I went and photographed the 2200 block of Missouri Avenue, walking north looking at the west side of the street until I reached Ann Avenue, and then turning around and photographing the east side. As the Sanborn Map from August of 1909 shows, very little loss has happened on the block since then.

There is a wonderful store at the northwest corner Shenandoah and Missouri. The block, originally known as Virginia Street north of Shenandoah, was largely developed after 1876, as Compton and Dry’s Pictorial St. Louis shows (note the ruins of the Civil War-era Fort No. 4).

One of the few houses built before then is below; it is a good example of a Greek Revival house common in the 1860s and 1870s.

Next up are two double mirror image houses; they each have a half flounder back wing that also mirror each other. This is an incredibly rare pairing of houses.

The housing stock is newer then, with some Romanesque Revival and Second Empire houses that are from the 1880s and 90s.

The house below is a nice example of the transition around the year 1900, as the use of stone for ornament instead of painted wood around the windows and doorway is apparent. It is a two-family, not a single-family house.

The next row of houses are again older, with the gable roofs of the Greek Revival. I suspect the house in the middle below once had a dormer, as well.

Here is a close-up view below of the house above on the left.

There is one Italianate house thrown into the mix, with what looked to be the original cornice; it is painted a dark blue color so does not show up well in photographed.

I suspect this heavily renovated Second Empire building below was originally a two-family flat; note that the cornice was removed at some point and replaced with a simpler facsimile.

Then there is another house that betrays itself with two front doors despite having the form of a single family house. Note the addition to the back of the house where the brick changes color and the obvious line in between the brick courses.

Then there are some nice four-family buildings until we reach Ann Avenue.

Turning around and taking one last look at the houses on the west side before heading south, we discover the houses on the east side of the street are a little bit different in character.

The first three buildings are noticeably newer, perhaps even from the first years of the Twentieth Century, such as this four-family below.

We also see the appearance of dark brown brick, which is definitely a change from the Nineteenth Century.

The Second Empire house below, with the vinyl siding on its Mansard roof probably preserves its original slate roof tiles underneath it. I have seen places where the vinyl has fallen off, revealing surprises underneath.

The architectural variety is really amazing heading the rest of the way south back to Shenadoah Avenue.