The Beauty of Dutchtown, Part 39: Virginia Avenue Between Eichelberger and Walsh Streets

Continuing north from Eichelberger, we see houses set back from the street, but then there are numerous businesses built right up to the sidewalk line, their front façades angled to match the orientation of Virginia Avenue.

They show their continuous occupation up through the Twentieth Century, and while many of them now appear to be vacant, they are in good shape and probably have residential tenants upstairs.

Formstone, which was slathered all over most of the houses of Baltimore, makes only a few appearances here and there in St. Louis, such as below.

A couple decades into the Twentieth Century, as can be seen below, the commercial spaces get longer and are only one story. It is now Sawhorse Studios.

We then reach the corner of Virginia with Walsh, anchored with this well-maintained storefront that wraps around onto the east-west street.

Turning around and heading south, we see this huge building, with some nice Art-Deco elements to it. I consulted Whipple Fire Insurance maps and discovered this was a streetcar barn, no doubt serving Virginia Avenue, turning it into a commercial corridor.

These buildings have now often become warehouses or light manufacturing.

The building appears in an 1898 map, which is long before the Art-Deco style begins, so the barn was either rebuilt or received a new façade later.

Whipple’s fire insurance map of St. Louis, Mo. Volume 8, 1898. Plate 74

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