Senate and Congress streets in Benton Park are perfect examples of my old maxim that the street grid of St. Louis were not designed by a central authority, but was laid out by private developers, even brewers such as George Schneider or Adam Lemp. As such, we have some bizarre “accidents” throughout the city, such where garages back up to the fronts of houses, since there was no room for another row of houses to face them. We also have streets that dead-end at alleys, or just plain dead-end.

But Senate Street, along its one and a half blocks has some beautiful houses, and little to no traffic along its brick sidewalks. It is really a hidden gem.

Second Empire architecture predominates, right up against the street, since the houses were crammed into a narrow space in between Sidney and Lynch, with Congress a half block.

Some houses were built with party walls, but what readers should realize is this was really the suburbs when the neighborhood was built in the 1870s and 80s.

At this point, we make it to Salena, which is a relatively narrow north-south street. The fire escape, of course, is a relic of when this neighborhood saw its homes carved up into boarding houses.

Some renovations did not preserve their fish scale roofs, but I’m fine with it if it means the house is renovated.

Then, there are apartment buildings from the 1890s further south on Salena Street.

The Romanesque Revival style begins to predominate, as the earlier revival styles die out. See more of Salena Street further to the south in this post from October of 2015.