There is no theme--this is just my photo dump from a visit back home. Enjoy!
The Soulard neighborhood, one of St. Louis's oldest neighborhoods, complete with some alley houses.
St. Louis Hills Estates, St. Louis's most recent major subdivision--platted in the 1950s.
New row house development in the Boulevard Heights neighborhood on the city's extreme south side.
A stately Holly Hills home--a 1920s neighborhood named to evoke the glamor of Hollywood.
A renovated autocentric space in Fox Park.
The Old North St. Louis neighborhood, which is undergoing an unbelievable transformation from one of the most pockmarked and vacant neighborhoods in the city to one of its best stories of revival.
A couple shots in the neighboring St. Louis Place neighborhood--a hardhit neighborhood with a couple gems which are highlighted below.
The Catlin Tract in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood. Massive homes built to front 1,300 acre Forest Park, the crown jewel of the city's park system. Sorry--these were clearly taken from a car while in motion.
The Delmar Loop area, St. Louis's longest and most active commercial strip.
A building I've always loved, in the Northampton neighborhood, the last urban building anchoring the intersection of Chippewa and Kingshighway.
A streetscape view of my parents' block in the Bevo neighborhood.
Tudor style reigns supreme in the Princeton Heights and St. Louis Hills neighborhoods.
This is Hampton Village, one of the nation's first "suburban" shopping centers, even though it's within city limits, straddling the Southampton/St. Louis Hills neighborhoods.
A Northampton commercial space.
Two commercial buildings in the city's Hill neighborhood--the Italian sector. Note the Italian flag colored light pole banners.
Downtown Dutchtown, an old German neighborhood on the South Side.
Back to Holly Hills to a new little store that opened up that my mom wanted to visit.
Benton Park. For the most part, this historic neighborhood just west of Soulard has stabilized and is a very desirable neighborhood. These two beautiful and very old buildings lie fallow, though. The second of the two pictures' homes was recently named to the Landmarks Association of St. Louis's Most Endangered Properties list.
Tower Grove South neighborhood. Most of the neighborhood is turn of the century foursquares and other Revival styles (as seen in the first picture), but there are also large courtyard apartments and some newer construction, like the rare Lustron home in the fifth picture in the series.
The Central West End. I was attending my little brother's graduation in the magnificent Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, also pictured below (guess which one...)
The Carondelet neighborhood's Bellerive Boulevard, a City Beautiful era boulevard part of an only partially realized system of grand promenades throughout the city.
The Patch neighborhood, St. Louis's southernmost neighborhood and part of the old city of Carondelet, founded just a few years after St. Louis itself. While originally a French Creole neighborhood in the vein of New Orleans, it was quickly dominated by Germans who came in around 1840. Their limestone building practices are still observable in the now largely industrialized neighborhood (at least east of Broadway).
A colorful pair in the Benton Park neighborhood. Sorry for the rearview mirror.
The McKinley Heights neighborhood, just west of Soulard. Most houses are two families built around the late 1880s or early 1900s, but this is a little Creole cottage from an earlier era.
This is a rare three-story Italianate home on the city's North Side, located in a neighborhood known alternately as Covenant Blu and Grand Center.
Back to the Delmar Loop. I had to check out the views from the top of the recently opened Moonrise Hotel. It was a beautiful and clear day, so Downtown, Midtown, and the Central West End's highrises were all easy to view.
The Forest Park Southeast neighborhood, also known as the Grove.
The Compton Heights neighborhood. This house's street tree fell down, but not before the owners decided to memorialize its once welcome shadow with a little paint.
The Cherokee Street commercial area, straddling the Benton Park West and Gravois Park neighborhoods. It's seeing something of a renaissance at the hands of Hispanics, anarchists, artists, etc. (those aren't mutually exclusive, either, of course).
Church's Chicken?
Obligatory Arch shot.
A couple tantalizing shots of Downtown/Downtown West.
Central West End/Midtown randomness.
A walk through Benton Park and Soulard.
A farewell lunch to St. Louis at Crepes in the City, downtown near the Central Library.
A final stop to Lafayette Square for some R&R before a loooong train ride back to New Orleans.
Signing off from my favorite apartment building, located in the Fox Park neighborhood bordering ostentatious Compton Heights.
Hope you enjoyed!