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Photograph courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
Vandeventer Place
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Photograph by Chris Naffziger
Vandeventer Place gates in Forest Park
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Photograph by Chris Naffziger
Samuel Cupples House
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Photograph by Chris Naffziger
Robert Henry Stockton House, 3508 Samuel Shepard Drive
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Photograph by Chris Naffziger
3808 Olive
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Photograph by Chris Naffziger
3700 Block of Westminster
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Photograph by Chris Naffziger
Row house, 3534 Washington
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Photograph by Chris Naffziger
St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church
Grand Center in Midtown wasn’t always home to theaters, art galleries and the St. Louis Symphony. Originally, the streets around the intersection of Lindell and Grand featured row after row of stately houses, mansions, and even a private street. By the late 19th century, the area had become the wealthiest neighborhood in the city, home to some the most important members of St. Louis society.
Sitting west of the central city and along major streetcar routes, Midtown proved highly desirable to those fleeing the coal-fueled pollution further east. Sitting on a hill, upwind from the central city, the neighborhood began to receive the accouterments befitting its tony status in St. Louis. Vandeventer Place, a private street on the northern edge of the neighborhood, served as the crown jewel of the rapidly expanding area.
Platted by the famous German-American surveyor Julius Pitzman, Vandeventer Place exacted strict obedience from the affluent homeowners who purchased plots along its regal tree-lined boulevard. The new mansions that filled the private street conformed to rigid design and expense requirements that only the wealthiest industrialists in St. Louis could afford. Interestingly, the governance of the street required unanimous votes to change the street’s charter.
Sadly, just as Lucas Place before it, Vandeventer Place began to experience the downsides of its prime location. The ample streetcar lines that once drew the wealthy to Midtown now drew tens of thousands of St. Louisans to the theaters and office buildings popping up along Grand. The World’s Fair in 1904 gave everyone the excuse to move further west to the blossoming Central West End. The once-great street was demolished in two sections: The eastern half fell in 1947 for the John Cochran Veterans Hospital; the western half went a decade later. The gates, with their distinctive lettering, now rest out of context and forgotten in Forest Park near the Jewel Box.
While all of the stately mansions of Vandeventer Place are now gone, architects such as Henry Hobbs Richardson drew designs for several slightly less grand but still lavish houses, which spilled over onto the other residential streets branching off Grand. The vast majority of those houses, in which the upper middle class of St. Louis lived, also met the wrecking ball for parking lots that pervade much of Midtown. But luckily, here and there amidst the asphalt sea, several gems survive.
The Samuel Cupples House, now on Saint Louis University’s campus, stands out as an icon of the Richardsonian Romanesque style. The Robert Henry Stockton House at 3508 Samuel Shepard Drive serves as another Romanesque Revival masterpiece. Adorned with a stone front with elaborate floral details and grand arches, one can only imagine what its neighbors looked like. Nearby, at 3534 Washington, a meticulously restored Second Empire row house beckons us with memories of its long demolished identical mates. And amazingly, just off of Vandeventer Avenue, almost all of the north side of the 3700 block of Westminster Place is preserved.
The wealthy residents of Midtown also invested huge amounts of money into their houses of worship, giving the neighborhood the nickname of “Piety Hill.” Anchoring the corners of the streets east of Grand, these hulking Romanesque and Gothic edifices point to the stature of the neighborhood’s religious life in the 19th century. Perhaps the grandest, and certainly the tallest, survivor is St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church on Grand.
Today, as one walks the streets of Grand Center, the residential nature of the community seems like a distant memory. People drive in, park, go to a show at the Fox Theater or Powell Hall, and head home. In fact, despite the area’s success as a performing and visual arts center, real street life eludes the area. Grand Center must be a 24-hour neighborhood. Recent signs from Grand Center’s president, former Mayor Vince Schoemehl, are encouraging. Long term, Grand Center has hundreds of housing units proposed in its master plan, and the recent success of the Metropolitan Lofts show that people will live in the neighborhood if given the opportunity.
But some of the news is discouraging; Grand Center continues to demolish structurally sound and architecturally interesting buildings such as 3808 Olive, which could have easily served as a gallery space/residence. Needless demolitions need to stop. And more so than ever, Grand Center needs to look to its past while planning for the future.
Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via e-mail at naffziger@gmail.com
