Search This Blog (A.K.A. "I Dote On...")

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Frenchtown, Pre-Clearance (1953)

Check out this aerial photograph from 1953, shown in the Landmarks Association 1982 nomination of the LaSalle Park area (AKA the "Speck District"...I really like that name a lot!) to the National Register of Historic Places.






Look at that density! And Tucker (12th Street at the time) was just a small street like any of the other numbered streets extending from downtown. At least some of the foreground of the photo (LaSalle Park) remains, along with City Hospital and a couple buildings from Bohemian Hill just opposite that sprawling complex.



These historic photographs are great reminders of the scale, intimacy, and form of building we should be pursuing.



On a brighter note, most of the buildings nominated in this very isolated (but very attractive) neighborhood remain from 1981. That's good news, because LaSalle Park is an under-appreciated gem of a neighborhood with some of the city's most attractive corner storefronts, if not housing as well. Its human scale presence on the Near South Side is a welcome building block to restitching the tattered urban fabric in this area. Surprisingly, the neighborhood has a nice website too. Check the Speck out and remember that, though St. Louis has lost so much solid built environment, what remains is strikingly beautiful!



Oh, and, an unedited version of the photo:



0 comments:

Fashion STL Style!

Fashion STL Style!
St. Louis Gives You the Shirt Off of Its Own Back!

Next American City

Next American City
Your Go-To Source for Urban Affairs

Join the StreetsBlog Network!

Join the StreetsBlog Network!
Your Source for Livable Streets

Trust in Rust!

Trust in Rust!
News from the Rustbelt

Dotage St. Louis -- Blogging the St. Louis Built Environment Since 2008

Topics: Historic Preservation, Politics and Government, Development, Architecture, Urban Planning, Urban Design, Local Business, Crime and Safety, Neighborhoods, and Anything Else Relating to Making St. Louis a Better City!