Imbued With Hues posted this awesome (colorized) photo on Facebook. The caption says it's in St. Louis, 1934. Any idea where this could be?
![]()
Could be Tucker/12th in Downtown.framer wrote:Imbued With Hues posted this awesome (colorized) photo on Facebook. The caption says it's in St. Louis, 1934. Any idea where this could be?
- 18
I'm going to guess the northwest corner of Lindell and Vandeventer. The large building behind the Shell station looks to be the old headquarters of AAA of Missouri before they moved to West County in the early 1970's. The circular AAA building replaced it.
These ugly houses seem to be all over the city. Is there a story behind them?
My realtor called them HUD houses. There's a one story version as well.
- 6,118
I honestly think the biggest reason they're "ugly" is the lack of maintenance and landscaping. Which is probably a direct result of the amount of spare money and energy the occupants and owners have, or are willing to spend on upkeep. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if the problem is mostly one of absentee landlords bellying up to the HUD money trough and then crapping all over our city. (Which is to say taking the subsidized rents and doing the absolute bare minimum on upkeep. And probably saying something along the lines of "the tenants will just wreck it anyway" as some sort of self-serving justification.)
If those were clean and well maintained in fifty years they could be the new shotgun house. Quirky. Unasuming, but distinctive. The tallness and narrowness makes them more urban feeling than a lot of newer construction. And while I'm no fan of the siding, even that would look better with a fresh coat of paint.
If those were clean and well maintained in fifty years they could be the new shotgun house. Quirky. Unasuming, but distinctive. The tallness and narrowness makes them more urban feeling than a lot of newer construction. And while I'm no fan of the siding, even that would look better with a fresh coat of paint.
No, they're trash. An insult to our city. It's apparent when you see one next to a STL house. An example of how we were putting less wealth into buildings and more into cars, highways, etc.
If I was rich, I'd buy then up and replace them with better.
If I was rich, I'd buy then up and replace them with better.
- 6,118
^Oh, that's a great new perspective! I'll have to keep that in mind.
Looks to be from the SLU Hospital garagesymphonicpoet wrote: ↑Nov 19, 2020^Oh, that's a great new perspective! I'll have to keep that in mind.
- 6,118
^^Right. I have similar shots from the parking garages just east of the plague research lab. In fact, I have shots of the cranes that would build that hospital and garage from them. Just haven't been to the top of the garage yet. I'll check it out soonish if it's accessible and the powers that be don't object. We'll see.
- 6,118
All the references scribed onto the plate make me wonder if this was part of a larger work. Maybe pages or plates in a set of plans? You think that's the thirties? The newest car in the thing looks to be maybe early model A vintage, and still fairly new. (Mind you, I'm no early car expert.) Even the 1870s appearing stuff doesn't look too terribly worn yet. Great picture! 
Probably one of the thousands of shots by Charles Holt and his staff. They were employed by the city's Board of Public Works to document street improvements roughly between 1900 and 1930. I have the book of his work, Capturing the City, published by the History Museum. A few of the images have very similar markings; even looks like the same handwriting. I didn't see this one in the book, but I scanned it very quickly.
Great book, BTW:
https://www.amazon.com/Capturing-City-P ... 1883982839
Great book, BTW:
https://www.amazon.com/Capturing-City-P ... 1883982839
^ I also have this book! Been quite sometime since I looked through it though, might need to fix that.
- 6,118
I'll have to look that up. If it has a lot of shots like that . . . ooh . . .
- 6,118
^Ordered. Though I'm a little disappointed the history museum is partnering with U. of Chicago and not someone local. But maybe everyone local has closed their publishing arms. I seem to recall University of Missouri Press closed down about four or five years ago to great anguish and consternation in CoMO.
- 6,118
Maybe it was the special publications division that shut down. It was a publishing arm of some kind. A neighbor took early retirement as a result. And whatever it was, there was a fairly big stink about it. But I generally try not to pay UMC any heed anyway.