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Most of the photos on this site were extracted from reference images (high-resolution tiffs, 20 to 200 megabytes in size) from the Library of Congress research archive. (To query the database click here.) Many were digitized by LOC contractors using a Sinar studio back. They are adjusted by your webmaster for contrast and color in Photoshop before being downsized and turned into the jpegs you see here.
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Stop and Goethe: 1906
Submitted by Dave on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 1:01pm.
St. Louis, Missouri, circa 1906. "Exhibition Building." Where the Castle Square Opera's production of "Faust" looms large. 8x10 glass negative. View full size.
One bad pitch
Submitted by AlanT on Wed, 07/20/2011 - 4:15pm.
The news seller on the corner will not get rich here. Counting ghosts there are about six potential customers. The tramlines extend the Gothic piles gloom.
Ancient steampunk
Submitted by blu3shad0w on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 11:22am.
This building screams ancient Rome meets steampunk. I wonder what it would have looked like in color with a good pressure washing?
It Really Hurt-a
Submitted by Bull City Boy on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 9:00am.
... when you said "Stop and Goethe."
A Looming Monster of a place
Submitted by wilso127 on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 7:42am.
I agree with RoccoB. I can't tell you exactly why, but there is something repulsive about the look of this structure, at least how it's presented in this photo -- almost a nightmarish quality. I'm glad it was torn down eventually.
Even on a sunny day -
Submitted by bigguy1960 on Tue, 07/19/2011 - 6:30am.
As Wednesday Addams once said, "It's so nice and gloomy!"
Not exactly Goethe
Submitted by Jazznocracy on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 3:58pm.
Dave, I'm sure Gounod who wrote this opera.
[Indeed adieu. He used a French libretto based on Goethe's Faust. - Dave]
The Big House
Submitted by fanhead on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 3:44pm.
That's one impressive opera house. I wonder what's playing.
Gone a year later
Submitted by DonY on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 3:43pm.
The exposition hall was designed by Jerome Bibb Legg and completed in 1884. It was part of a larger complex including a music hall and arena. The complex was torn down in 1907. The St. Louis Central Library (designed by Cass Gilbert of Woolworth Building fame) was completed on this site in 1912 and remains to this day.
Short Lived
Submitted by punxty on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 2:59pm.
This building was torn down a year after this picture was taken to make way for a public library which is currently undergoing a restoration. It housed the St. Louis Symphony for years and purported to have one of the largest performing stages in the world, along with being one of the first buildings to have electric lights.
When architecture says:
Submitted by RoccoB on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 2:54pm.
"Stay the hell away!"
Imposing, out of scale, and covered with soot. Keep walking, kids.
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