Henry Ware Eliot was the owner of the Hydraulic-Press Brick Company and father to T. S. Eliot. I found this page from an Architecture magazine from the 1920s.
Presenting a collection of St. Louis bricks, sidewalk markers, and the Fleur-de-lis as architectural detail on and in city buildings, brick collecting, urban exploration, and my life by Christian Herman. Reporting from Tower Grove South in St. Louis, MO
11/17/09
11/11/09
Remains on MGF is your Saturday Destination!
Remains is located at 3340 Morgan Ford Road just south of the Marti Frumhoff Memorial Garden* at Utah and Fyler here in TGS. They are open to the public on Wednesday and Saturdays from 8-4. Cash only. What's available? Scroll down to the price list and photos below.
Where to go:
Drive back about fifty feet, this open door is on the left. There's a friendly dog on the premises name Pal.
Rag refers to any article of discarded clothing or textile and Remains is a rag company in the business of post-consumer textiles. It's mega Green!
I've been fascinated with this industry since I first heard the term 'rag company' from my grandfather when I was a teenager. I had been reading the Post and noticed fibers in the paper. He explained that newsprint has a high rag content (as does paper money) and the rag industry developed in large cities with a side business of selling rag for pulp. The pulp gets mixed in huge vats but that's another post.
A rag company contracts for textiles from thrift stores (They also use donation boxes). They buy and resell it by the pound. It's a huge and vital industry with dozens of related businesses. Owner Kelly Stewart recently started a related business: Arch Paper http://www.archpaper.net/servlet/StoreFront
After arriving at Remains the textiles are sorted and graded. The clothing in excellent condition is baled and purchased by brokers then shipped to Canada (for another sort) and third world countries where it's sold for the third of fourth time.
The history of rag companies is, as I mentioned, fascinating. It's directly linked to paper production and the history of public schools. Prior to paper (a rag product) being mass produced, formal education was only for the wealthy who could afford tutors for their children since the ability to mass publish texts and primers didn't exist. Paper also allowed students to develop linear thinking by writing a series of numbers and learning basic math.
My thanks to Kelly and the staff of Remains who graciously allowed a tour of the business and answered my relentless questions.
Textiles are delivered by fork lift then fed by a worked onto the conveyor belt:
The conveyor belt where clothing and textiles get sorted then head up the line to be baled:
A worker on the sorting line:
The baler where clothing is compressed:
Baled textiles:
Price list and photos of the sales floor:
Photos of the 'sales floor'.
All garments are hung and the place is hyper neat.
I saw many pairs of never worn fleece and flannel lined slippers:
Long johns, union suits, and bibs.
* As a fundraiser for Marti's garden I am talking with Remains about accepting donations of shoes and clothing. More info will follow.
Where to go:
Drive back about fifty feet, this open door is on the left. There's a friendly dog on the premises name Pal.
Rag refers to any article of discarded clothing or textile and Remains is a rag company in the business of post-consumer textiles. It's mega Green!
I've been fascinated with this industry since I first heard the term 'rag company' from my grandfather when I was a teenager. I had been reading the Post and noticed fibers in the paper. He explained that newsprint has a high rag content (as does paper money) and the rag industry developed in large cities with a side business of selling rag for pulp. The pulp gets mixed in huge vats but that's another post.
A rag company contracts for textiles from thrift stores (They also use donation boxes). They buy and resell it by the pound. It's a huge and vital industry with dozens of related businesses. Owner Kelly Stewart recently started a related business: Arch Paper http://www.archpaper.net/servlet/StoreFront
After arriving at Remains the textiles are sorted and graded. The clothing in excellent condition is baled and purchased by brokers then shipped to Canada (for another sort) and third world countries where it's sold for the third of fourth time.
The history of rag companies is, as I mentioned, fascinating. It's directly linked to paper production and the history of public schools. Prior to paper (a rag product) being mass produced, formal education was only for the wealthy who could afford tutors for their children since the ability to mass publish texts and primers didn't exist. Paper also allowed students to develop linear thinking by writing a series of numbers and learning basic math.
My thanks to Kelly and the staff of Remains who graciously allowed a tour of the business and answered my relentless questions.
Textiles are delivered by fork lift then fed by a worked onto the conveyor belt:
The conveyor belt where clothing and textiles get sorted then head up the line to be baled:
A worker on the sorting line:
The baler where clothing is compressed:
Baled textiles:
Price list and photos of the sales floor:
Photos of the 'sales floor'.
All garments are hung and the place is hyper neat.
I saw many pairs of never worn fleece and flannel lined slippers:
Long johns, union suits, and bibs.
* As a fundraiser for Marti's garden I am talking with Remains about accepting donations of shoes and clothing. More info will follow.
Heinous Repointing
11/10/09
11/8/09
Flatirons - Mt Pleasant
Friday morning at 5 AM Tim and I arrived at St. Claire Hospital in Fenton where I was having surgery on my hand. I had been up for 20 hours and was a bit delirious. Should have taken the camera, the waiting room (Tim said) looked like a Shrine and the counter (I swear) looked like an altar.
I like my doctor, he a stitch. I felt for the poor nurses who were baffled my absence of an obvious vein to run the IV. Nurse 1 tried everything including the rubber hose and usual prodding. After five minutes Nurse 2 stepped up with no success. The anesthesiologist finally gave it a shot, kneeling down next to the bed.
You're holding me up, my favorite doctor said.
I flipped him off under the guise of discussing my useless finger.
What kind of pain med do you want, he asked, tapping a pen on the script pad.
I'm allergic to all narcotic pain pills but my dentist gave me something non narcotic so I'll use those.
No script?
No, I have some at home.
Anyone else want a script, he asked of the nurses but no one laughed. He's a stitch, I tell you and one big ass pharm pimp.
The last thing I remember saying was something about how men should always be on their knees when talking to me. One nurse guffawed and that was when the anesthesiologist opened the line. Lights out!
I slept most of Friday, woke up in time to take some mail orders to the post office (ignoring the Don't Drive advice and found myself driving down a one way street. Bad, very bad). It took another 12 hours for the anesthesia to dissipate.
I picked up something in the hospital of course. Some nasty stomach bug in addition to my slashed hand wrapped in gauze which was pulled open today when Beau lunged on the leash. Worse, the gauze was stuck to the stitches which gave my stomach an extra turn.
Just in case you're wondering I type with two fingers.
By yesterday afternoon I was feeling recovered (before the stomach flu) and Tim and I drove the Mount Pleasant neighborhood so I could snap some photos of two flatiron buildings:
Just imagine what this looked like with pavers and street car tracks.
This building is now smartly owned by an architect and I am envious. Tim said this building was built by Anheuser-Busch and was a tavern.
Triple arch alert!
Sonrie likes these green glazed bricks but I'm queer for the amber color. BTW, white mortar was always used with glazed brick to make them POP.
In the front of this second flatiron is an original planter on the sidewalk that resonates with the buildings design.
Wrap around step that some idiot painted red.
Dreamy ivory glazed terra cotta.
I'm betting the original door had a keyhole design.
When I first saw this circle within circle motif I thought: Celtic. Bad Tim Said it's a Moorish influence.
Water struck bricks.
Flecks of feldspar in the brick and large pebbles in the mortar.
These buildings sit on triangular island blocks on Virginia in the Mt Pleasant neighborhood.
I like my doctor, he a stitch. I felt for the poor nurses who were baffled my absence of an obvious vein to run the IV. Nurse 1 tried everything including the rubber hose and usual prodding. After five minutes Nurse 2 stepped up with no success. The anesthesiologist finally gave it a shot, kneeling down next to the bed.
You're holding me up, my favorite doctor said.
I flipped him off under the guise of discussing my useless finger.
What kind of pain med do you want, he asked, tapping a pen on the script pad.
I'm allergic to all narcotic pain pills but my dentist gave me something non narcotic so I'll use those.
No script?
No, I have some at home.
Anyone else want a script, he asked of the nurses but no one laughed. He's a stitch, I tell you and one big ass pharm pimp.
The last thing I remember saying was something about how men should always be on their knees when talking to me. One nurse guffawed and that was when the anesthesiologist opened the line. Lights out!
I slept most of Friday, woke up in time to take some mail orders to the post office (ignoring the Don't Drive advice and found myself driving down a one way street. Bad, very bad). It took another 12 hours for the anesthesia to dissipate.
I picked up something in the hospital of course. Some nasty stomach bug in addition to my slashed hand wrapped in gauze which was pulled open today when Beau lunged on the leash. Worse, the gauze was stuck to the stitches which gave my stomach an extra turn.
Just in case you're wondering I type with two fingers.
By yesterday afternoon I was feeling recovered (before the stomach flu) and Tim and I drove the Mount Pleasant neighborhood so I could snap some photos of two flatiron buildings:
Just imagine what this looked like with pavers and street car tracks.
This building is now smartly owned by an architect and I am envious. Tim said this building was built by Anheuser-Busch and was a tavern.
Triple arch alert!
Sonrie likes these green glazed bricks but I'm queer for the amber color. BTW, white mortar was always used with glazed brick to make them POP.
In the front of this second flatiron is an original planter on the sidewalk that resonates with the buildings design.
Wrap around step that some idiot painted red.
Dreamy ivory glazed terra cotta.
I'm betting the original door had a keyhole design.
When I first saw this circle within circle motif I thought: Celtic. Bad Tim Said it's a Moorish influence.
Water struck bricks.
Flecks of feldspar in the brick and large pebbles in the mortar.
These buildings sit on triangular island blocks on Virginia in the Mt Pleasant neighborhood.
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