Photo of Old Saint Boniface Church, in Saint Louis, Missouri

This is the old Saint Boniface Church, in the Carondelet neighborhood of Saint Louis. It closed in 2005. It is being converted to a theater, while a restaurant will be in the school.

Dogtown Saint Patrick's Parade

The annual Ancient Order of Hibernians Saint Patrick's Day parade in Dogtown will be held as always on the Saint's feast day. Festivities start with an Irish Mass celebrated at Saint James the Greater Church at 10:00 a.m., followed by a corned beef lunch at the church's school, and the parade at noon. Click for more information.

Also see the article, One day, two parades:

Almost half of the parade's 117 entries are gaggles of family members, many of whom march and dance in matching sweatshirts. The list also includes an Irish wolfhound club, the St. Louis Hurling Club — and Irish Northern Aid.

"Ours is much more traditional, focused on the Irish clans," said Mohan, the publicist. "Ours is more intimate, and our people come every year..."

"Dogtown" is an historically Irish neighborhood in Saint Louis.

Cute Baby Animals Continue Lay-In at Mayor's Office

Local Saint Louis news:

CUTE BABY ANIMALS continued their lay-in at the mayor's office today, dissatisfied with the mayor's position regarding a possible state take-over of the city's school district.

When asked if she was satisfied with her meeting with the mayor, Thumper, a brown bunny with white spots, hopped around the room, eventually settling in a corner, twitching her nose. A school board member accompanying the cute baby animals said that Thumper was obviously dissatisfied with the mayor's desire to have the state take over the failing school district.

The superintendent of schools said that the cute baby animals would continue the lay-in until the mayor changes his position. Fluffy, a fuzzy kitten, kneaded her paws and purred her agreement. Likewise, Rex, a basset hound puppy with big adorable eyes and little floppy ears, yelped his support for the elected school board.

OK, I am being unfair. The article, Students continue sit-in at mayor's office, is about older public school students who are protesting the possible take-over of the City of Saint Louis public schools by the State of Missouri. However, this action is actually staged by sitting school board members who are in danger of losing their control over the largest public school district in the state. This particular use of students in the protest is objectionable, but is getting media attention; and for its part, the media is buying into the propaganda that this is a student action.

However, I tend to agree, and don't want to see the state take over the school district; this would be a bad precedent, and could foreshadow future federal takeovers of schools, as is the situation in numerous countries. The city schools are indeed very troubled and need to be corrected, but it ought to be done from below instead of from above. It would be far better if the school district is broken up into many small pieces, with direct local parental control and funding. A strong revival of the Catholic schools would also spur improvement in the government schools.

Photos of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Convent, in Richmond Heights, Missouri

CONVENT OF THE Franciscan Sisters of Mary, in Richmond Heights, Missouri. It is located on the grounds of Saint Mary's Hospital, one of 20 hospitals owned by the religious order in the Midwest.

The religious order has its roots in Germany, caring for the sick and wounded of the Franco-Prussian War, and came to the United States in 1872. The sisters originally had a convent next to Saint Mary of Victories Church, in downtown Saint Louis. That church has a unique double choir loft: one was for the sisters, since they worked around infectious diseases — before antibiotics.



A view of the convent's chapel. According to the latest census, there were 116 sisters living in the archdiocese.

Early Spring Flowers at Shaw's Garden

FOLLOWING ARE PHOTOS taken today at the Missouri Botanical Garden, in Saint Louis, Missouri, otherwise known as Shaw's Garden, after its founder, Henry Shaw.

A little more than a month ago, the garden outside of the greenhouses was barren, but now the early spring flowers, mainly bulbs, are beginning to bloom. Click on any photo for a larger version.



















This garden was Shaw's country estate, and a number of his original buildings still survive. The following three structures at Shaw's Garden were all designed by the architect George I. Barnett.



Tower Grove House (1849), Shaw's country home, in the "Lake Como" Italianate style.



Museum building (1859), now closed and awaiting restoration.



Mausoleum (1886) containing tomb of Henry Shaw (1800-1889), R.I.P.



The Piper Observatory is a replica of the tower which gave the adjoining Tower Grove Park its name. Shaw donated the park to the city in 1868, and it remains a Victorian gem. Behind the tower is Shaw's townhouse (1851), removed from downtown Saint Louis and reconstructed here in 1891.



The tower overlooks a hedge maze.