de la Ville ou rurale?

City or country? This bad mansard looks like it should be out in Jefferson County or Franklin County complete with a septic tank, munitions dump and a pack of stray dogs. I wanted to get just a little closer to check the place out (is that a lawn jockey?). I thought about driving on the parking lot to get a better picture but imagined the crunchy noise my minivan would make. Fearing an armed woman with a cigarette dangling from her mouth may jump out from behind the evergreens, I decided against pulling up to the house.

But this house isn't in the country. It's a stone's throw from Highway 44 near Arsenal on McCune street in St. Louis City. Just a slice of worn wooden mansard heaven in our city's boundaries.

Back in 2009 I mentioned my comparison of wood siding to the girls I knew in college who smoked and tanned. Neither ages very well. I stand by that comparison.

Bad Mansard Yacht Club

Boats always look so out of place in the city. It's pretty clear you aren't going boating anywhere on your property if you live in the city of St. Louis.

You know what also looks ridiculous on this place? The porch!! I can't tell whether the roof or the porch was the add-on to this house. Given the neighbor house with the mansard and the brick color of the porch, I am going with porch addition.

House is somewhere near Ivanhoe and McCune. I found it while I was looking for the holy grail of south city bad mansards. That will be featured on Christmas.

Vingt days? J'apologize.

So sorry it's been 20 days since last I posted. And I don't even have any fresh material . Only this really bad mansard local realtor Ted Wight found on the St. Louis South Side. Click here for his post. Are you reading Ted's blog? If not, you should. He has a keen eye for stylish homes (especially mid century moderns) and nice gardens. I love any blog written by a man who loves European Hornbeam hedges.

Also check out Ted's bad realtor photography. It's like the Cake Wrecks of real estate listings.

I doubt anyone wants to know where I've been for the last 20 days. But I'll gloss over some highlights: birthdays, halloweens, trip to Mizzou, kid with whooping cough (yes, in this day and age even with immunizations), some parties, 7 volleyball games, 2 basketball games and a soccer game, a Brownie meeting tomorrow and the neighbors over for brunch on Sunday.

Thank you Jamieson bridge closure

Of course the soccer season where many of our games are at Lindenwood Park, the Jamieson bridge closes for repairs. And the year the Arsenal bridge was closed was the Year of Epiphany t-ball. My 4 kids had games all across the city. We had 6 games this weekend at Tilles, Midwest Soccer, SLYSA, Lindenwood, Berra and a volleyball game at St. Margaret's. Plus karate at Karate Life and dancing at Little Flower school.

As usual I was lost wandering around back streets trying to get to Arsenal to get on EB 44. And I found this ugly thang.

Bad mansard featured in St. Louis Post Dispatch

What happens when you put a boxy mansard atop a cute south city cottage? This. Read the August 27 article in the Post Dispatch by clicking here.

According to the article, the homeowners added the mansard to add more square footage to the house. It would have been more attractive to leave the original roof and park a mobile home in the back yard.

That said, the window box and garden are so cute I am going to forgive the roof.

I have gotten numerous citizen's bad mansard arrest warrants on this. Thanks to Patsy, Amy and Jeff for letting me know about this one.

Note- this picture is from the Post Dispatch. Betcha didn't know Badmanard has degrees in law, journalism and amateur architecture. Do you subscribe to the Post? You should. Print journalism is becoming a lost art. That, and all the good coupons are in the Sunday paper.

Disturbing images, City of St. Louis

Disturbing yes, but also very funny.

Look closely at the trash truck. There is a baby face sticking out of the bumper. I've also seen a refuse truck with an Elmo affixed to the front grill. I am going to start collecting pictures of trash trucks.

The second picture is the message board at the Lafayette Square playground: "Have fun kids. You could die tomorrow." Brutal!

Does the mansard even matter?

Here at on Gravois at Ohio is the 1 Night Stand. One stop shopping for:

• Lottery tickets
• Awful permastone facade
• Bud Light
• Karaoke
• Packaged liquor
• "Coldest beer"
• Latin Rite Mass (St. Francis DeSales is across the street)

What is "sud""

I live in Soulard. I always thought I was on the south side. I was all like, "I am south- sy-eed!" and throw a 63104 gang sign. Just kidding. As it would turn out, Soulard is the near south side. These mansards are tres more sud-side than any neighborhood with which I am familiar.

Top mansard is on Bates near Grand. It's part of a charming-but-awkward- mini-mansard-row of houses.

The second mansard is about the 6000+ block of S. Broadway. Someone correct me: is this the Carondelet Patch neighborhood? I saw it on my way to the Skatium for a Girl Scout rollerskating event. What you can barely see is the dudes chilling by the back door. I need to get back to this stretch of Broadway with a real camera to get a picture of the cute mansard and this awesome laundromat with orange machines (j'adore orange!).

Minnesota Twins

Minnesota Avenue near highway 55 off of Bates.

Two mini-mansards with bizarre vinyl siding additions. It took me FOREVER to track these down. I saw these from highway 55 for more than a year but never could get the car onto Minnesota to take a picture. Finally got it, although I stopped traffic on Minnesota and got some real mean looks from vehicles waiting behind me. Don't mess around with folks at Bates and Minnesota.

Gris? What do you think of the gray paint?

Not bad, but I know some of you brick purists will hate the paint.

tiré à quatre épingles ni approprié

Another mansard offering from the finest boulevard de St. Louis, le Rivre de Peres. The title, en francais, is supposed to translate to "prim nor proper." I depended on Babelfish for this translation (most of the French I utilize in badmansard is from my brain, dating back to 7 years of high school/college French). I hope babelfish got this correct. The translation seems a little long just to say prim nor proper.

Guess what street? Primm! get it?!? Primm nor proper?

Soulevez le toit: Miami and Jefferson

Thanks to Mark Abeln of Rome of the West for sending me this picture of a mansard hulk at Miami and Jefferson. The building to the left is Concordia Publishing.

This bad mansard lead has been sitting in my email in box since before Christmas. I had ambitious plans: I would go take a picture myself instead of pulling it off Mark's flickr account. I had even planned to look up the property owner and figure out why someone added MORE height to a mansard ceiling. But, 4 kids and no time. So this is all you get. I would love to hear anyone's theory of what the heck happened to this mansard. Was it a factory of some type that needed more head room on the third floor for machinery? Were there some really tall people living on the third floor?

About Mark's blog (click here): he takes stunning pictures of the interior and exterior of churches throughout the metropolitan area. In the city of St. Louis, the Catholic churches anchor every single city neighborhood and compose the visual landscape. Rome of the West lets us take a peak inside.

Is it already Février?

Here's an un-hot permastone mess somewhere off of Cherokee.

Sorry for the boring post. February is all about Mardi Gras and Girl Scout cookies. My two troops sold almost 3000 cookies!

Parc de Janvier et Arsenal

St. Louis Parks Department facility at Sublette Park at January and Arsenal. Is this the Hill? What is it with the Italians and bad mansards?

How an irlandais pub does mansard

One of my mini-obsessions, the mansard sign.

Etat Street butterface

This is near Wyoming Street- Ohio? Iowa? I swore I'd remember its state intersection but I don't. Cute little house- nice color (even though many of you detest painted brick), architectural detail, window brackets, etc. But like the girl at the bar with a nice figure but an ugly face, this place is a butterface (buttermansard). I think the problem is that the cornice/bracket between the mansard and the facade is missing, making the transition between roof and wall very awkward.

King Louis Square

Another from the heavy handed mansards of King Louis Square, or as I like to call them, the Turd Mansards.

Isn't this a Pyramid project? What a messy mansard. Like someone chucked a charcoal briquet on top of a cheaply made 3 story and deemed it would "fit in with the architectural style of Lafayette Square and Soulard..." Yeah, right.

Can't get there from here

This lovely is perched above Chippewa near Meramec. Someone please tell me how I can actually get up to the street upon which this house sits. I've been trying for months- Help me southsiders!

Hard to see from the distance of the custom wheels parking lot, but this mansard is a small two-story covered in jaune vinyl siding.

Jefferson Une

Lots of bad mansards on Jefferson.  Combien?  4.  Here is the first at Russell and Jefferson. 

La Poste (Mailbag!)

Reader Jen O. fears her mansard may be an imposter.  She writes, "a mansard is to slope on all four sides, right?"  Gentle reader, needn't fear.  Your mansard is handsome and proper.  Please hold thee head up high.  Mansards usually only feature one slanted elevation; the rear is usually flat.