Urban Pic of the Day - The Virginia Mary

Reflection of a statue in the display window of Restoration Plus on Virginia Ave. across the street from Iron Barley.

Urban Pic of the Day - Chase Pool

Scene from the Chase Park Plaza swimming pool in the Central West End. Sure looks good right about now...

Urban Pic of the Day - Busch Stadium Update

Urban Pic of the Day - Butterflies on the South Side

Interesting sculpture tucked away near the corner of Gasconade and Iowa.

Urban Pic of the Day - The Melvin

Continuing the "former theater as church" theme, here we have a photo of the old Melvin Theater, complete with the original sign embedded in the brick, as well as the quite excellent Marquis.

Here is a bit of history, taken from the Cinema Treasures website:

The Melvin Theatre opened in 1914 and seated 481. It opened as an indepedent theatre and remained that way until its closing in the 1980s. It only had two owners. One of the more successful of the neighborhood theatres located in the Dutch Town area of south St. Louis. Just a block away from the Yale theatre on Minnesota and within walking distance from the much larger Melba on South Grand. Even until its closing in 1979 the box office was in the inside lobby and the tickets were on large rolls hung above the cashier. The marquee had no current attraction lettering on it it just simply said Melvin Theatre on all three sides.
The auditorium had two aisles with the larger seating section running down the middle and about four seats on the side aisles. The rest rooms were located on the second floor above the lobby of the theatre.

Bill Miller bought the theatre in 1972 and it was gutted and remodeled, replacing the screen, the sound system, the seats and a new concession stand but kept that old box office with the rolls of tickets.

Urban Pic of the Day - Jesus On The Way

Brick place of worship near the corner of Minnesota and Winnebago in the Gravois Park neighborhood.

Update: As noted by Thomas and Darren in the comments section, formerly the Yale Theater. Anyone ever get a chance to see a film there?

Son Volt in STLToday.com

The new Son Volt record,

"Okemah and the Melody of Riot"

will be released on Tuesday, July 12th.

Here is a feature on that and the band

in STLToday.com:

Most of "Okemah and the Melody of Riot"

- including first single "Afterglow 61"

(to be performed on "The Late Show

With David Letterman" on Aug. 1),

"Jet Pilot" (about George W. Bush

and perhaps the CD's most scathing track)

and "Atmosphere" and "Ipecac"

(political songs that address modern-day

tragedies) - was written during

a six-to-eight-month period in 2004

that coincided with the

presidential campaign.

Scene from a South St. Louis BBQ on Independence Day Weekend

Glass Ball Field of Dreams

On a tip from Amanda at The Commonspace, I headed over to Third Degree Glass Factory on Delmar yesterday to check out this cool sculpture made from steel wire and ornamental glass balls. Very cool indeed!

St. Louis Blues

So everyone knows about our strong blues heritage in music, and the namesake of our hockey team which dons the blue note. But did you know we sport quite a few structures that are painted blue. The occupants of these sky blue buildings include a church, a mortgage company, a florist, and what I believe is a former gas station. Check 'em out, and give me a shout in the comments section if you know of any others.