urbanSTL

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but the properties at the SE corner of Connecticut and Morganford have been under construction for a while. Passing through the area the other day, I saw a worker sitting in front of the building at 3182 Morganford eating lunch. I decided to stop and have a chat.



Thankfully the worker seemed pretty informed on the project. Apparently 3182 (located on the actual corner) will be a restaurant. Rumors have been circling for the past couple years that a catering business will also be involved at the the location, but the worker didn’t seem to have any knowledge about that. The long L-shaped building at 3186 Morganford (just south of the intersection) will be home to a collection of small boutiques. The worker spouted out so many different things in short order that I must admit that I forgot much of what he said. What did stick with me is that an ice cream shop and a day care will be among the businesses taking up spots.



He seemed pretty confident of his knowledge and hopefully it proves correct. Best of all, he said the project is on target for completion in June. I was working on a rehab project just a block away from Morganford all weekend and there was an impressive amount of car and foot traffic. Lots of people sitting outside too. Great to see things expanding. Anyone have any other insights into what is going on?

A little history: The site at 3196 (the L-shaped building in the photo) was actually a small open-air theatre called "Armo Airdome", ran by Wehrenberg, from the late 1930's through 1952.

In 1955, the site was occupied by Cook's Supermarket. The market later become Tru-Buy Warehouse Foods. More recently, a Family Dollar store occupied the site.

Well there is some info online that can answer Bonwich's question:



The Central Plank Road Company of Missouri was chartered in 1851 to build a plank road from the end of Olive Street in St. Louis to the Missouri River. Although the road was built, the company appears to have become insolvent by 1858.



Knowing the date that the company was formed to build the Central Plank Road running from Olive Street westward, we can then use the 1868 Pitzman Atlas of St. Louis County to trace the route the road took.



Looking east to west on the maps, looks like the "Plank Road" started just east of Grand where Lindell and Olive split (Link to Map) and then continues west. Plank Road curves sharply northward just west of Newstead, moving to what looks like the current location of Delmar or Enright (notice the Fountain Park Subdivision on the map).



Still moving westward, a road labeled "Mount Olive" splits off just east of Skinker (Link to Map) and from there moves westward along what we know today as Olive Boulevard in the county, although the map calls it "Central or Olive Street Plank Road" west of Warson. The other maps moving east to west to trace the route.



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Framer wrote:Interesting tidbit about the open-air theater. I wonder how common they were back in the old days?

Quite common, and very popular back in the day. Most of these "airdomes", as they were commonly called, opened before the age of the automobile was in full swing and drive-ins became the new "in" thing.



I've identified a few other open-air theatres in the city:

Arcade Airdome, 4030-50 West Pine, open from 1924-1950; Zelphia, unknown location, opened 1925; West End Lyric Airdome, Delmar & Taylor (dates unknown); North Grand Airdome, unknown location, opened 1925; Armba Airdome, unknown location, opened 1940; and Baden Airdome, 8401 North Broadway, (dates unsure, either 1927-1967 or 1932-1972.) There were supposedly others as well.

Didn't down that about the theater. Very cool. I was driving by the intersection again this evening after dark and its really transformed a lot more in the past few days. The glass is in at the restaurant and it looks pretty good on the inside. They had the lights on, including the decorative exterior lighting. Quite nice. I'll be down there again tomorrow night after dark so I'll try to bring my camera by to take a couple of new pics.

sostl wrote:I appreciate the insight on the Morganford project greatly. i am actually moving a couple blocks east of their in about 3 days...so this is exciting news to me. Were you able to take any other pics the other night? Also, any word on what kind of restaurant is goin in at 3182?

I have been by a few more times since then with camera in hand, but I haven't seen the building with the lights on at night since that first time. I will take pics tomorrow during the day and keep trying for those at night. No world on the restaurant type yet. The motif looks like a Mexican place to me, but that is a total guess.



I did come across some new info on that block this evening though. THe old dive bar, Ron's Mighty Pub, is getting a big makeover. The bar closed in February (did anyone notice) and the new owners are doing a remodel, which they hope will last a month. I talked to one of the owners and he said that they will highlight all major soccer games as their "catch." So it looks like a niche sports bar with attention still being paid to other sports. Current name choice is "The Amsterdam" but that is preliminary and will probably change. Can't wait to try all these new places.

DeBaliviere wrote:^

If I'm not mistaken, Ron's Mighty Pub was on the other side of the street from the L-shaped building.



Is anything going on with the old "Mugs & Jugs" (weird name) bar building? It's a frame building on the east side of Morganford that looks more like a house than a commercial building.

Correct DeBaliviere. And thanks sostl. It is just south of the Tin Can on the same side of the street. I'm not sure about Mugs & Jugs. I must admit that I don't really even know what building it is. Any idea of the address? There is a lot of other development activity on those first blocks south of Arsenal that I'm not sure about. I'm going to make a point to stop and talk to any workers I see along the street.

I just had dinner at Three Monkeys for the second time, and was happy to see the business has grown.

They've expanded their dining area into a nice open room to the north, which also contains another bar. Outside, they've added several tables (with umbrellas) along both Morganford and Juniata.

The view from the Morganford side is interesting, not only for watching the South Side streetlife, but also because there's that intriguing art gallery across the street with the unusual deck in front.

By the way, the Three Monkeys staff is friendly, and the food's great!

THe Connecticut corner will be a "family-style" restaurant (I'm assuming home-cooking kind of food) and was supposed to open in July at one point. Over a month ago it looked like it was almost done inside. Now it looks like they are changing things. Not sure of the extent, but thats what it looks like.



THe Mighty Pub location is still going for the soccer theme from what I know.