House in Fox Hill neighborhood, St. Louis.
ROUNDING THE CORNER
By Jennifer Roberts Photographs by Amber Schmisseur
First you might see a few boarded-up windows and unkempt yards. But then you turn the corner, and the scene changes to beautiful three-story brick homes with neatly painted trim and yards full of flowers.
Located in South City between the Tower Grove East and McKinley Heights neighborhoods, Fox Park was settled by German immigrants in the early 1880s. Many of these first- and second-generation German settlers were craftsmen, and they left behind a neighborhood rich in architectural detail.
Fox Park shares its name with the small park that stretches between Shenandoah and Victor, but it takes its spirit from St. Francis de Sales Oratory, the only German Gothic church in St. Louis, long known as "the Cathedral of South St. Louis." Seven German dairymen started the parish in 1867, and it drew more than 800 members the first year. The Rev. John Peter Lotz traveled to Berlin to consult with a German architect, but the resulting design--two large towers, two smaller towers and a central spire--was deemed too expensive. Then the tornado of 1896 destroyed the existing church. Construction of a scaled-down version of the German design began in 1907. Even scaled down, the church remained elaborate, its portal an exact replica of the portal of the Cathedral of Munich. Today the 300-foot steeple, visible from Highway 44, dominates the neighborhood.
Fox Park's architecture, near-downtown location and spacious brick homes are luring residents back into the once-neglected neighborhood. Resident Aaron Segall and his wife, Kerri O'Brien, were looking to buy a home in Soulard when their real-estate agent mentioned the neighboring Fox Park. "I had never heard of Fox Park, but we instantly liked it," he says. "It had an energy, and it seemed to be an up-and-coming neighborhood." Residents for two years, Segall and O'Brien are working to improve the neighborhood they now call home. They volunteer with the Fox Park Neighborhood Association, and Segall chairs the park committee.
Like much of the neighborhood, the park, which Segall calls "the central jewel of the neighborhood," is undergoing a facelift. Progress started in 2000, when the nonprofit De Sales Housing Corporation bought an old grocery building that had become a magnet for trouble. Alderwoman Phyllis Young found city money to buy the lot from the housing corporation and make it a park addition. Residents raised money to commission H3 Studio to do a master plan. Workshops were held through the summer of 2004, shaping a common vision for the park, and H3 presented a sharply contemporary design, tearing down the metal fencing that had cross-hatched the park and opening the space into a gathering place for the community.
"The Fox Park residents are quite remarkable," says John Hoal, founding principal of H3. "These are people who passionately believe in building parks for communities."
The plan breaks into three sections: for vigorous activity, an upgraded baseball field, basketball courts and a dog park; for casual fun, an adventure playground and spray pool; and for a community gathering place, a more formal seating area where bands can perform and tents can be set up on the lawn.
"The dog park was, as all dog parks are, a little bit controversial," says Hoal. "But at the end of the day, it was seen as useful." Dogwalkers will show up at sunrise and late in the evening, and they will visit regularly, neighbors reasoned.
Fences have been removed and planting has begun, as neighbors raise funds to complete the master plan, making the park a fitting centerpiece for a revitalized neighborhood.
Dan Brown, owner of Tanner B's restaurant, spent his first six months in St. Louis looking for possible restaurant locations. When he saw the Shenandoah Bar & Grill (formerly the Tip Top Tavern) for sale in 2003, he called the listing agent--who turned out to be the same agent who had sold him his home in Tower Grove East. "It seemed like a good opportunity," he says. "Others thought I was crazy, but I saw the positives in the neighborhood." Brown rehabbed the building, lo-cated in the eclectic business district recently dubbed Shen- andoah Crossings. He restored the large windows that were a hallmark of the Tip Top Tavern and introduced his idiosyncratic combination of comfort food and specialty martinis.
That same combination--mixing history and surprises--characterizes the entire Fox Park neighborhood.
