Saint Louis Patina

A few months ago, I asked local bloggers for St. Louis urban legends and interesting factoids. I didn't learn too much then, but have recently stumbled upon a very cool blog devoted to all kinds of interesting St. Louis architectural lessons.

Paul and I enjoy driving around, just seeing where stuff goes. It's a little less mysterious now, with the GPS, but it can still be very fun. Tonight we discovered a long series of off-the-beaten-path neighborhoods only a couple of miles from our house whose existence we had never suspected.

While we were driving around back there we found a road called "Lemp" and some buildings and houses that looked really old (mixed in with newer, obviously expensive houses, because this is Kirkwood, after all).

When I got home, Google helped me find a lot of interesting information about the Lemp family's Kirkwood-area "rural escapes" from the early 20th century. Locals will know all about the Lemp family, with their downtown mansion connected to their brewery by tunnels and caves, as well as their curses and ghosts.

But the estates overlooking the Meramec were news to me: Cragwold and Alswel.

The drive was fun, the girls were great, and the internet research was engaging. But the crown jewel of my sleuthfest was this site: Saint Louis Patina, which is exactly what I was looking for back in February.

I will be back, and often!