Lafayette Square, Saint Louis

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Lafayette Square located just south of downtown is a registered "National Historic District" and is St. Louis's oldest historic district. Victorian mansions, townhouses and row houses display architectural styles from the Civil War through the turn of the century. Nearly all of the 375 historic homes in the neighborhood have been restored to their original beauty over the past 20 years. It has gradually returned to its beginnings to become once again one of America's most fashionable Victorian neighborhoods. For all its age, however, Lafayette Square is a dynamic and thriving area where comfortable city living is championed by its residents.

In the 1870's and 1880's, the Square was home to the eminent civic and business leaders of the day. Today, this neighborhood of more than 900 families and singles has revived the elegance of the city's grand Victorian heyday, when St. Louis was the fourth largest city in the U.S. Lafayette Square is within the 6th ward, represented by Alderman Lewis E. Reed.

LAFAYETTE SQUARE HIGHLIGHTS:

The focal point of the Lafayette Square neighborhood is the 30-acre Lafayette Park, a Victorian style park. The park has an 1868 statue of Senator Thomas Hart Benton by sculptor Harriet Hosner; a statue of George Washington, one of five copies of an original by Houdon, which is in the rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol; a bridge, which crosses a lagoon and a music pavilion, used for summer concerts. A pagoda has been rebuilt in the style of the Victorian pagoda, which was originally in the park, and a police station built in 1866 was originally used as a headquarters for the police force that managed the large crowds at the Park during its heyday, has been restored and is used as a visitors center during special events.

A string of shops along Mississippi Avenue once housed grocers, butchers and other basic stores. Now the buildings house offices, restaurants, antique shops and galleries.

Also along Mississippi Avenue are several interesting private residences including a townhouse that had been the home of a daughter of bridge designer James E. Eads and a home known as the "Flounder House" because it supposedly resembled a fish. Both were built in the 1860s. Other homes on the street were owned by Dr. Edward Saunders, St. Louis' first pediatrician; Horace E. Bixby, the riverboat pilot who taught Samuel Clements river navigation; and Dr. William Taussig, one of Ead's business partners. Many of the homes have mansard roofs, elaborate cornice work and ornate doors.

Along Lafayette Avenue are many homes built in the 1870s including one that was home to Charles Nagel, Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President William Howard Taft, and his brother-in-law, Louis Brandeis who began his law practice in St. Louis and later became a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The house at 2150 Lafayette was also built for another Eads daughter and it was from there that his funeral procession left after he died. Another bed and breakfast, Napoleon's Retreat at 1815 Lafayette, was built in the 1880s.

Two large Romanesque Revival homes facing Simpson Place were built in 1892 by Jacob Christopher and William Simpson, partners in an architectural iron business and brothers-in-law.

The building at 2301 Lafayette, now the McLaughlin Funeral Home, was one of the most imposing of residences in the Lafayette neighborhood. The building was damaged by the tornado of 1896 and was remodeled in the German Baroque style.

Along Missouri Avenue are townhouses and large residences including a 27-room mansion that is the largest Renaissance Revival home in the neighborhood.

It is believed that the Federal style house at 2229 Park was built in the late 1850s making it the oldest residence facing Lafayette Park. Several homes on Park Avenue were designed by noted architects. The homes at 2115 and 2107 Park Avenue were designed by George Barnett. Another home Barnett designed is reminiscent of the Missouri Executive Mansion in Jefferson City, which Barnett also designed. That house at 2043 Park Avenue was owned by Montgomery Blair, postmaster general under President Abraham Lincoln. The house at 2031 Park features twin towers and was designed by Theodore C. Link, the architect who designed Union Station.

Also on Park is the Full Gospel Assembly Church where services were first held on Easter Sunday, 1870. It was the first church constructed in Lafayette Square and the second Unitarian Church in St. Louis.

Off Park Avenue is Benton Place, the oldest private residential street in the United States. It was platted in 1866 and was home to some of St. Louis' most prominent residents.