I realized I had mostly been looking at the west side of Indiana Avenue in the past, as well as further south. But the east side of Indiana Avenue just south of Sidney Street in Benton Park is actually a very interesting mix of buildings.

First there is a group of Second Empire houses close to the sidewalk and they look to be renovated to some extent.

But then this block gets interesting. Sitting far back on its lot is this house, with an enclosed porch on one side. Old maps show there was only a small auxiliary building on one side of the yard previously, not a “front house.”

The houses then jump back up to the sidewalk, and the first house, while similar in former to many other houses in the city, has some unique additions.

Instead of a sheer brick façade, terracotta medallions along with a striated string course have been inserted in place of regular bricks.

Up above, there is a cross shape made in terracotta shapes, as well.

Then come a whole row of Greek Revival houses that were clearly built at the same time. They do not appear in 1876 Compton and Dry’s Pictorial St. Louis, but they surely were not built past the 1870s

In fact, the block still appeared as a lake in 1876.

They would not have been painted originally.

Interestingly, there has been some in-fill constructed. I hear there has been some discussion about the form that new construction should take in Benton Park, and whether it should look exactly like historic structures or it can be new in style.