boiker
Cyburbian
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Sorry no personally taken pics this time. I feel St Louis has been well documented through photographs in this forum.
I started my trip at the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois Statewide Conference at the Pere Marquette State Park near Grafton, IL. The bluffs along the river and IL-100 are beautiful and worth the trip in itself. I'm thinking of making a trip down in the fall.
Being inspired from previous Alton photos, I took the tour. The downtown is nicely intact. There are many restaurants, bars, and boutiques throughout a small couple block area. An arm of the downtown stretches along Broadway St to the east. Here the downtown is a less kept and occupied. But nice architecture. If you get to Alton, stop at Fast Eddie's for the 99 cent 1/2 lb hamburgers.
After Alton I took US-67 over to the north side of St. Louis and drove down Florissant Ave to the downtown. The brick is relentless. The amount of red brick is amazing. North of I-70, St. Louis looked to be a decent, 1940s middle class area...at least on the roads I drove. South of it, the blight was pretty bad. I didn't feel unsafe in this area... just amazed by the abandonment. I know the answer but still ask the question...why would anyone want to leave these quality homes?
Downtown St. Louis...on a beautiful 78 degree low humidity (in June?! in St Louis?!) day was light on pedestrian or auto traffic. It was even a baseball game day.. although the game wasn't scheduled to start for another 3 hours. Enjoyed a Schlafly's and St. Louis style pizza at Caleco's a couple block from Bush Stadium. Parking downtown was $5!!! on game day.. It's $5 in Peoria. I was shocked expecting "metropolitan" parking fees.
Took a drive by ugly Busch Stadium and the new baseball park, currently a pit, that is under construction.
The downtown is small, compact and has nice narrow right-of-ways, which if redevelopment or restoration increases would create an awesome environment for living and working. A couple of the new(er) buildings seemed to have a fear of the ground level in that the main entrance was located substantially back from the sidewalks under arcades that were 3-4 stories high. It didn't help to preserve to street wall that the old created. This, of course, is an affliction of many communities.
West End near Forrest Park is beautiful with tons of upscale red brick homes in many architectural styles. This area is definitely worth checking out if you enjoy old home sight-seeing.
Took I-64 to East St. Louis and then took IL-3 through East St. Louis, Venice, etc. I had to see it for myself. It looked like plenty of demolition had occurred there were hardly any industrial structures or anything. I couldn't find my camera when I wanted to take a picture of an abandoned, wood rail trestle that was falling apart with dangling rails.
I didn't venture into the suburbs on in the MO side. But it seems that the few ways for St. Louis to 'save itself' is like many other industrial cities. Reduce suburban type growth and improve the school system. Growth from within, re-use buildings that identify St. Louis.
I started my trip at the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois Statewide Conference at the Pere Marquette State Park near Grafton, IL. The bluffs along the river and IL-100 are beautiful and worth the trip in itself. I'm thinking of making a trip down in the fall.
Being inspired from previous Alton photos, I took the tour. The downtown is nicely intact. There are many restaurants, bars, and boutiques throughout a small couple block area. An arm of the downtown stretches along Broadway St to the east. Here the downtown is a less kept and occupied. But nice architecture. If you get to Alton, stop at Fast Eddie's for the 99 cent 1/2 lb hamburgers.
After Alton I took US-67 over to the north side of St. Louis and drove down Florissant Ave to the downtown. The brick is relentless. The amount of red brick is amazing. North of I-70, St. Louis looked to be a decent, 1940s middle class area...at least on the roads I drove. South of it, the blight was pretty bad. I didn't feel unsafe in this area... just amazed by the abandonment. I know the answer but still ask the question...why would anyone want to leave these quality homes?
Downtown St. Louis...on a beautiful 78 degree low humidity (in June?! in St Louis?!) day was light on pedestrian or auto traffic. It was even a baseball game day.. although the game wasn't scheduled to start for another 3 hours. Enjoyed a Schlafly's and St. Louis style pizza at Caleco's a couple block from Bush Stadium. Parking downtown was $5!!! on game day.. It's $5 in Peoria. I was shocked expecting "metropolitan" parking fees.
Took a drive by ugly Busch Stadium and the new baseball park, currently a pit, that is under construction.
The downtown is small, compact and has nice narrow right-of-ways, which if redevelopment or restoration increases would create an awesome environment for living and working. A couple of the new(er) buildings seemed to have a fear of the ground level in that the main entrance was located substantially back from the sidewalks under arcades that were 3-4 stories high. It didn't help to preserve to street wall that the old created. This, of course, is an affliction of many communities.
West End near Forrest Park is beautiful with tons of upscale red brick homes in many architectural styles. This area is definitely worth checking out if you enjoy old home sight-seeing.
Took I-64 to East St. Louis and then took IL-3 through East St. Louis, Venice, etc. I had to see it for myself. It looked like plenty of demolition had occurred there were hardly any industrial structures or anything. I couldn't find my camera when I wanted to take a picture of an abandoned, wood rail trestle that was falling apart with dangling rails.
I didn't venture into the suburbs on in the MO side. But it seems that the few ways for St. Louis to 'save itself' is like many other industrial cities. Reduce suburban type growth and improve the school system. Growth from within, re-use buildings that identify St. Louis.
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