Tower Grove House was the country home of Henry Shaw, which used to always boggle my mind when I was a child considering how deep in the city it is today.

Also, many people do not realize it was built in stages, with the designs of at least the first part by the famed architect George I. Barnett, who I wrote about here.

Out back are beautiful gardens in the Victorian Period style, including the maze and the rebuilt belvedere or bellevue, depending if you use the Italian or French word.

Update: See more photos of the house from February of 2023.

Then there’s Shaw’s city home, which used to be at the southwest corner of Locust and Seventh, which is hard to believe was once a residential district for the wealthy of St. Louis long ago.

If you look above, you can see the quoining on the corner is rusting, a telltale sign that the “stones” are actually cast iron. The house has an interesting story, in that it was added on to over the years after its move.

Note that the arcaded wing had already been constructed to the left before its move to the Garden. Below you can see the house successfully moved to its new location.