Alaska Avenue, Dutchtown, Part Two

Continuing north of Alaska Avenue, we see a variation on the classic four-family apartment building, with a simple front but variagated brick. Then there’s a mix of one story single family houses. We then encounter a tract of two story, two family houses which are all exact in massing and probably interior, but with slightly…

Alaska Avenue, Dutchtown, Part One

I decided to take a look at Alaska Avenue, a street in far south Dutchtown that is southwest of Virginia Avenue (former Stringtown Road), meaning that it does not make it north of Meramec Street. So it’s a state street, but even though it’s north-south, it’s much shorter than other state streets in the old…

St. Louis Avenue Between North 23nd and North 25rd Streets, South Side

Moving west of North 23rd Street, we see much less lavish homes. And if we look closely many, but not all, are actually two-family houses. I always joke in St. Louis architects designed multi-family houses to look like single families. Of course, there are obvious multi-family apartment buildings like the ones below. But as I’ve…

South 38th Street Between Taft Avenue and Meramec Street

We now turn to South 38th Street, which is just a total mess of architectural styles and years of construction. We see houses that could have been built in the 1890s to the 1950s. We see nice bungalows such as this one below, which might be described as a restrained version of the Gingerbread style….

Dewey Street Between Meramec Street and Taft Avenue

Leaving behind South 37th Street, we move one over to the west and head down Dewey Street, which reveals some more interesting houses. While the first couple of buildings look standard to Dutchtown, now we are confronted with four-families with some very interesting little gables over the windows. There is a wide variety of brick…

South 37th Street Between Taft and Bigham Avenues

Back in mid-August, I discovered the peaceful and architecturally rich streets southwest of the intersection of South Grand Boulevard and Meramec Street (you can start looking at those posts here). I came back to explore some more, this time first looking at South 37th Street. Numbered streets west of Jefferson Avenue are a bit rare…

Gustine Avenue, Tower Grove South

I’ve become intrigued by the physical forms of neighborhoods where the dominant orientation of buildings face only one orientation. For example, in Tower Grove South, houses and apartments face north or south on east-west streets, even at the intersections with the north-south arteries. But…there are disobedient houses on those north-south arteries that choose to face…

South Ninth Street Between Lami Street and Russell Boulevard, Soulard

Crossing Lami Street and continuing north on South Ninth Street, we pass by a corner store with a turret that most likely once possessed a conical roof, now gone. While we see Second Empire houses, we begin to see earlier houses such as the Greek Revival or as it’s sometimes known, the Federalist Style. At…

Osceola Street Between South Spring Street and 37th Street

I then cruised down Osceola Street, where I saw something surprising: an abandoned house. It is a rarity in what is other a very healthy neighborhood. It’s also a neat little house. Much of the blocks on Osceola are the sides of houses since they primarily face the north-south street, but we have some nice…