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Lindell Place in Grand Center. Photograph courtesy of The Harlan Company
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Front facade, Lindell Place. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Side view. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Architectural detail on the former Brown Mansion, now Lindell Place. Photograph courtesy of the Harlan Company
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Facade detail. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Molding detail. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Grand Staircase. Photograph courtesy of the Harlan Company
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View from staircase. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Staircase. Photograph courtesy of The Harlan Company
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The Brown Mansion before renovation. Photograph courtesy of The Harlan Company
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The Brown Mansion before renovation. Photograph courtesy of The Harlan Company
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The Brown Mansion before renovation. Photograph courtesy of The Harlan Company
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The Brown Mansion before renovation. Photograph courtesy of The Harlan Company
In the field of preservation, it’s usually bad news coming out of Grand Center. A once-venerable mansion is being torn down for a parking lot, or a classic old building falls victim to neglect before the wrecking ball arrives. Grand Center is also the land of big ideas and plans, where, for decades, city leaders have proposed and envisioned thousands of new residential units to replace the acres of parking lots that dominate the area. Very little has been built, though the area did see the masterful renovation of the Metropolitan Lofts Building. The good news is that private developers are beginning to step up where government has lagged behind.
This author was pleased to discover that one stately old mansion, the Brown Residence at 3755 Lindell Boulevard, certainly doomed for either conversion to boring office space or demolished for more parking, has been saved through the efforts of the Harlan Company. The owners, Kaye and John Harlan, recently allowed the author a tour of the grand old house, long the home of the Travelers Protective Association, to see how the building has been ingeniously rehabbed to accommodate apartments primarily marketed to St. Louis University students, which sits right across Lindell Boulevard. Rechristened Lindell Place, the former mansion now contains twelve apartments spread out over 19,600 square feet.
That stretch of Lindell in Midtown was once lined with dozens of mansions, built by St. Louis’s elite in the late 19th century. Before the wealthy citizens of the city moved on to the Central West End around the time of the World’s Fair, the tony neighborhoods on either side of Grand hosted some of the most expensive housing in the city. As time moved on, and Grand Center became a bustling commercial and theater district, those houses started to fall to new skyscrapers or parking lots. Luckily, as this author wrote about last year, there are still a fair number of grand old houses surviving, but they are still threatened with demolition.
The beautiful Brown Mansion is a critical component of the area’s remaining residential areas. Designed by none other than the most influential architecture firm in St. Louis around the turn of the 20th century—Barnett, Haynes and Barnet—the house is an excellent example of Renaissance Revival architecture from the late 19th century. The front façade is divided into three horizontal sections, mimicking the layout of a typical Italian palazzo. The first floor, anchored by an Ionic order colonnade portal, features brickwork that emulates the rusticated stone common to its Italian counterparts. The second floor, the piano nobile, is adorned with tall, classical windows with lunette lintels inspired by Michelangelo. Intriguingly, the central bay of the second floor façade, partially blocked by the entablature of the front door, features a heavily ornamented horizontal window treatment, alluding to choir lofts in Florence Cathedral. Finally, the top floor possesses small windows and a simple cornice. In contrast to much of the neighborhood, the house dispenses with red brick in favor of a peach/buff colored variety.
The house saw major changes when converted to office space. According to old Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, a service wing and carriage house were demolished for a long office wing extension to the alley for the Travelers Protective Association. While much of the original Brown residential furnishings are gone, the grand staircase is still in excellent condition, and the Harlans refurbished the large public space, carefully replacing missing cornices and ornament. Kaye Harlan even personally painted the staircase’s details herself.
Throughout the rest of the original house, as well as in the office wing, architect Jennifer Taylor of Fendler and Associates designed innovative new apartments. Varying in size from two to four bedrooms, the renovation took advantage of the expansive windows, which allow natural light to pour into the new units. Likewise, numerous apartments and townhouses are spread out between two floors. Figuring that many tenants would be SLU students who like to sleep in, the team placed bedrooms and a bathroom on the basement level, with the living room and kitchen upstairs.
The craftsmanship of the renovation matches the quality of the original mansion, and when possible, original elements, like the sumptuous wood floors, were retained and refurbished. Having seen far too many slapdash, low-quality rehabs around the city of St. Louis, it is refreshing to see such careful attention to detail and finesse. The overall decorative scheme leans towards clean, modern lines, complementing the original Renaissance Revival style of the house.
John Harlan wanted to reiterate that the Missouri State Historic Tax Credit, which is frequently under attack in the state legislature, was a critical component in the successful rehab of the Brown Mansion. Simply stated, the project would not have been economically feasible (see the Landmarks Association of St. Louis video about those credits here). Likewise, this renovation shows that rehabbing historic houses in Grand Center can make good business sense. Hopefully, more projects on this scale and level of quality will follow in the neighborhood.
The Lindell Place, 3755 Lindell
General Contractor: The Harlan Company
John M. Harlan, Jr., President
Doug Vaughan, Project Manager
Kaye Harlan, In-House Historian/Stair Painter
Scott Smith, Project Superintendent
Peter Harlan, Property Manager
Architect: Jennifer Taylor, Fendler & Associates, Inc.
Interior Design: Sue Sparks, Sparks Design, Inc.
Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via e-mail at naffziger@gmail.com.
