Photographed by Paul Piaget in May of 1960 and cataloged as HABS MO,96-SALU,54, these images shows what #21 Benton Place looked like right before the rehabbing and rebirth of Lafayette Square began. I looked at the west side of Benton… Continue Reading
We looked at the west side of Benton Place yesterday where we went through much of the history, so we’ll jump right in to the houses on the east side of the private place in Lafayette Square, where there is… Continue Reading
Benton Place is named after Thomas Hart Benton, and is the first private street designed by Julius Pitzman, who designed the majority of the private streets in St. Louis. Originally, a fifty cent levee was charged per foot of frontage… Continue Reading
North of Whittemore Place is Albion Place, named after the archaic appellation for Britain, was nothing but open land and a sinkhole in 1876; even Park Avenue remained to be developed. An allee of trees may delineate the future alley,… Continue Reading
Along the west side of Lafayette Square, in between Missouri Avenue and South Jefferson are Whittemore and Albion places. We’ll look at Whittemore Place today. Nothing of the street had been developed by 1876, when Compton and Dry published Pictorial… Continue Reading
Back in July, when I looked at Lafayette Avenue in between Waverly and Simpson places in the Lafayette Square neighborhood, I promised I would come back in the fall and look at the latter historic private street once the leaves… Continue Reading
The block of Lafayette Avenue heading west between Waverly and Simpson places is very well preserved, with five Second Empire houses, apparently built in two phases. The first house is the home of Dr. Hermann Luyties, the homeopathic physician, who… Continue Reading
Waverly Place, just off Lafayette Avenue, is one of the more interesting private streets in Lafayette Square, and in the city in general. It is also, after Vandeventer Place (which was annihilated), perhaps one of the most devastated by demolition,… Continue Reading
I knew there was something peculiar about the beautiful Lafayette Park Methodist Church on Lafayette Avenue, at the corner of Missouri Avenue. More about that below. The church is a real survivor; it just avoided being demolished for the construction… Continue Reading
One of the more spectacular buildings in St. Louis, the German House was the center of Teutonic culture in St. Louis for generations. Sadly, it is sitting vacant right now. It’s a huge building, and has a theater out the… Continue Reading