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Lafayette Square Neighborhood
DESCRIPTION: Lafayette Square, filled with grand 19th century Victorian homes and row houses, is one of St. Louis' oldest residential neighborhoods. The centerpiece of the Square is beautiful Lafayette Park named for the Revolutionary War hero who visited St. Louis in 1825. The park, an oasis of greenery in the heart of the city, is the oldest park west of the Mississippi River. Stately 1870s and 1880s "painted ladies," grand Victorian mansions painted in light hues, line the adjacent streets making the neighborhood one of the most picturesque in St. Louis. Lafayette Square has been called the finest collection of Victorian-era architecture in the country and has won recognition as one of the "Prettiest Painted Places in America." The Square was designated St. Louis' first historic district in 1972 and the next year it was entered on the National Register of Historic Places.
LOCATION: South and west of downtown. The neighborhood is bounded by Chouteau, Jefferson, Lafayette, and Dolman.
PHONE NUMBER: Lafayette Restoration Committee, 314-772-5724
WEB SITE: www.lafayettesquare.org
GETTING THERE: From downtown, take Broadway south to where it turns slightly to the right and becomes Seventh Street. Take Seventh Street to Lafayette and turn right. Follow Lafayette several blocks to the park and the Square.
BEST KNOWN FOR: Beautiful Lafayette Park, the oldest municipal park west of the Mississippi River, and the beautiful Victorian mansions and row houses that line the streets around the park.
WHAT'S NEW: The neighborhood has just begun a master plan for the restoration of Lafayette Park.
The Lafayette Park Conservancy implementing the plan which will include restoring the historic fence, updating the lighting and garden and landscaping.
A comprehensive urban plan has been adopted for the neighborhood and it has been designated a tax increment financing distinct to fund the plan.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- The focal point of the Lafayette Square neighborhood is the 30-acre Lafayette Park, a Victorian style park. The park has an 1868 statue of Senator Thomas Hart Benton by sculptor Harriet Hosner; a statue of George Washington, one of five copies of an original by Houdon, which is in the rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol; a bridge, which crosses a lagoon and a music pavilion, used for summer concerts. A pagoda has been rebuilt in the style of the Victorian pagoda, which was originally in the park, and a police station built in 1866 was originally used as a headquarters for the police force that managed the large crowds at the Park during its heyday, has been restored and is used as a visitors center during special events.
- A string of shops along Mississippi Avenue once housed grocers, butchers and other basic stores. Now the buildings house offices, restaurants, antique shops and galleries.
- Also along Mississippi Avenue are several interesting private residences including a townhouse that had been the home of a daughter of bridge designer James E. Eads and a home known as the "Flounder House" because it supposedly resembled a fish. Both were built in the 1860s. Other homes on the street were owned by Dr. Edward Saunders, St. Louis' first pediatrician; Horace E. Bixby, the riverboat pilot who taught Samuel Clements river navigation; and Dr. William Taussig, one of Ead's business partners. Many of the homes have mansard roofs, elaborate cornice work and ornate doors.
- Along Lafayette Avenue are many homes built in the 1870s including one that was home to Charles Nagel, Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President William Howard Taft, and his brother-in-law, Louis Brandeis who began his law practice in St. Louis and later became a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The house at 2150 Lafayette was also built for another Eads daughter and it was from there that his funeral procession left after he died. Another bed and breakfast, Napoleon's Retreat at 1815 Lafayette, was built in the 1880s.
- Two large Romanesque Revival homes facing Simpson Place were built in 1892 by Jacob Christopher and William Simpson, partners in an architectural iron business and brothers-in-law.
- The building at 2301 Lafayette, now the McLaughlin Funeral Home, was one of the most imposing of residences in the Lafayette neighborhood. The building was damaged by the tornado of 1896 and was remodeled in the German Baroque style.
- Along Missouri Avenue are townhouses and large residences including a 27-room mansion that is the largest Renaissance Revival home in the neighborhood.
- It is believed that the Federal style house at 2229 Park was built in the late 1850s making it the oldest residence facing Lafayette Park. Several homes on Park Avenue were designed by noted architects. The homes at 2115 and 2107 Park Avenue were designed by George Barnett. Another home Barnett designed is reminiscent of the Missouri Executive Mansion in Jefferson City, which Barnett also designed. That house at 2043 Park Avenue was owned by Montgomery Blair, postmaster general under President Abraham Lincoln. The house at 2031 Park features twin towers and was designed by Theodore C. Link, the architect who designed Union Station.
- Also on Park is the Full Gospel Assembly Church where services were first held on Easter Sunday, 1870. It was the first church constructed in Lafayette Square and the second Unitarian Church in St. Louis.
- Off Park Avenue is Benton Place, the oldest private residential street in the United States. It was platted in 1866 and was home to some of St. Louis' most prominent residents.
HISTORY: Lafayette Park is the focal point of the Square. The park is actually a remnant of the tiny French settlement that was St. Louis in its earliest years. In the European tradition, the settlement was a cluster of houses with common fields nearby that were used for farming. The land that is now Lafayette Park was part of the original St. Louis commons fields.
The 30-acre park, platted in 1836, is the first park west of the Mississippi River and is named for the popular American Revolutionary War hero who visited St. Louis in 1825.
In its early years, the area was considered to remote to be developed for housing. Locals called the park "Grimsley's Folley" after Col. Thornton Grimsley, a St. Louis alderman who supported the idea of using part of the common fields for the recreation of all the residents of St. Louis. At the time, St. Louis' population was less than 16,000, and the city's development was largely contained within the area east of 14th Street.
But time and the city's growth took care of that. By the 1860s the city's population grew by more than 900 per cent over what it had been 20 years earlier.
Following the Civil War, as prosperity took hold, Lafayette Park became the most popular recreation area in St. Louis, and the area around it one of the most fashionable residential districts in the city.
During the 1870s and 80s, more than 350 houses were built in Lafayette Square, many designed by leading architects of the day. Most were Victorian mansions, the ultimate in home styles in 1870, and the area became a tony enclave of St. Louis' wealthiest families.
Among Lafayette Square's residents at the time were people of local and national importance including Montgomery Blair, postmaster general under Abraham Lincoln; David Nicholson, a prominent wine and grocery merchant; Louis Brandeis, who later became U.S. Supreme Court Justice; jeweler D.C. Jaccard; Charles Nagel, Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President William Howard Taft; Mrs. Firmin Desloge, widow of mining magnate Firmin Desloge who made a fortune mining lead in mid-Missouri; steamboat pilots Joseph LaBarge and Horace Bixby, and St. Louis Mayors John S. Thomas, James Britton and Henry W. Kiel.
But the real world soon encroached on the exclusive residential district known as Lafayette Square. As the estate of Antoine Soulard was subdivided in the adjacent area that would become known as the Soulard neighborhood, tenements were soon built on the land to house the growing immigrant population that came to work in the breweries, factories, cotton factories, flour mills, iron foundries and tobacco factories nearby.
The wealthy property owners of Lafayette Square could not stave off the elements that threatened their neighborhood. And, as the old century faded into the new, other neighborhoods were developing to the west. The demise of the Square was hastened by a major tornado, which tore through the area in May 1896. Some 306 people were killed by the twister, which did $13 million in damage to the surrounding area. Scores of homes, churches, factories and businesses were destroyed or badly damaged. The park itself was torn apart with trees uprooted and wrought iron mangled left in its path. The storm's ultimate casualty was the Lafayette Square neighborhood itself. The devastation left by the storm intensified the movement away from the Square. Rather than rebuilt, some homeowners just moved away.
Within a couple of decades, the Lafayette Square neighborhood fell into disrepair and beautiful mansions, once homes to St. Louis' most affluent families, were subdivided into apartments and rooms and rented to people of lesser means. An influx of low-income residents brought new strains on the area which now had a dwindling economic base.
Federal programs sought to bring in new housing for the urban poor, and in the 1940s and 1950s, public housing projects were built nearby. The density of their populations brought new problems to the area, and the neighborhood was further fragmented by construction of Interstates 44 and 55 in the 1960s.
As urban decay set in, many beautiful old buildings fell to the wrecking ball and others became faded images of their pasts. Still, though haggard and worn, the area held remnants of its Victorian charm.
In the late 1960s, a few people saw beyond the shabby condition of some of the buildings and sought to preserve them by restoring them to their past splendor. They formed the Lafayette Square Restoration Committee to help support the effort and encourage others to do the same. Over many years, homes that had long been forsaken were lovingly restored, more and more people moved into the area and the neighborhood became vibrant once more.
ARCHITECTURE: The Lafayette Square neighborhood is a treasure trove of 19th century architecture. Many homes are "Victorian," a type of architecture in several styles popular in the United States in the mid to late 19th century during the era named for England's Queen Victoria.
Among the styles of homes in the Square are all-brick federal style townhouses, tall, narrow buildings, usually built with pitched roofs, double-ended chimneys and dormer windows. Windows usually had six over six panes of glass.
A style popular during the 1870s and prevalent in Lafayette Square was the Second Empire town house named for the French Second Empire of Napoleon III. These buildings often have dormer windows under their mansard roofs and are trimmed with massive cornices.
Romanesque Revival homes are also prevalent in Lafayette Square. They are characterized by wide floor plans and typically have semicircular arched openings, bay windows, tall chimneys and steep, pyramidal roofs. Because they are unusually large, Romanesque Revival homes are often built on corner lots.
FESTIVALS AND OTHER EVENTS: Opera Promenade is an annual event held every year in Lafayette Square on a Saturday evening in September. Billed as "a night of music," the event features members of the Midwest Lyric Opera performing light opera and show tunes in the parlors of five or six homes in Lafayette Square. A café featuring catered food is set up in a street which is blocked off for the event which is a fundraiser for the Arts Council of Lafayette Square.
The first full weekend in June, the Lafayette Restoration Committee sponsors a tour of several private homes and gardens with associated activities in Lafayette Park.
The Lafayette Park Summer Concert Series is an annual series of concerts held in the park every other Saturday evening beginning the first Saturday (house tour Saturday) in June. The concerts are held at the gazebo and feature bands playing a variety of music including jazz, blues, pop and Latin.
Tour de Lafayette, one of four major races that comprise the Gateway Cup Bicycle Race held in St. Louis each Labor Day weekend, is held in the Lafayette Square neighborhood.
The Holiday Parlor Tour, held each December, is a Christmas tour of homes of various sizes and styles. Residents and local artists decorate wreaths that hang on the doors of the homes in the tour. Visitors can bid on their favorites as part of a silent auction at the event.
DINING: There are several restaurants in the neighborhood including Arcelia's, a Mexican restaurant; Sqwires, a unique restaurant in a restored former wire factory; Ricardo's, serving Italian fare; 33 Wine Bar and Tasting Room and the Chocolate Bar, a restaurant specializing in lunch and chocolate pastries and exotic chocolate drinks and coffees.
SHOPPING: There are several shops and art galleries along Park Avenue and along Dolman.
WHAT'S NEARBY: The Soulard neighborhood with its interesting pubs, music clubs and restaurants and the Cherokee neighborhood, home of historic antique row.
PUBLIC RELATIONS CONTACT: Julie Padberg-White, President, Lafayette Square Restoration Committee, jules2108@yahool.com, 314-865-5088 or Susan Sauer at ssauer@acumen-corp.com.
Readers should call 1-800-916-0040 to request a free copy of the Official St. Louis Visitor Guide or point, click and explore St. Louis at www.explorestlouis.com
