Four years after I first covered Vandeventer Place, there still is a paucity of information and photographs of what was once the grandest private street in St. Louis. I only could find a couple of grainy postcards that preserve the appearance of the once august street.
I often tell people that if even Vandeventer Place (or Gaslight Square, for that matter) isn’t safe from decline and the wrecking ball, then none of our built environment should be taken for granted.
I drove up Spring Avenue recently, and when I passed through the block where Vandeventer Place once stood, I took a photo to the right and to the left. It is hard to believe that even just sixty years ago Richardsonian Romanesque mansions and Second Empire houses once stood. Instead, I saw a chain-link fence blocking one of the ugliest buildings in St. Louis, the Veterans’ Hospital…
…and on the other side, a forlorn and rapidly deteriorating “youth services facility,” or as one of my students who works there calls it, the teen jail.
What a ****ing tragedy.
In all candor – I remember Vandeventer Place from immediately before it was razed. It truly was a dump and most houses looked like there had been no maintenance done for 50 years.. Now, I love old buildings and reveled in SLU's Chouteau House, used when I was there as offices (including the AFROTC office) and the snack bar was in the basement. I always thought it should be used for more appropriate purposes – and it was, albeit long after my attendance. But V.P. was too far gone, at least to my uneducated eyes. And in truth, the land was needed for the hospital – which was positioned to serve the veterans in the Northern part of the City and County.Additionally, there was just not the interest in rehabbing old mansions that were that far East.Now, I dunno when Vandeventer Place started its long deline, but when I told my parents that I'd ventured there, they told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was never to drive in there again, and that it had been a hotbed of crime even in the '20s. So apparently its slide began by the time of WW I.
I should have modified my earlier comment – my venture into V.P was in the Western portion,; the Eastern had been converted into the VA Hospital before "my time."
I think they could have easily built the Veterans' Hospital to the east of Grand, where an entire neighborhood was demolished.I totally understand from the view of planners at the time that it seemed logical to demolish Vandeventer Place, but remember, these were the same planners who wanted to demolish Lafayette Square…
There's a documentary series they show sometimes on KETC called St. Louis Centuries. It was done back in the sixties, I think, by Charles Guggenheim. There was an interesting bit they did on VP (in the Gilded Age episode) and even back then all that was left were the gates and maybe a fountain. And guess what? For those interested, someone just listed a complete set on Craigslist today. No, I don't know them, I just found it in a google search I did trying to research.
Chris, you need to read Charles Savage's chapter on Vandeventer Place in _Architecture of the Private Places of St. Louis_. Far from a paucity of information, Savage shows that much is known about Vandeventer Place and its mansions. Most of the buildings were photographed, and Savage uses several images to illustrate his chapter. The Missouri Historical Society holds a thorough collection of photographs of Vandeventer Place mansions.
Vandeventer Place was in decline even before the turn of the 20th century due to the city growing up around it, and bringing the inevitable pollution, noise and traffic with the progress. Some families began leaving by 1894 or so, and essentially walked away from the mansions. Others stayed longer if they could not afford to build elsewhere, but maintenance on the expensive homes was sometimes beyond their means, and it made no sense to maintain the grand homes in a declining surrounding environment and when the desire to stay put was flagging. Very few families remained by the 1920s, and as I recall, only one house was still occupied in 1940.
I lived at 80 Vandeventer Place in the 1950’s. The fountain by the west gate did not work anymore, and I wanted to grow up and have it repaired. At that time it had not been damaged by vandals from the surrounding declining neighborhood. The west end of Vandeventor place was still pretty much intact. Only the east half had been destroyed to give to a local builder for what became the Hospital. The houses were still grand, and most of the families that owned and lived in them did not want to sell, but were forced out. Mrs. Egan and her daughter who owned the house I lived in kept up the place well, and did not know where they would be able to live. The true crime is how long the land of the west end was left vacant after being taken from the residents. Decades!
Mr. Galbreath, could you contact me at naffziger (at) gmail (dot) com? I’d love to hear more about your childhood!
I am interested in #49 Vandervender place I.W. Morton 1st v. presid. of Simmons hardware. Does anyone have additional History and/or photos. I do have some info. that I can share.
The Missouri History Museum does: https://mohistory.org/collections?text=%2249%20Vandeventer%20Place%22&images=0
I W Morton was the 1st President of Noonday Club 1893
Thank you for the wonderful pictures of #49 Vandervender place, one more thing I was wondering is, what would be a cost to build one these homes because just the lot cost over $9,000.00.
That is a good question. For houses such as those on Vandeventer Place, due to their date of construction, there should be building permits on file. I would imagine upwards of $30,000-$50,000 if not more.
Legend holds that the grandest house built on Vandeventer Place, (#40) the Henry Clay Pierce mansion, was constructed between 1886 and 1890 at a cost of $800,000. This figure was repeated in news stories when the mansion was demolished less than 50 years later. Richardsonian Romanesque, stone and brick, with a saddleback roof of slate. Massive. It had 26 rooms, with 15 bed rooms. The third-floor ballroom alone (accessed by elevator) was said to have cost $100,000, the entrance hall was 26 by 40 feet, and instead of wallpaper, public room walls were decorated with silk. Louis Comfort Tiffany designed stained glass throughout the place. The mansion had a separate heating plant adjacent to it. The most amazing thing to me is that it had a tunnel underground leading to servants’ quarters located off site. The place required a full staff to run, with dozens working full time for the high rollers who lived there. A real robber baron place and Pierce himself was a very colorful fellow.
Interesting…do you know the address of the servants’ quarters? The building directly behind #40 Vandeventer Place on Morgan looks like a regular single family house.
I do not know where the servant’s quarters were located, but I have heard that the nearby small street, Windsor Place, was built originally to house employees of Vandeventer Place residents. I don’t know for sure that that is accurate. City appraiser Enno Kraehe’s write up of remaining Vandeventer Place houses in the ’40s does not include the Pierce mansion, which was gone by then, but does include the Peck mansion, one of the first built around 1870 at the entrance to the place, and I believe his summary mentions a private tunnel for servants at that house. I will check.
The Pierce servant quarters/carriage house/power plant were at 3740 and 3742 Morgan St. I don’t think Pierce owned either of the two homes that were more directly behind his house at 3728 and 3748 Morgan. At least a couple of homes on the north side of Vandeventer Place had carriage houses/stables/servant quarters across the way on Bell Ave. Those sections of Bell and Morgan streets basically served as Vandeventer Place alleys. I don’t know about a tunnel at the Peck house. Let me know if you find out that there was one.
Ah, there they are on the Sanborn map! Thanks!
According to Kraehe’s 1948 appraisal of what remained of Vandeventer Place, as quoted in Mary Bartley’s “St. Louis Lost”, specifically referencing the Peck mansion at #7: “An underground passageway, formerly a wine cellar, runs from the basement to Bell Avenue.” Bartley’s book offers a detailed chapter on Vandeventer Place. The volume altogether documents enough horrifying loss to make any preservationist want gargle Drano.
I think he was confusing that house with the Cupples Mansion, which fire insurance maps confirm had a tunnel under Pine to a labeled boiler house.
His written reference to a passageway at #7 Vandeventer Place was in the middle of his larger description of the property, i.e., its construction, interior appointments, architectural details, etc. I’m pretty sure he was referring to a passage/wine cellar at the Peck mansion. He does also specifically mention Bell Avenue, which was very close to Vandeventer Place. I have seen the footprint of the Cupples mansion’s servants quarters/stable across the street. Too bad that original structure did not survive, though I guess we are fortunate that the house is still there!
The plot thickens!
Amazing the short life some of the early Lindell mansions, those near Grand, the Cupples mansion, and Vandeventer Place, had. The Charles McClure house, once at 3671 Lindell, was constructed in 1886-87, just a couple doors east of Spring, next door to the more widely known Castleman McKay mansion, that stood until the early 1980s. The McClure house was an Eames and Young design, Romanesque, but anticipating later Renaissance styles. Anyway, it was demolished in the early 1920s when the enormous Scottish Rite was built and completed in 1925. Shocking that a magnificent house built to stand forever did so for less than 40 years. Similar fates befell some of the Fifth Avenue mansions in NYC.
typo alert. correct address for one of those homes behind Pierce mansion was 3738, not 3748
Don, if you will email at thearchitective@aol.com I will share some info on #49 history that I have worked up towards a Vandeventer Place book that is in the works.
Home costs per building permit records were typically $15,000 – $40,000, with the lots often costing nearly as much, going for $150 – $200 per front foot, i.e. a 100′ lot would cost $15,000 – $20,000. Published costs of the homes tended to be somewhat higher and research suggests that the entire cost of finishing out the homes may not have been reflected in the permit costs. The conversion factor to modern equivalents would be 30x – 50x. A good middle-class income in the 1880s would be about $800 per year. Female servants in these homes made about $100 a year!
Any information on the Lambert residence? Built by Jordan Wheat & Lily Lambert. Their six children were raised there by relatives and trust officers after their parent’s untimely deaths within several months on one another. Jordan Lambert founded Lambert Pharmacal, Makers of Listerine mouthwash.
Here’s one of them, presumably when they were younger:
https://mohistory.org/collections/item/N33987
Hello. I came across a grainy photo in the Post Dispatch archives. 2/5/1905. https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.slpl.org/hnpstlouispostdispatchshell/docview/579698224/FD0AEDDC04B84C80PQ/6?accountid=14083
Any info about the Catlin house? (Not sure of the spelling.) My grandma worked for them in the early 20s when she came from Ireland.
Check this out here at the Missouri History Museum website:
https://mohistory.org/collections/item/N05462