Op Art Brickwork in Bevo, Dutchtown 6:45 PM

Does anyone know what type of brick/brickwork this is? I call it "Op Art" because, up close, it almost disorients the eye with its stylistic patterns.

Bevo, at Neosho and Morgan Ford:

And then one of my favorite little houses in the city, on Kingsland Court at Hydraulic in Dutchtown West:

The home above, in particular, is a must-see. What are these eye-popping bricks? Are they just cleverly arranged buff-colored brick?

Itaska Castles Make For Yet Another Delightful St. Louis Streetscape 10:58 PM

I grew up on Itaska Street in Bevo Mill. At a very young age, I lived on Itaska Street in the Southampton neighborhood. One of my first self-guided, no-passengers driving architectural tours through the city was to cruise the entire length of Itaska Street, which had been my home address for most of my life in St. Louis. While I quickly learned that I-55 made that an impossibility in the strict sense, and that Itaska jogs several times and is never a straight shot, I saw a street that is in so many ways quintessentially St. Louis.

From the sturdy red brick late 19th/early 20th century structures of Dutchtown to the fanciful Tudor stylings of St. Louis Hills' section of Itaska; every moment of it oozed uniqueness and told the story of St. Louis's westward expansion and development. I suppose this was all fitting. Itaska Street is named after Minnesota's Lake Itasca--the headwaters of the Mississippi River. One special street of a great American city, like our nation's great river, is sinuous, complicated, and gripping all at once.

No stretch of Itaska is more notable than its run between Virginia, on the east, and Grand, on the west. It's here that some developer or developers built some of the South Side's most interesting little shaped-parapet "castles". I don't believe I've seen another city that has whole rows of these little romantic brick ramparts. Some have polychromed arches above doorways and windows; others have "Beetlejuice" themed awnings. Some even have dueling griffins! Here are some of Itaska Street's greatest hits in Dutchtown.

If you're still not convinced and don't think it looks like much from Google Streetview captures, go walk the street for yourself. How do such small houses command such an urban presence?

You'd think that we bloggers, with our environs becoming increasingly crowded, would run out of facets of St. Louis to freak out over--but they keep on coming. That's because St. Louis rocks your face.

Cologne Cafe, Air Conditioned 1:21 AM

The last time I was in town, I walked around my old neighborhood--Bevo.

In the stretch of the neighborhood where all the street names turn German--Gertrude, Dresden, etc.--sits a fairly innocuous street named Cologne.

I don't know why, but this small house with an adjacent storefront really caught my eye. Maybe it was the matching green-glazed brick courses at the bottom. The window on the storefront reads "Cologne Cafe, Air Conditioned". Was this once a bar and grill? It would appear so.

The city is littered with the remnants of neighborhood commerce. They each tell a story about their respective neighborhoods. Does any reader know the story behind this one?

April Preservation Board Also Contains Two National Register Nominations 2:15 PM

In furtherance to the previous post, this month's Preservation Board Agenda features two important possible additions to the National Register of Historic Places.

The first is one of the remnants of old St. Louis, with its narrow commercial lots--the William A. Stickney Cigar Company Building at 209 N. 4th Street. Click here to see a Google Street View of the building.

The second is very exciting: the hulking National Candy Company industrial building at 4230 Gravois, which is technically in Dutchtown but, since I grew up in Bevo, I always claimed it as my neighborhood's heritage.

Imagine Schools is the applicant. Through a website search, it appears they're planning on opening an "Imagine International Academy of Arts" in this spot. They're likely going to use the Missouri state historic tax credits to renovate this large building into a workable condition. What a great building and wonderful re-use of the site!



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Is this facade "improvement"? 6:36 PM

On the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) website, there's a facade improvement program that I've never heard of. I'm unsure whether or not it's still active.

There are also three examples of "before and after" shots that are meant to display the efficacy of the program.

Two seem just fine.

4601 Pope

Before:



After:



and 813 Skinker:

Before:



After:



Both are those are fine, restrained examples. You don't need to slap foundation and eyeliner on a natural beauty.

But what about this example?

5001 Gravois @ Morganford

Before:



After:



I grew up about three blocks from this site. Even though I was fairly young, I remember talk in the neighborhood about how transformative this facade improvement was. To be sure, it was very exciting to have a florist in the neighborhood, and especially one as classy as Russell Florist. But my concern is with the buildings themselves, especially the one angled towards Gravois (the one on the left in the pictures). This looks to me like a more restrained 1960s remuddling of an early 20th Century storefront.

Facade improvements are much needed in Bevo, along both Morganford and Gravois. The old storefronts need greater window space to create an active business district. Beyond facades, the sidewalks need to be replaced. New lighting would certainly help. New neighborhood banners--with recognition of the Bosnian presence--would go a long way as well. There need to be more frequent trash cans and benches--you know, the basics. And, if at all possible, there needs to be a way to slow down traffic on both streets.

Perhaps a traffic circle at Delor/Morganford/Gravois and my now-stale suggestion of a median along Gravois?

These improvements would be transformative.

I'm just not sure this facade improvement at 5001 Gravois was truly that. We should be emphasizing the historic details of these buildings, not covering them up.

I wonder if there was some better reason they tackled the buildings in this light than simple corner-cutting.

Neighborhood Banners and Logos: Part I 12:48 PM

Since when is the Chain of Rocks Bridge in Baden? If you follow its city-defined boundaries, Baden has no coast line at all--it ends at Hall Street on the east.



The old Bevo 2001 symbol. Bevo actually has other neighborhood banners, most of which are now tattered. But those green banners are nice because they display the block numbers and run the entire length of the neighborhood along Gravois and Morganford. Still, some new ones are in order. The Mill and German symbolism should share space with the Bosnian immigrants that have so changed the neighborhood.



This logo is all part of the "re-branding" of McRee Town. It's shameful when we as citizens and when our policy makers can't overcome stigma to assist a downtrodden neighborhood in reshaping itself, rather than forcefully from the outside. At the very least, the overhauled neighborhood should have still sported the historical name McRee Town, in my opinion. But I know why they opted for "Botanical Heights"--free advertising for the Garden that helped take the neighborhood down. Plus, and excuse the pun, it's much more flowery.



To my knowledge, this sign was either vandalized or lost in one of the 2006 summer storms. It was a nice little entry marker to a little known neighborhood (though, with the mayor moving here, it may just be on the St. Louis City map soon!).



I really like these crests that hang on banners all over Carondelet. They memorialize that this was once an independent city, a little French and Spanish Creole settlement that retains its uniqueness despite its absorption by the city.

St. John the Baptist High School to close! 11:24 PM

Today was not a good day.

Hearing this news is worse.

According to my parents, who attended a public meeting with pastor Fr. Edward Rice, St. John the Baptist High School will close. My mother said that the school simply can't pay the bills--and a declining enrollment doesn't help!

In a city where public education has been hopelessly starved and has atrophied, often these parochial schools are a last resort for families. These are families who can't afford housing elsewhere, who need public transportation, who have family ties to a neighborhood, or who simply prefer urban living.

I sort of thought this was inevitable, but that I expected it sooner or later doesn't soften the blow. This will be terrible for Bevo and greater South City as well.

It also places the future of the delightful church and its attendant campus (including the elementary school, my alma mater) in the "uncertain" category.

May there somehow be a last minute intervention! I wish. The school will not reopen for next school year in September.

I couldn't find a decent shot of the High School. Here is a picture of the Church and Rectory:



UPDATE (10:58p): Apparently, the decision will be made in the next 48 hours. It was communicated to the community that the chances are grim, however.