This strange little house above, tucked back the busy corner of Gravois and Jefferson; it appears on the Compton and Dry view.

A surprisingly large number of those little houses survived the main wave of urbanization at the turn of the century.

I’ve become increasingly interested in the early years of settlement in postbellum St. Louis of the 1860-80s, before the “tract housing” of the early Twentieth century that filled out these neighborhoods.

Update: I revisited the house below in November of 2020 (seventh photograph down).

In particular, I like how these early vernacular buildings sit either way up or far back on the lot.

Last two photos courtesy of Jeff Phillips.