St. Louis Archives

Farewell, Crestwood Plaza

Dave Farquhar Retail, St. Louis May 6, 2012April 22, 2018Crestwood Plaza, home depot, Kirkwood, sears, Sunset Hills, watson

The Sears anchor store at Crestwood Plaza near St. Louis closed in May 2012. It was a long, slow decline, and nobody knew what was next. More than five years later, there’s still nobody who knows what’s next.

I went there a couple of weeks before it closed, and I bought a multimeter at a heavy discount, but most of the kinds of things I would have been interested in buying were long gone. The rest of the old mall was mostly empty. The last of the smaller tenants left in 2013. Read more

Dave Farquhar

David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.

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Bernard the Legend

Dave Farquhar St. Louis April 7, 2012Crestwood Plaza, pepsi, watson

It was Friday or Saturday night and I was back from college. I don’t remember what the occasion was anymore, but I’m pretty sure it must have been 1993. I got together with some friends back home in St. Louis to blow off steam.

I did this a fair number of times when I was in college. I don’t remember what movie we saw and I barely remember who I was with. There’s no reason for me to remember that night. Except for one thing.

His name was Bernard. I worked in food service for 2 1/2 years, and one of my managers told us to be legendary. That was our location’s catchphrase. But in all my years, I’ve never encountered anybody in a restaurant more legendary than Bernard. Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Why can’t St. Louis repurpose buildings like Baltimore does?

Dave Farquhar St. Louis February 27, 20121940s, antique mall

I had the opportunity to visit Savage Mill, near Baltimore, recently. Savage Mill is an old textile mill dating to the 1820s that fell into disuse in the 1940s. Today, the complex houses a variety of businesses. While the place has vacancies–the economy is still struggling, after all–it’s crowded, and it’s a great reuse.

It makes me wonder why we can’t do the same thing in St. Louis.
Read more

Dave Farquhar

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Lake Forest Pastry Shop, and other old St. Louis bakeries

Dave Farquhar St. Louis February 8, 2012October 20, 20171940s, 1950s, estate sales, oakville

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a story this week about vintage baking. It profiled Chris Leuther, an area baker with 30 years in the business who collects old bakery equipment and recipes from long-gone, but beloved and not-forgotten bakeries such as Lake Forest Pastry Shop.

The money quote: “I’ve worked in a lot of bakeries and talked to a lot of bakers, and when it comes right down to it, so many of these places worked from almost exactly the same formula… A lot of times different places made exactly the same cake. It seemed special because it made a special memory — but that’s all it is, a memory.”

Dave Farquhar

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An excellent story about collectors of old signs

Dave Farquhar St. Louis January 15, 2012April 18, 20171990s, Big Boy, CVS, train layout

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch profiled three local sign collectors this weekend. Bill Christman, Greg Rhomberg, and Jim May go around buying old storefront signage, particularly enamel-painted metal signs with neon lights.

“Most businesses are branded franchises, so you see the same signs over and over, repeating every few miles,” said Tod Swormstedt, who operates a sign museum in Cincinnati. “But the old signs — the hand-carved shoe or the gold-leaf lettering on a window — were iconic and what made each neighborhood unique. People miss that.”

So I guess I’m not the only one who misses that, but it sure seems like we’re a minority.

Dave Farquhar

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What happened to the Crunden-Martin Manufacturing Co.

Dave Farquhar St. Louis December 10, 2011November 28, 2025

Crunden-Martin was a manufacturer of wooden and metal household goods in downtown St. Louis for nearly 100 years. Sadly, the old complex sat mostly or entirely empty since late 1990, with no sign of change until early 2024. Since there’s very little information online about the company, I thought I’d research it.

The imposing complex stands about a block south of the Poplar Street Bridge in downtown St. Louis, between I-55/I-44 and the Mississippi River. The painted signs on the building are still easy to see from the interstate.

Dave Farquhar

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Albert Pujols, mercenary

Dave Farquhar Baseball, St. Louis December 9, 2011Babe Ruth, Bruce Sutter, Cal Ripken, california angels, cardinals, Carlos Beltran, Kansas City, mercenary, New York, PIP, Stan Musial, Ted Williams

I’m a Royals fan living in St. Louis, so my perspective on Albert Pujols has always been that he’s the one who got away. He went to high school and college in Kansas City, but somehow Royals scouts overlooked him. The Cardinals signed him, and he became a once-in-a-generation player. Even if he never plays another game in the majors, he’s a lock for the Hall of Fame.

Fans loved him, because, well, who doesn’t like a guy who hits .299 with 37 home runs and 99 RBIs in the worst year of his career? He’s always been detached and distant, but St. Louisans will forgive that for wins and numbers. He talked about being a Cardinal for life, but then St. Louis woke up on Thursday morning, drove to work, and found out on the rush-hour radio that he was gone, signed to the Los Angeles California Angels of Anaheim, the Tikki Tikki Tembo Nosa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Pip Pen Pembo of baseball.

Dave Farquhar

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A year of shopping locally

Dave Farquhar St. Louis July 17, 2011

A man at the library handed my wife a card this morning. He and his wife are shopping locally for a year in St. Louis, and writing about it.

Great idea!

Dave Farquhar

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What we do with historic buildings in St. Louis

Dave Farquhar St. Louis June 29, 2011Office Space

Why, we do the only logical thing you do with a building that’s 15 years old or older, of course. We tear them down to make way for a strip mall! Or a gas station!

I don’t know what those stupid Europeans are thinking. You can’t have progress when you keep your buildings for hundreds of years.

I’m going to write up a proposal that we redevelop the site of the Gateway Arch. It’s old and rusty, after all. Imagine all of the vacant office space we could put there!

Dave Farquhar

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