STREET SMART: Steven Smith, owner of The Royale at 3132 South Kingshighway, posted a picture on Facebook earlier today of a House of Hades tile on the street at 7th and Olive streets in downtown St. Louis.

The tile reads: "House of Hades tiles made from the ground bones of dead journalists. This is not an accident." Alongside the words is an image of a smoldering cigarette in an ashtray with smoke curling up out of it.

A little bit of Google searching turns up some information indicating that the tiles are copycats of Toynbee tiles and originated in Buffalo, N.Y. According to those who know about this form of street art, the House of Hades tiles are among the better copycats but don't last long.

In other words, if you want to see this tile close up, better head downtown. Spotting Toynbee and House of Hades tiles in cities around the country seems like a hobby for many. There are sites all over the Internet with photos of the tiles in various U.S. cities, and some say they also have been found in South America.

Phillip O'Connor, a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, wrote an article in 2009 about how two of the four known Toynbee tiles here -- both on the south side of the intersection of Seventh and Market streets -- had disappeared beneath a new layer of asphalt.