While I’ve looked at St. Louis Avenue numerous times over the last eighteen years, I’ve never actually published any photographs of the south side of the street in St. Louis Place (except for ones that have all been demolished and this one weird one). We’ll start at North 22nd Street and work west.

First up, that house on the left has quite the story; it was moved there from the NGA site; originally that lot was the location of the original Strassberger’s Conservatory. The second building was on South Grand Boulevard (fourth photograph).

I snapped a furtive photograph of the historic structure after it had been abandoned back in March of 2008, which I have never published before today.

While the Union Addition, where these houses are, was platted in the 1850s, development of this streetscape seems to have come rapidly in the 1880s and 90s, with more or less uniform Romanesque Revival style prevailing. There is one Second Empire house, above on the left, but it is in the terminal phase of that style.

The house on the right above was owned by George and Josie Cottrill. Below was the Rosenthal residence.

These mansions were the home of the German elite in North St. Louis, and the sheer size demonstrates how the community was thriving.

Smaller houses filled in the gaps between the grander homes. The house below was owned by Frederick Reiner.