Laid out in 1885, the eastern portion of Breezy Heights (I looked at the western portion cut off by the interstate recently) typified suburban living in the late Nineteenth Century with no alleys, and large lots–and different street names originally and long blocks. We’ll look at Marmaduke first, which is the street two down from the curve of Southwest Avenue (Old Manchester Road).

We’ll start at Interstate 44 on the west where Ivanhoe, originally named Lake Avenue, still exists, barely surviving the expressway right-of-way, and head east looking at the north side of Marmaduke .

As is typical of these distant suburbs, the housing stock is built up over the course of a half century, as homes were constructed slowly.

But, these small houses, sitting high up on the hill before street grading, are surely some of the oldest, and I can’t but wonder if these were workers’ cottages in the nearby brickworks and clay mines.

Here are more strange little guys, dating to the Nineteenth Century.

But inter-war houses of the Twentieth Century begin to pop up as the city reaches this area in the 1920s and 30s, along with the automobile.

These houses are a little hard to explain, but their existence and placement on their lots are the result of a surveyor’s correction, where lots and previous additions come together, and cause little quirks in the grid. There is actually a short street on the other side of these houses, so while there is a drive way for the house on the right, we are actually looking at the back side, even though they have odd-numbered addresses, connoting as being on the north side of a street in St. Louis street numbering. All three (the furthest west is obscured by trees) were built in 1923.

Turning around and heading west, looking at the south side of the street,

We have houses sitting way up high on the original lay of the land, and down below we have two very old houses; on the left a wood frame Italianate and on the right an extremely early cottage. Very cool survivors.

The City of St. Louis says the duplex below was built in 1950.

Then there’s this really cool house, which has fish scale siding and rusticate stone walls.

Then there’s this oddity, which is actually a two-unit apartment building.