Back to Granite City

Granite city is both depressing and exciting.

It's a small town where the only career choice appears to be cashier. Gas is twenty cents higher than in St. Louis. Dollar stores at every corner.

Some of the older buildings have been demolished including an old hotel that was no longer being used. The only new construction I've seen there in a decades is the landfill and subsidized housing. The city's main drag is a six block long strip mall.

Closed YMCA:


Sponge brick:

Large pebble mortar brick.


Decorative terra cotta surrounding doorway.

Bet you a hundred clams that this mosaic tile facade isn't original to the building. I cringe to think it may have been vitrolite.


Lisa's Diner. Hell no, I didn't go in.


Killer storefront with deep red vitrolite (and reflected clouds)

Shredded awnings on the abandoned building:


Love this brickwork that looks as if it's a perforated line:
Dusty two family


There's a layer of dusty film over everything in Granite City due to the steel mill. The whole city is a smudge like walking through an ash tray.
Facade of the Granite City library:

HOME SWEET HOME

Or was it?

This photo was taken in front of the first (and last) home my grandfather Busch bought.

Photo by William (or Wilheim) Busch, a creepy and arrogant man who who left Germany shortly after WW1 (he was a topographer with Baron Von Richthofen), came to the States and landed in Springfield, IL where he met my grandmother, Ruth Steelman.

He seduced her on the floor of her parents living room and she became pregnant. Reluctant to marry he literally ran off with a visiting circus, was located, and my 80 year old aunt divulged a shotgun may have been involved during the wedding.

My mother had a photo of Wilheim with his flying squad. He had written the names of his cronies in white ink over their chest. Rudolf Hess was on one side, Hermann Goering on the other (I was never been able to locate that photo after my mother's death.) Because of the photo and the way he treated all three of his children, his children and grandchildren have always referred to him as the Nazi.

The Nazi molested all three of his children (one boy, two girls) and my two sisters (gratefully, I was spared and not left alone with him). His son did the same to some (unrelated) younger girls when he was an adult.

The small elderly women in this photo is his mother, Emma Kilter. She gave birth to Wilheim when she was 16 in Bonn Germany. No one knew who his father was or the circumstances of his conception. Emma Kilter owned an antique store in Great Neck Long Island.

The two babes in the photo are my aunt and mother (their mother is peeking out between them). Since they had been raised during the Depression the coral color dress my Mom is wearing (along with that box purse) remained in our home for decades.

Next to my mother is my father sporting a massive pompadour and holding me. We are the only two people in this group who are not smiling. This may have been due to our close proximity to each other.

This house was on Solar Lane.
From what I understand it was really the dark side of the sun.
`
I miss my Mother.
Her most important lesson: Do what you want to do and not what you think you should do.

She's a brick house
The lady's stacked and that's a fact,
ain't holding nothing back. - Lionel Richie

I WOULD TOUCH THAT W/ A TEN FOOT POLE

We've a variety of colossally cool columns here in Tower Grove South and now that it's getting warmer I will continue the tour.

Meanwhile, feast your eyes on these prime numbers.

Tapered brick (and props for the shape of the bush!)


Fabulous stone:

Here's my most favorite:

RED AWNINGS

One of the ways you can tell if a building was built prior to 1920 is if the window frames are arched and not flat. You tell me why.

I simply adore this two family building on 41 Hartford and not just because of the cornice but that limestone foundation is dreamy. I'm sorry it will be eventually obscured by the bushes.

Bushes and trees close to a brick building is always a bad notion. Let the brick breathe.

I always relish is the reflection of sky and trees in windows:

That's one killer cornice.

GRANITE CITY STEEL BUILDING (redux)

I had emailed the mayor of Granite City with a few questions and he provided email addressees of those who could answer.

One of my questions was about the Zephyr, the other about the architect of my favorite (and only) Modern building in Granite. I was referred to Joe Ribbing at US Steel.

His response:
The engineer/architect was Sverdrup and Parcel Inc. from St. Louis. Construction started in June 1958, the building was completed and opened for business in February 1960. The "L"-shaped structure originally housed both Granite City Steel's main offices and the First Granite City National Bank. The bank utilized the 2- story section along 20th Street, while the steel offices, now U S Steel, Granite City Works, occupy the 5- story section along State Street. Currently, the bank section is vacant and is being partially utilized for document and material storage. As such, we respectfully decline your request to take interior photographs of the facility.

Click on the title above to read about Sverdrup and John I. Parcel.

Side view, black bricks!

Back view, enameled steel


BTW, I've been at this for decades, writing to people for answers. It all started with Hostess Sno-balls. I just had to know who designed Sno-Balls. All I remember is they were designed in 1947 but have gone lost my correspondence. Of course I just emailed them.

THE MARK TWAIN ZEPHYR COMES TO GRANITE CITY!

A few days ago driving into Granite City riding over the train yard when I spotted a streamlined stainless steel Zephyr.

HOLY CATS, I squealed, IT'S A ZEPHYR!

A three car Zephyr (this is one of three Zephyr's ever made), looking oddly slim from 200 feet away. I saw a side road and within a few moments I was parked about 20 feet from it.

It's about five feet wide and practically demolished.

Curious as to why it was parked in Granite City (and worried it was headed to the Granite City Steel Scrap yard), I googled. Click on the title above and read about how it will be part of the downtown Granite City redevelopment (and one woman's sly comment about using TIF's correctly)! Interesting, I never realized G.C. didn't have a newspaper. I emailed the Mayor of Granite City yesterday asking for permission to photograph what's left of the interior. I would have climbed in but I was only with Beau and (once again) on private property.

Click on the Granite City tag below this post and scroll down for photos of an abandoned downtown Granite City.

For an understanding of just how skinny the train is, note Beau (canine) towards the lower right of the train for scale.


Boarding doors:



Nose of the train with etched Mark Twain signature. The holes above are where a bronze bas relief of Samuel Clemens was once bolted.

Will it be restored to this?

The shovel-nose front which is missing in the above photo was designed to quickly remove cows from the train tracks and looked like this:


THE ZEPHYR IS CURRENTLY OWNED BY BEN BUTTERWORTH, http://midamericarailcar.com

I SEE BUDS...

Every single time I look at this image I think of a flower then my brain chatter goes into high idle with:

"I see Bud because I want to. I see Bud because he can't hide the good inside of him. I see Bud because he makes me feel like Lynn Bracken and not some Veronica Lake look-alike who fucks for money. I see Bud because he doesn't know how to disguise who he is. I see Bud for all the ways he's different from you."

ST. LOUIS BRICK CONFIDENTIAL

Ah, the elegance!

I wondered if there was a term for bricks turned in this manner so I e-buzzed the exquisite Dave Lewis with my question:
Dave, since we were once madly in love and you still publicly acknowledge me by calling me your Ex, could you kindly tell me if there is a name or term for the way these bricks were placed?

His response:
Well, sort of. This is just ornament; creative use of regular brick. Brick standing on end and showing the sides are called "soldiers", so you might well see a "soldier course" laid up in a wall. Brick laid on end with the full, flat (largest) side showing would be a "sailor", but these are far less common.

So I think these would be soldiers, since the whole side is showing, but not the full flat face. It does add some elegance to the structure, don't you think? Ohhhh, those shadows are soooo important! I wonder if the architect took the orientation of the building into account.

Steve Wilke-Shapiro, care to comment?


I'll always love you Dave (while coveting your Jadeite collection, Oh, Mama!

GREEN GARAGE

Oh dear, the dreaded cinder block garage! Painted green to blend in with all things outside?

In the late 50's my 'rents made a cinder block garage on 3964 McDonald. My sister was three at the time and tethered to a yard pole in a harness while the 'rents carried shingles up to the roof.

She wasn't digging the tethered business, took off her clothes to get the harness off and was brought home naked by a cop. (Know this: it doesn't run in the Fam and I've never been brought home naked by a cop. Can't touch this!)

Oh wait, my favorite story about her was when she was three and wearing diapers! She was running circles around the chair our dad was watching TV in when the diaper fell off. He didn't notice but she did. As she completed the next circle on the track, she tripped over the soiled diaper, picked it up and tossed it and (you guessed it) it hit my dad in the face!

There's Beau in the right hand corner getting ready to lift a hind leg while checking to see if I'm watching.

TERRA COTTA FLEUR-DE-LIS!

How's this for astonishing?

Brick cornice on 39 Juniata with brick dentil molding and terra cotta fleur-de-lis.

PAY DAY

Hunting down cool stuff is one of the things I enjoy most in life. I travel to dank sections of IL to find it: weird church and odd yard sales in towns where the buildings are never over two stories tall.

I supposedly make my living on Ebay and Etsy. It's not a good living because I don't work at it. I spend a lot of time involved with many other projects: volunteer projects that are critical to my political theory. Consequently, I'm always broke. Always.

I don't have a savings account or a retirement fund. But that's OK, I do get to stay at home with Beau and garden in better weather.

Here's a view of a small part of my garden last summer:

Since I don't work as much as I should, things pile up in the basement:

The very basement that was supposed to have housed my painting studio.

But hunting down the stuff is exciting, especially when I find something (like I haven't found enough?) that I know will sell on Ebay. I feel obliged to search and rescue.

This is how I've been making a 'living' for the last 13 years. I have a talent for it, an ability to recognize an Eva Zeisel dish, Victorian Vulcanite, Papageno pottery, Miriam Haskell jewelry, Marimekko fabric, Dorothy Thorpe glass, Jens Quistgaard Rosewood or a George Nelson slat table.



I've a reverence for vintage textiles! Coats made of wool that were woven on upright looms:

Vintage handmade quilts (just sold this on ebay for 100.00)

Vintage early 70's patch leather coat worn by Shaft's girlfriend:

Vintage 50's Smoking jacket:

And this rare find, a vintage 40's acetate Reyn Hawaiian bowling shirt:


I get to admire this stuff while it's in my possession. I rarely get attached to any of it - it's stuff. But it's the stuff of historical significance. Of a time when design was a consideration, the construction was a point of pride and the quality unrivaled today. Wool was actually woven on looms in this country from the sheep that were raised here!

Here's a little lesson, kiddens. A man's shirt from the 50's had ample facing; so much in fact that the button holes were horizontal. Look at the shirt you are wearing right now. The button holes are vertical, right? That's due to corporate greed.

But that's a post for another day.

I'll be doing a basement sale in a month or two and will post it here.

FOR WHOM THE TAIL WAGS

Click on the title above.

PLASTER - A FIELD IDENTIFICATION GUIDE

Due to a recent crack in the roof the interior plaster abdicated (exit stage south) allowing me to snatch this prize. And it's the only prize, tell you what.
New roof: 2,900.00.
Plaster repair: 200.00.
And then I get to repaint it. Oh boy.

Pebbles in the mix:

Click on the photo to enlarge. Can you see the horse hair? It was used to help bind the plaster to the lathe

FLOWERS FROM DALE SWEET

Dale came to dinner and bought this bouquet.
Anyone out there know what the purple-back leaves are? The color is truly that intense.

41 HARTFORD BRICK DUPLEX

Hmm. I've always thought this house was a duplex until this moment of typing. It's because of those double porches. I've always assumed that was two interior doors inside with one that led upstairs.

Aha, two mail boxes!

Sweetness. That's the original arched wood door with a half halo of bricks on the top and a door cornice!

I love the way the little arch on the bottom of the porch resonates with the overall design. Mel told me she saw a frozen stream of water 'pouring' out of it a few weeks ago.
Solider course bricks along the top of the porch wall and check out the range of colors to the bricks. Yummy.

COPPER ROOF

I love this copper roof on 40 Hartford!

Once it gets that patina it's sealed for life. No repairs. Just walk away, Renee.

POETIC BRICK WALL

I like to pretend that the builder wanted to show off his appreciation for these bricks by creating this wall sculpture just for me to enjoy along with him. Chances are these were surplus bricks bought at a discount.

I don't care. I am digging the wall like a big bad dog with a bone!

Spotted in Arnold at a low rent strip mall.