Over the next couple of weeks, I’m going to be looking at the east-west streets in Fox Park and Compton Hill in between California and South Jefferson Avenues.

We’ll start in the south with Armand Place and work our way north, ending with Hickory Avenue in the north.

This first block is the Sarpy’s Subdivision of the DeVolsey Tract of 1889, meaning that this was originally part of those slanted French farm fields coming up from the river but in this case the streets were laid out in a regular north-south, east west orientation instead of being off kilter like other blocks in this area.

The housing stock looks typical of the late 1880s and 1890s, with aspects of the Romanesque Revival but as is so common in St. Louis, it is an interesting eclecticism. Look at that strange gable above.

There are also what I might call “Terminal Second Empire,” where there are still Mansard roofs present, but the ornamentation of the rest of the house is decidedly moving away from the more pure aspects of that style seen further east.

We also see more multi-family housing with unique ornamentation made from the increased use of mass-produced terracotta elements as well as pressed-tin filigrees. Wood ornament is out.

Houses such as the one below can either be single family or two family, and it requires careful observation to see which one it is.