Gravois Park, really northern Dutchtown, was sparsely settled after the Civil War.

It really didn’t take off until the early years of the Twentieth Century, when the streetcars took German immigrants to their jobs in downtown and elsewhere in the city. There is not much industry in the neighborhood; it was a “suburb” in the turn-of-the-century sense.

But older houses, such as these Italianate bungalows, show how there are older buildings around Compton Avenue.

Update: The building below was renovated in 2019.

But then there is this beautiful Italianate storefront on the other side of the neighborhood.

Please join me for my lecture about the Green Book and St. Louis at the Missouri History Museum, February 16 at 7:00 PM.