Now Living North of Delmar in Columbus Square Neighborhood
A week ago I shared that we moved, leaving the Downtown West neighborhood. I’m happy to report that I’m once again living north of the Delmar Divide. I’ve told the following Delmar Divide story before, but it has been a while, so it’s worth repeating:
When I first moved to St. Louis in 1990 I rented an efficiency apartment on Lindell in the Central West End, I was 23. The apartment manager was a childhood friend of the mom of a friend I’d met in college, the two women grew up in the 1950s near O’Fallon Park in North St. Louis. The manager, looking out for her young new tenant from Oklahoma, advised me: “don’t go north of Delmar.”
I’d just moved to St. Louis after falling in love with the street grid, substantial architecture, and tremendous potential — I had to see this forbidden part of the city where I shouldn’t go. I fell in love all over, marveling at the beauty being abandoned.
After 6 months in the CWE I moved to a 3-room flat in Old North St. Louis (then called Murphy-Blair). I still have friendships with neighbors from time, and lots of fond memories.
Years later I’m living in my 7th St. Louis neighborhood:
- Benton Park (couple of weeks in Aug/Sept 1990)
- Central West End (6 months 90-91)
- Old North St. Louis (3+ years 91-94)
- Dutchtown (9+ years 94-03)
- Mt. Pleasant (4+ years 03-07)
- Downtown West (11+ years 07-18)
- And now: Columbus Square (19…?)
My friend Mark Groth blogged about the Neighborhood in March 2010, with lots of photos showing the various developments. He concluded his post this way:
Frankly, this is not a neighborhood that overly inspires me, nor one I would take someone from out of town to showcase the city. I’m just not into 1980’s architecture. However, if you are interested in the history of public housing and government subsidized housing, check out Columbus Square. It has a long history of being home to slums and crime; but, it’s a long way from a slum today. Maybe Columbus Square will actually be a nice doorstep for north city and the site of more positivity and investment for the near north side in the coming years. (St. Louis City Talk)
Ouch, but I agree.
Still, I love exploring new neighborhoods. It’s one thing to go down an unfamiliar street occasionally, but its another to get an opportunity to immerse oneself in a new experience. In future posts I’ll talk about why we moved and why we selected the housing we did.
It feels very good to again be living North of Delmar.
— Steve Patterson