Separated by Russell Boulevard there is a small pocket of stunningly beautiful houses in the northwestern portion of the Compton Heights area. Called by some Reservoir Square or Compton Hill, the area developed in the Nineteenth Century, with in-fill continuing into the Twentieth Century.

While many houses look like the typical early Twentieth Century houses seen in the Tower Grove area, others are much, much older, such as these Italianate rowhouses.

I find it fascinating how piecemeal this area developed, with some houses appearing in Compton and Dry from 1875, while others coming decades later.

This one house, boarded up, is actually probably one of the newer houses in the area. I doubt it will remain vacant for long.

On the north, these three houses avoided the demolition for I-44 by less than fifty feet. They sit facing the soundwall, reminding us of the terrible loss during the construction of the interstate highway system.

But facing Reservoir Park, these beauties show the wide range of late Nineteenth Century architecture built when this was on the edge of the city.

.