Heading south on N. 25th Street, more houses that have been restored or carefully maintained line the east side of the street.
This houses has obviously had the front facade rebuilt halfway down the second floor windows.
But then, oh wow, there is one of the most interesting apartment buildings in St. Louis, just waiting for someone to come along and renovate it.
More or less in the Romanesque Revival style with a turret on one side…
…and a rare, rounded jerkin head roof protruding on the other, this one of a kind.
The remaining Second Empire houses on the block are a mixture of occupied and abandoned, and the preservation of the street wall on this section is excellent. Let’s keep it that way.
Then we get to Salisbury Street, where people commuting to Illinois use the artery as their personal speedway.
The building in photographs four through six is quite impressive. It should be labeled Queen Anne-style, not Romanesque Revival. I would also classify it as a group of rowhouses, instead of an apartment building. It does not appear to have the arrangement typical for what is considered an apartment. You see similar rowhouse groups, either as constructed buildings or just as designs, in architectural periodicals of the 1880s and 1890s (and a few later, I seem to think there is a very similar design in a Keith’s Architectural Studies from the 1900s but I do not have time to look in my library at the moment).
Unfortunately, it looks like it is about to collapse. That is a very serious looking bulge in the middle unit’s facade. I do not think it will last much longer, probably no more than a year, two at the most.
I’ll give you that there are elements of the Queen Anne in the roof, but I still would argue that the lower masonry walls are Romanesque Revival.
Well, we may not agree on what style it is, but I am sure we both agree that it needs to be restored quickly before it collapses and is demolished.
Awesome! I think this is the closest this blog has come to the house I grew up in (39xx Parnell). Wish there were some shots of the renovated Irving School apartments (although I think they’ve been covered before). Keep up the good work!
Thank you! I did cover the Irving School years ago. The link to the school before the renovation doesn’t seem to work anymore. Anyhow, the school looks great now.
http://stlouispatina.com/irving-school-hyde-park/