for nearly ten years, the Ittner-designed Franklin School is soon due to get a new life as apartments.

    1/12/06:
    Small update to the MacArthur Bridge page... with one of the best photos I've taken in a long time.

    1/11/06:
    Update to Neighborhood Gardens, with photos of the recent renovation work.

    1/10/06:
    At last, a gallery of photos large enough to do justice to the awe-inspiring New Cathedral.

    1/09/06:
    Streamlined and updated the following buildings' pages:
    - The Arcade Building
    - The Syndicate Trust - with new photographs.
    - The Century Building

    1/08/06:
    Relocated the renovated and re-opened Paul Brown Building to the Recalled to Life tour. Cheers!!

    1/07/06:
    Added some new and better photographs of the abandoned Cass Avenue Bank building.

    1/06/06:
    Added St. Aloysius Gonzaga Church to the Crumbling Landmarks tour.

    12/14/05:
    One more addition to the Beauty of Modernism tour: St. Andrew Presbyterian in south City.

    12/13/05:
    Numerous additions to the Beauty of Modernism tour, and additional photos on a few of the older entries as well.

    12/09/05:
    Added the recently late Busch Stadium to the Vanished Buildings tour.

    12/02/05:
    New church: the north side's Eastern Star Baptist.





    Previous site updates

    11/21/05:
    Posted some images from May, of the space where the Century Building once was.

    9/13/05:
    The vacant and deteriorated Pulaski Savings Association was abruptly demolished last month. Its entry has been relocated accordingly.

    8/19/05:
    Revamped the Washington Avenue tour, with lots of new photos and simpler navigation. It's still not 100% up to date, but at least it's got some info from the last 4 years!

    6/14/05:
    Another new church on the Modernism tour: St. Hedwig's. Like St. Boniface, it is on the list of parishes closing at the end of this month.

    6/13/05:
    Moved Northland Shopping Center to the Vanished Buildings tour; reformatted the pages; posted additional demolition photos.

    6/12/05:
    Another soon-to-be-closed church: Carondelet's St. Boniface.

    6/11/05:
    An addition to the watertower tour: Intake Towers #2 and #1, the Romantic housings for the city's old water control gates on the Mississippi River.

    6/10/05:
    A new church on the Modernism tour: St. Stephen, Protomartyr.

    6/09/05:
    New church: Immaculate Conception / St. Henry's, a Catholic church due to be closed at the end of this month.

    6/07/05:
    Added a couple dozen new photographs to the East St. Louis tour.

    5/14/05:
    Demolition photos from Northland Shopping Center, courtesy of Toby Weiss.

    3/29/05:
    - It has come to my attention that my email setup seems to be defective. If I wrote back to you, and you replied in turn, I never saw it. I've switched to a new address: builtstlouis@gmail.com.
    - Added a second gallery of Century Building photographs.

    2/25/05:
    Reformatted the Churches tour with linked thumbnails instead of a ton of huge images on each page. Added some new images here and there as well.

    2/21/05:
    New church: Soulard's Trinity Lutheran.

    2/20/05:
    New tour! Look beyond historicist architecture, and see The Beauty of Modernism.

    2/12/05:
    The Moolah Temple has re-opened! It's now the latest addition to the Recalled To Life tour.



    1/30/05:
    New photos (from October '04) of Northland Shopping Center.

    1/25/05:
    New church: St. Michael the Archangel Russian Orthodox.

    1/15/05:
    - Acknowledged the grim truth: moved the Century Building to its own spot in the Vanished Buildings tour, with links to the various pages about it.

    1/09/05:
    - Revised the Historic Downtown tour with a new introduction, some new photos, a clearer statement of purpose, and the demolition of the Century Building.

    12/23/04:
    - New church: Lafayette Park United Methodist.

    12/16/04:
    - A slightly new look, and the return of the long-lost Guest Book.

    12/13/04:
    - New church: St. John Nepomuk, another church on the Archdiocese's list of parishes targeted for closure.

    12/05/04:
    Some lovely new photographs of previously covered churches:
    - Bethlehem Lutheran
    - St. Francis de Sales
    - Sts. Peter and Paul

    12/04/04:
    Photographs from the initial demolition of the Century Building. I was going to offer commentary, but the more I look the less there is to say. What can you say when staring into the face of grace, beauty, elegance, urbanity, history and quality, as it is all being smashed into oblivion?


    10/21/04: What we're losing in the Century Building.

    SPECIAL: The Case Against An Urban Plaza: why sacrificing the Century Building in the name of open space is a mistake which will only hurt the city. This essay was also published as a letter to the editor in the St. Louis Business Journal.

    11/10/04: Please note my new email address, Contact the author. Email the old address (repowers@uwm.edu) will not be received as my former school has closed the account.

    10/25/04: A general note on the site -- Life and work are looking pretty busy through the end of the year, and I've been making road trips almost every weekend for the last few months, so don't expect too much in the way of updates for a while. Come December I'll hunker down for the winter and start serious updating. In the mean time, I will keep the news links up to date. I DO NEED YOUR HELP IN THIS -- alert readers are a lot more likely to find relevant news than I am all on my lonesome! If you see something in the news that belongs on this site, drop me a line and I'll post it.

    7/28/04: Updated the Century Building's pages with the latest news: the National Historic Trust's shameful behavior. Also includes a couple of nice new photos from May.

    7/11/04: New church: 2nd Presbyterian Church.

    6/21/04: Something a bit unusual -- added the Northland Shopping Center to the Crumbling Landmarks tour. Also updated the site map.

    6/06/04: New tour!! Come explore Midtown. A clickable map of the area and dozens of photographs will share the highlights -- and some low points -- of one of the city's most visually fascinating districts. Thanks to Kevin Kieffer, whose innumerable photographs made the tour far more complete than it would have otherwise been.

    6/02/04: New church: the long-underused St. Augustine's Roman Catholic.

    5/26/04: New church: the Shrine of St. Joseph.

    5/21/04: A new addition to the Vanished Buildings tour: the ongoing demolition of the McRee Town neighborhood.

    5/19/04: New church: St. Alphonsus. Also posted a couple of nicer shots of Christ Church Cathedral and St. Liborius.

    I had a great weekend in the city! I met some wonderful homeowners (with some amazing homes) in Old North St. Louis, I got a tour of the Shrine of St. Joseph, I saw some impressive lofts downtown, and my friends and I crawled all over the City Museum. I snapped hundreds of photographs this weekend and will be sorting and posting some in the coming weeks.

    5/12/04: Nothing new, but I moved the entire site to a new server (a paid one) last week. I think it's all up and running, but there might still be bits and pieces that got lost in the shuffle. If you find something that looks broken, please drop me a line.

    I'm off to St. Louis this weekend, my first trip to the city since New Year's. I've already got tons of material to put up if I can ever find time and energy to get it all scanned and formatted, and I should have even more come Monday.

    4/26/04: Long ago, site visitor Norman Plant sent me an old photograph of the Towne Theater. Today I'm finally getting around to putting it up in the Historic Downtown tour.

    4/04/04: New church - Christ Church Cathedral.

    3/22/04:

  • Consolidated a few past images into a "new" tour: St. Louis Cityscapes.
  • Put up a proper front page spot for the St. Louis Churches tour.

    3/17/04: This week's.... err, this month's church: St. Liborius.

    2/23/04: Delivered with my normal impeccible timeliness, this week's church: St. Gabriel the Archangel.

    2/08/04: This week's church: Zion Lutheran.

    2/01/04: Oops! Missed a week. But here's a new church: Saints Peter and Paul.

    1/19/04: New church: Holy Trinity Catholic.

    10/14/03: Okay, the churches thing was a nice idea... a nice idea that I just don't have time for right now (my on-hand supply of church photographs is considerably smaller than I originally thought, too.) So this, too, is on the backburner till January, when I'll be done with thesis and school. Sorry.

    Sept. 03: New feature: St. Louis Churches.

    6/04/03:
    From Toby Weiss: Photographs of the Ambassador Building, inside and out, from the furnishings auction which stripped its decor in 1988.

    6/02/03:
    Added a few new City Hospital photos, including the final stages of the Tower's demolition.

    6/01/03:
    Revised the Ittner/Milligan schools tour, with simpler navigation and a number of new buildings including Arlington, Gundlach, Pere Laclede, Scullin, Hempstead and more.

    5/28/03:
    A nice new batch of Neighborhood Gardens photographs.

    5/27/03:
    At last, a photograph I've been trying to get for ages: the Continental Building, the way God and Ittner intended it to be seen!

    5/21/03:
    Two small updates: images of salvage remnants from an East St. Louis church and the Wellston Loop building, on display at the City Museum.

    2/12/03:
    Come explore the North Side! This tour replaces two old ones, and vastly expands on their scope. With hundreds of photographs covering an enormous swath of the city, the good and the bad alike, this is far and away the largest update the site has ever had.

    1/27/03: Two updates:

  • A tour of the James Clemens House, inside and out.
  • The Continental Building re-opened in October. View images of the the completed restoration.

    1/23/03: A totally revised and expanded tour of City Hospital, with a map of the site and many new photographs, including the ongoing demolition of the Tower Building and an explanation of why Building E was torn down.

    11/12/02:
    Updated the Latest News page for the Century Building to reflect the events of 2002.

    10/30/02:

  • Edited the Wellston Loop Building pages to reflect its recent demolition.
  • 819 Locust, the tiny, battered building north of the Old Post Office, was demolished on Saturday. Photographs now up!

    10/06/02:
    The small, 1950s-skinned building at 223 N. 7th Street is history. Photos from Ralph Fuhrhop and Ajay Zutshi.

    10/17/02: Cleaned out the St. Louis Architecture Links page. With the rise of thorough search engines like Google.com on the web, this page will probably continue to shrink and be more selective in the future.

    8/05/02:

  • Added several new photos of City Hospital, as it undergoes preparations for renovation.

    8/04/02:

  • Added some improved pictures of the buildings along Washington Avenue.

    8/03/02:

  • Put up a more detailed look at the remains of Gaslight Square.
  • Got a new guest book up and running. See links below.

    8/02/02:
    Added a few new schools to the Ittner tour: Columbia CEC, Cote Brilliante, and Wilkinson, as well as some nice new photos of Central.

    8/01/02:
    Added a building-by-building tour of the Cupples Station complex.

    7/31/02:
    Added a few new pages and photos to the East St. Louis tour.

    1/17/02:
    New tour: East St. Louis, the city's battered Illinois neighbor.

    1/10/02:
    Sort-of new tour: Recalled to Life, collecting into one group various buildings recently or currently undergoing renovation.
    Also:

  • Shortened Crumbling Landmarks, to reflect recent renovation work.
  • Reorganized Vanishing Buildings.
    New scans are up for:
  • The Eads Bridge
  • The International Fur Exchange
  • The MacArthur Bridge
  • Marquette Building Annex (demolished)
  • The State Hospital

    December 2001: The Century Building remains in danger. Read more here.

    11/07/01:

  • Posted up a massive .jpg file of the St. Louis skyline, big enough to be desktop wallpaper. Click here.
  • Added news of the Merchandise Mart's renovation.

    9/28/01:
    New mini-tour: What's Wrong With This Riverfront?

    9/18/01:
    Added photos and news of the Continental Building's long-awaited renovation.

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