For anyone who doesn’t live in the City of St. Louis, for many residents, “four-family” is a “four-letter word,” if you know what I mean. But what always strikes me about the Southwest Garden neighborhood is how there are so many well-kept and elegant four-family apartment buildings.
It proves that bad management and slumlords are the problem, not the form of the building itself. They can work and provide a viable living option in the city.
There are many different styles of apartment buildings, all similar to early Twentieth Century architectural movements.
But then there is a single family house inserted right in the middle of the apartments.
Agreed, but irresponsible tenants often drive off responsible housing providers(landlords).
I give a talk about StL and public works projects during the Great Depression. The audience is often seniors and I always ask for their stories. One woman told me that her grandfather owned a building on the riverfront. She didn’t specify, but I assume he was being bought out for the riverfront memorial.
She said her parents and her aunt put what little they had saved with the grandparents’ proceeds. They built a 4-family in S StL. Her grandparents had one apartment, her family had one, her aunt had one, and the 4th was a rental. “and that’s how my family managed during the Depression”.
One doesn’t normally think of a building boom in the 30s, but with the riverfront land buyout I wonder how many others in StL did the same. How many 4-families date from the 1930s? A great research project for someone who can easily search deeds 🙂
There was some construction in the 1930s, but there were very few inhabitants displaced for the demolition of the future Arch Grounds. The National Park Service has a complete list of the residents displaced by the demolitions, and it was a small number of peope.