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116 E. Steins Street. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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124 East Steins Street. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Jacob Steins House, 7600 Reilly Street. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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The 7700 Block of Vulcan. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Zeiss Houses, 7707-7713 Vulcan Street. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Charles Schlichtig House, 300 East Marceau. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
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Anton Schmitt House, 7727 South Broadway. Photograph by Chris Naffziger
There’s a reason why the far south St. Louis neighborhood of Carondelet feels like a small town; for over 100 years, it was just that. But Carondelet continues to fascinate not just because it was once independent. After all, Hyde Park, The Ville, and several other parts of the city were once settled before annexation by St. Louis. More so than any other part of St. Louis, Carondelet still maintains a sense of identity that makes the neighborhood unique.
Founded in 1767 by Clement DeLore de Treget, the historic core of Carondelet also includes what is now known as The Patch neighborhood. A failed attempt at colonization had occurred around 1700 at the confluence of the Mississippi and the River de Peres, so named because Catholic priests (peres in French) had spearheaded that earlier attempt. Industry came to the town before the Civil War in the form of the Vulcan Ironworks. During the war, James Eads constructed many of his famous ironclads in his yards near the mouth of the River des Peres. Later, the site would become the infamous Carondelet Coke, which left a history of pollution long after its closure.
Now that those industries are long gone, what gives Carondelet its most striking landmarks are the remnants of its early settlement. While St. Louis is rightfully famous for its culture of red brick construction, the stone houses of the early- to mid-19th Century present a fascinating link to the earliest forms of architecture in the region. This is not the fine-cut stone seen in the mighty churches and public buildings of the city; this is humble but beautiful limestone boulders, stacked one on top of the other. Certainly St. Louis possessed stone houses in its historic core, such as the Old Rock House, but those have all been swept away. Carondelet is now the place to come to see the rugged, calculated, and almost elegant art of stacking irregular stone building blocks on top of each other, like a giant jigsaw puzzle.
While many stone houses are scattered throughout Carondelet, the few remaining dwellings east of Broadway are the most compelling. Most famously the Jacob Steins House, sitting at the corner of Steins Street at 7600 Reilly Street, which gives its name to a small historic district that stretches several blocks along the eponymous street (coincidentally, stein means “stone” in German). Owned for generations by the Fanetti family, the house was constructed sometime in the mid-1840s, and perhaps built in two segments. Several blocks to the south, the Charles Schlichtig House at 300 E. Marceau was built in 1852, and is still well-preserved.
Luckily, several houses on the blocks west of the Steins House are now seeing the possibility of rehabilitation. A small stone house from 1854 at 124 E. Steins Street, set far back on its lot, is currently being restored. Next door, a row of houses, some stone and others brick, await renovation. Thankfully, several Carondelet residents have taken interest in saving these houses and their renovation will come soon.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that many more sit abandoned and deteriorating. The 1850s Zeiss Houses, at 7707-13 Vulcan Street, are now vacant. They are also severely damaged and missing roofs and windows. In 1980, the Zeiss family still occupied these houses. Interestingly, as the Zeiss family grew in wealth, they constructed the neighboring brick two-story house adjacent to the original stone houses. The 7700 block of Vulcan has many beautiful, intact houses; hopefully this trend of abandonment does not continue.
But why does this matter now? For over a century, the stone houses of Carondelet thrived along with their neighborhood. But times are changing. As late as the 1980s, National Register Nominations spoke of the original families still occupying these houses, proud of their heritage. Fast forward to the present day, and many of those once proudly occupied houses now sit empty. Industry encroaches on the historic residential neighborhoods east of Broadway; in fact, as early as 1980, the National Register nomination was warning of this threat. Attempts at relocating the houses have been successful at least once. The Anton Schmitt House, built in 1859, was saved from demolition during an expansion of a Monsanto chemical plant, and now sits reconstructed in St. Louis Square Park, at 7727 S. Broadway. Though it survived, it is stripped of its historic context.
Meanwhile, super-blocks are forming to provide room for more factories and warehouses. Trucks rumble by, shaking the ground. One worries that this historic area will face the same fate of the Kosciusko district on the Near South Side, where a proud, working-class neighborhood was annihilated for an industrial park in the mid-20th Century. Will Carondelet’s historic homes still have a place in St. Louis in a decade, or will they become another story of lost opportunity as “progress” sweeps them away?
Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via e-mail at naffziger@gmail.com.
