Benton Park West, really the northern tip of Dutchtown, is easily one of my favorite neighborhoods. This is the 3300 block of Michigan, which captures the neighborhood’s identity well.
Construction started around the Civil War, so the housing stock, like the flounder house below, can be very old, but then later the “in-fill” around 1900 filled in the gaps.
Look at this house below; what an elegant home that was probably originally for just a normal family. Normal families could live in and afford these houses one hundred years ago. A good model for the future.
Hi Chris, Love your work and all you do to promote and protect our historic city. I especially love it when you feature my neighborhood, Benton Park West. The houses in this post are on Minnesota, one block east of Michigan.
I’ve been spending so much time checking out this site and the areas where 4 generations of my family lived. My mom and dad lived one block down from the focus in this post at 3256 Michigan back when they got married in 1952. My dad painted a picture of the house across the street which is now boarded up judging from streetview. Mom grew up on Keokuk in Dutchtown, Dad from Holly Hills – married at St. Thomas Aquinas on Iowa (and Keokuk?)
Thank you, Jim! St. Thomas Aquinas is no longer a Catholic parish, but it is in good shape:
http://stlouispatina.com/dutchtown/
Sadly, the parish school building is not being maintained:
http://stlouispatina.com/abandoned-parish-school-dutchtown/