I realized I had never photographed the western side of Lafayette Square, where there is a plethora of beautiful houses, such as what was the McLaughlin Funeral Home. Its third floor once had a Mansard roof, as was typical of the Second Empire style, but it was destroyed by the Great Cyclone of 1896, and what was replaced by a more German, 16th or 17th style roof.

The amazing Romanesque Revival with Renaissance Revival tendencies mansion to the north is even more impressive in my book, and it represents one of the later additions to the neighborhood. Whittemore Place is the street to the left of the house.

And then there’s this Italianate masterpiece, with a gently sloping roof, carefully balanced bisymmetry and fine limestone ashlar front.

Then there are a row of Second Empire houses, as this photograph from 1960 shows; during this period the area was actually fairly low-income, demolitions were common, and the whole neighborhood was threatened with annihilation.

Ralph A. Ross, Missouri Avenue South of Park Avenue, 1960, Missouri History Museum, N39152

There are also these townhouses which came later, I suspect, in the 1880s.

The house below is around the corner on Park Avenue, and I’ve photographed it recently as well, as can be seen here.