Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
The St. Louis area is noted for its historically significant neighborhoods, but there’s one with which many locals are unfamiliar. Nestled on 140 acres a mile northwest of the city of St. Louis, Pasadena Hills is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Developed in 1928 and primarily designed by town planner and landscape architect Roland H. Buchmueller, it’s one of the oldest neighborhoods in St. Louis County.
This tight-knit city of about 1,100 residents boasts a range of architectural styles inspired by European influences, such as French Eclectic, Spanish Colonial Revival, and Tudor Revival. Twentieth-century American movements, including Craftsman and the Prairie School, are also represented. The grand introduction to these homes is the striking Gothic Revival entrance tower, designed by architect T.P. Barnett. At 65 feet, it’s the tallest neighborhood monument in the metro area.
“Pasadena Hills was the last planned community in the area before the Depression,” says Jim Schulte, the city’s building commissioner and a member of its Historic Preservation Commission. “They adapted the architecture to the surrounding landscape, making it like the English countryside. A lot of the homes are on ravines and winding roads, and many roads are named after cities in England.”
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Photo by Kevin A. Roberts
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Residents tend to use such words as “community” and “diverse” when describing the neighborhood. Pasadena Hills is an inviting place for people from all walks of life. Everyone, it seems, is involved in the work required to preserve the area’s history and beauty.
In 2015, John Warren purchased a Tudor Revival in Pasadena Hills with his husband, J.R. Wider.
“Everyone assumes it’s farther away than it actually is. It’s 12 minutes from downtown Clayton, where I work,” says Warren. “The diversity is an ideal situation for what every neighborhood should be: Everyone gets along. Everyone volunteers.”
Warren’s love of the neighborhood prompted him to start the @pasadenahills Instagram feed, where he regularly posts photos of its unique homes and landscaping.
David Hoffman, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1989, volunteers in one of its two garden clubs, helping to maintain the island and median gardens around the city. When he was looking for a home to purchase, he researched areas with historic properties before deciding on Pasadena Hills.
“It was the kind of architecture I liked, with a small-community feel and the convenience of the city,” he says. “It was the best value for the quality of property that I found, and I looked everywhere.”
Mayor Kevin Quinlisk grew up in Pasadena Hills and returned to the area with his wife and four children in 2012. The family bought a house just a few blocks away from Quinlisk’s childhood home. Recently, Quinlisk says, he’s seen an influx of families with young children moving to the area. “It’s just a wonderful community to raise your children,” he says. “It’s always been this way.”
This article was originally published in Design STL's May/June 2018 issue.
