We've added lots of new members recently, and some of us old timers have moved, so I thought it would be a good time to ask: Where do you live, and what type of building do live in?



I recently moved into a four-family, art-deco apartment building in St. Louis Hills. Built in 1937, the entry features a winding, terrazzo stairway with an ornamental iron railing and a 10' high stained glass window. My unit has lots of cool features, such as curved and angled walls; decorative tilework; heavy, carved, multi-panelled doors throughout; and a streamlined, (nonworking) fireplace with a lighted glass mantlepiece.

I live in the most exciting and pictureesque city in the area: Collinsville . But seriously, despite its problems I love the place. As for specifically, I live in an 80 year old house in a mostly working class neighborhood(it seems half the street work(ed) for the telephone company) on the southern edge of town. Can't really tell ya what style my house is, but its brick, with a nice porch that I like to sit out on and listen to music. The house is in need of facelift, but we can't really afford anything like that now. I promised my mom that when I get rich I'll buy my loft and cadillac and I'll buy her a small, quiet house out in the middle of the country.



The rest of the street is made up mostly of older brick bungalows and small, sided houses. There are a couple bigger homes and trailers thrown in. But hey, its diverse.



Now where the heck is the spellcheck because I know I misspelled pictureesque.

^ East St. Louis?



I live in Melbourne (duh ) in a small 2 bedroom apartment in the suburb of Hawthorn (geographic equivalent of the CWE). It's just as leafy and high class, but with far fewer homeless people.

CWE, in a 1925 vintage 4-story apartment building with 54 units. Lovin' every minute of it.

Framer wrote:I recently moved into a four-family, art-deco apartment building in St. Louis Hills. Built in 1937, the entry features a winding, terrazzo stairway with an ornamental iron railing and a 10' high stained glass window. My unit has lots of cool features, such as curved and angled walls; decorative tilework; heavy, carved, multi-panelled doors throughout; and a streamlined, (nonworking) fireplace with a lighted glass mantlepiece.

I love those apt buildings in St. Louis Hills. I live not too far from there in Affton, in a single family home that's built out of kiln-fired and sealed clay bricks - you'd think it's a traditional brick home from the street, but the big tip-off is that the bricks are 5" tall instead of the traditional three. It's a very unusual building material, and I love the uniqueness of it. Inside I have arched doorways, stained glass windows, and a faux fireplace.



Off the subject, if anyone knows anything more about this clay brick building material, I'd love to learn. Mine is the only home on the street made of this material, though I've seen one or two others in the surrounding area made of the same thing.



-RBB

I live in a tiny attic apartment in <a href="http://flickr.com/search/?q=woodbridge+ ... dbridge</a>, Detroit. Woodbridge is where the well to do lived before the automobile boom. In the 1920's and 30's the houses were carved up into apartments and the area became more middle class. From what I understand in the 70's and 80's it was a pretty bad area. Since then it has become a rather eclectic mix of bohemians, students, artists and locals. I live a block or two away from where Ty Cobb used to live. It's about a mile from old Tiger Stadium.



I'm moving to St. Louis this summer, soon as I find a job.

I live in a 4 family flat in South City. My apartment is upstairs and it gets really hot in the summer, even with the air on. I still like it because I have a huge back yard for my dog and no neighbors behind me.



I'm looking to buy a house soon though, preferably in the same area.

I live in an 80+ year old, two-story gingerbread house in North Hampton. It's pretty typical of the houses in the neighborhood - red brick, lots of stone accents, stained glass windows in the front, etc.

I live in NorthHampton just a block or so away from Debaliviere in a pretty similar house. My house also has a second story added on. I like the area, but as soon as I can purchase the house I want and do an extensive rehab I will be moving up to ONSL.

I live in an 1885 red brick momma in Tower Grove East. She is a beauty and I have a fantastic range of fire from my second-story front windows. I can cover approximately 180 degrees from my bathtub. I anticipate making my final stand against the KGB from the tub because the chrome on the fixtures interferes with their radio transmissions. Normally I just wear aluminum foil on my head, but I haven't figured out a way to secure it during a fire-fight, so the tub it is.

TGE-ATW, I think I have seen you at the South Grand Schnucks. Unless that was another guy wearing aluminum foil on his head?

I'm the pioneer at neighborhood gardens. I absolutely love the building and location. Ha most of you guys know a lot about the place...they are historic buildings from the 1930's. I love the minimalist approach to it. I love having two balconies (one off the living room and one off a bedroom)...something a lot of the "affordable" apartments and lofts downtown lack. For a poor guy in school, it's nice. Everytime I drive around the city though I find something charming about most every location/neighborhood. But ultimately, I think I would like to take the dive to ONSL too if I can find something in the southern portion that is still close to downtown.



And Shimmy: I think Collinsville is a nice town...my previous residence was between Collinsville and Pontoon Beach. That location is excellent as far as interstate connectivity. I think it is poised to be an anchor for the east side.

well, almost 3 yrs ago I purchased a 3rd floor 2bed/ 2bath 1500sf condo in the Moorlands. I bought it when I was rehabbing and flipping houses and basically decided I never wanna move. The location is perfect for me. It's central, clean, safe and IMO the architectecture in the moorlands is top notch.

It's just me and my roommate (a buddie from HS) but my lady friend might as well start paying rent. My view of the Clayton skyline is pretty cool, but not as impressive as the view of the sunsets and storms rolling in.

I also love the diversity of the neighborhood. (no old fart clayton snobs as far as the eye can see) (no seriously!) My street is mostly 20 somethings, some in school and some with kids. I'm not sure what the asian population is in Clayton, but there's a large concentration around me. The proximity to amenities is great too. Not as cool, fun or hip as the CWE or Wash ave but I can walk quickly walk to Wydown and Hanley (sbux, Manhattan cafe, the gym, protzels) and ride my bike to FP, the MLink, and everything DT clayton.

I'd have to say that the best feature of my building is the near free electricity. I guess some wires got crossed somewhere because my bill is only about $25 year round.



For those of you who wanna check out the neighborhood (the architecture rocks!) The moorlands is roughly bounded by Hanley to the West, Wydown to North, Clayton to the south, and Glenridge to east. If you come by, be sure to check out the Mega Mansions on the north side of Wydown between Hanley and Big Bend.

Suburban Lou wrote:Hell

You mean we have two people in this thread who live in Michigan?

DeBaliviere wrote:I live in an 80+ year old, two-story gingerbread house in North Hampton. It's pretty typical of the houses in the neighborhood - red brick, lots of stone accents, stained glass windows in the front, etc.

where exactly is north hampton...thanx

^

It's the neighborhood north of Chippewa and east of Hampton. If you've ever seen St. Joan of Arc church on Hampton, that's North Hampton. My place is just west of Macklind, which cuts through the center of the neighborhood (the Macklind business district is located south of Chippewa though).

I live in a 6 family flat in Tower Grove South. I'm two blocks from Grand, and three from Tower Grove Park. It's a crappy shot-gun style apartment, that I'm putting up with so I can save a little cash to look into buying something worth rehabbing. I absolutely love the area, and I've considered moving several times, but each time I look, I see that in my current place, I'm only two blocks from Grand, and I just have a hard time pulling the trigger.



I've got a beautiful Japanese Maple just outside my front window. But I just wish that my place had been taken better care of in recent years. It's pretty dumpy. The fact that I'm rarely home only compounds the dumpy-ness, since things tend to get a little messy.



Hopefully, I can find something worth buying in the next couple years. The areas I want are FPSE, TGS, and ONSL. Really, any place near tower grove would be nice, but I like being close to Grand.

I live on The Arse, 1/2 a block west of Grand in a former two family that has been converted to a single family. The house was built in 1908 and was a rental until we bought it in 1998. It had a hard life until then, as evidenced by the flourescent pink and blue baseboards. Some of my neighbors have lived in their homes for over 25 years and they tell stories of the former tenants in the late 1980's. The transformer in the alley still has 8 bullet holes where a former tenant emptied his pistol one night.

We turned the upstairs kitchen into a laundry room and the second floor dining room and living room into a bedroom and sitting room. It has been a lot of work, but well worth it. Having Tower Grove Park as a front yard is great. Property values have nearly tripled since 1998, too.

Banker wrote:I live on The Arse

That's awesome. We now have "The Arse" and "MoFo" in the same neighborhood.

DeBaliviere wrote:

Banker wrote:I live on The Arse

That's awesome. We now have "The Arse" and "MoFo" in the same neighborhood.

Giving directions to an outsider could be dangerous...



"Take the Mofo, then go right up The Arse"



-RBB

RBB wrote:

DeBaliviere wrote:

Banker wrote:I live on The Arse

That's awesome. We now have "The Arse" and "MoFo" in the same neighborhood.

Giving directions to an outsider could be dangerous...



"Take the Mofo, then go right up The Arse"



-RBB

And if you see NoBro, turn around!

And you should be forewarned that almost all the grocers in the city are real Schnucks.