St. Louis house architecture question
November 18, 2019 9:09 AM Subscribe
There's a particular look to old houses in parts of St. Louis that I've only ever seen here. Where can I find information about this style? Is there a particular name for it, and a reason it's particular to this area?
2 examples in Google Maps. Lots of houses on these streets match the style:
Google Maps 1
Google Maps 1
I have a hard time describing the look, but here goes: It's the combination of brick houses, brick porches with brick pillars, steps up to the porch often right in the middle of the porch (but not always) and every yard on one or both sides of the street having the same slope. Optional but also very typical is the steps up that slope, then flat sidewalk, them steps up to the porch.
Maybe other cities have similar looks depending on when the houses were built, but I've never seen it even in pictures except for the St. Louis area.
2 examples in Google Maps. Lots of houses on these streets match the style:
Google Maps 1
Google Maps 1
I have a hard time describing the look, but here goes: It's the combination of brick houses, brick porches with brick pillars, steps up to the porch often right in the middle of the porch (but not always) and every yard on one or both sides of the street having the same slope. Optional but also very typical is the steps up that slope, then flat sidewalk, them steps up to the porch.
Maybe other cities have similar looks depending on when the houses were built, but I've never seen it even in pictures except for the St. Louis area.
Or am I just being derpy and you meant that house across the street next to the cafe?
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:20 AM on November 18, 2019
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:20 AM on November 18, 2019
Yes, these look like a brick implementations of Arts & Crafts/Bungalow style. Lots of American cities have a Bungalow Belt that was built in the early decades of the 20th century.
posted by TrialByMedia at 9:21 AM on November 18, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by TrialByMedia at 9:21 AM on November 18, 2019 [8 favorites]
A bungalow? I'd say this feels very similar to West Allis, Wisconsin. You might find this PDF interesting reading and will likely find the (heavily posterized) title slide image looking pretty familiar.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 9:21 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 9:21 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
They look very similar (but not exactly like) a Chicago Bungalow, so I googled St. Louis Bungalow to see if I could find anything specific. Nothing too exciting, but I did find this article on a few other housing styles unique to St. Louis.
posted by dinty_moore at 9:23 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by dinty_moore at 9:23 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
Reminds me a lot of the Craftsmen houses you could buy from the Sears Catalog back in the day.
posted by Mchelly at 9:34 AM on November 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Mchelly at 9:34 AM on November 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
That's my old neighborhood. I'm pretty sure the house on Holly Hills is where my friend Nick lived until third grade!
We call it "bungalow". Maybe "gingerbread" based on the level of stone/brick decoration.
Incidentally, the cafe, Onesto, has some of the best pizza anywhere.
posted by notsnot at 9:36 AM on November 18, 2019 [3 favorites]
We call it "bungalow". Maybe "gingerbread" based on the level of stone/brick decoration.
Incidentally, the cafe, Onesto, has some of the best pizza anywhere.
posted by notsnot at 9:36 AM on November 18, 2019 [3 favorites]
If you're looking for more info on the build-out of South City, the Missouri History Museum has a lot of info. They have an adjunct library over on Skinker, if I recall correctly.
posted by notsnot at 9:38 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by notsnot at 9:38 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks, this helps narrow it down. It seems they're definitely bungalows, but there are some details that are maybe more prevalent in St. Louis. Thanks to this thread I found this page, and while the houses look familiar they don't look like St. Louis. This gives me a lot to work with, and thanks for the museum suggestion.
I think it's a combination of the kind of brick used (the color of brick common in St. Louis vs the area of Cleveland we moved from is completely different), the prevalence of those sloped yards (St. Louis is hillier than I realized), and the houses appearing to sit higher out of the ground than in Chicago.
I grew up in a house (not in St. Louis) that was in a former floodplain, and it was up on short pillars so houses whose ground floors sit less than 10" above ground level look odd to me. Pure conjecture, but I wonder if the style in St. Louis is for the houses to be further up. Maybe it's a holdover from building houses higher due to floods basements became common, or maybe the water table in St. Louis is closer to the surface than in e.g. Chicago, so they had to be built a bit higher here?
Anyway, this gives me a good start.
posted by Tehhund at 9:45 AM on November 18, 2019
I think it's a combination of the kind of brick used (the color of brick common in St. Louis vs the area of Cleveland we moved from is completely different), the prevalence of those sloped yards (St. Louis is hillier than I realized), and the houses appearing to sit higher out of the ground than in Chicago.
I grew up in a house (not in St. Louis) that was in a former floodplain, and it was up on short pillars so houses whose ground floors sit less than 10" above ground level look odd to me. Pure conjecture, but I wonder if the style in St. Louis is for the houses to be further up. Maybe it's a holdover from building houses higher due to floods basements became common, or maybe the water table in St. Louis is closer to the surface than in e.g. Chicago, so they had to be built a bit higher here?
Anyway, this gives me a good start.
posted by Tehhund at 9:45 AM on November 18, 2019
I think I know what you're talking about, and we have those neighborhoods in Cincinnati as well. The houses in the link aren't exactly the brick ones in your links but the slopes and the steps are quite similar. I know there are neighborhoods that match what you mean exactly, but I can't think of where they are right now.
I don't know what the reasoning, if any, behind the landscaping is, but this is super common in the older areas of Cincinnati.
posted by cooker girl at 10:06 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
I don't know what the reasoning, if any, behind the landscaping is, but this is super common in the older areas of Cincinnati.
posted by cooker girl at 10:06 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
I acknowledge you are looking for a specific answer and not a book recommendation but A Field Guide to American Houses by Virginia Savage Mcalester addresses regional American architecture for houses and will likely contain more details about this style.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:06 AM on November 18, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:06 AM on November 18, 2019 [4 favorites]
A few notes on your follow up:
-The sloped yards in front are the spoils from digging out the basement foundations.
-The full front porch, only supported by columns in the corners, is just useful. You'll find that almost all of the porches are sitting atop coal cellars - St. Louis was heated by cheap Illinois coal to the extent that school was occasionally called off because it was still dark as night at midday - from the haze.
-The height of the front porch/first floor is also a function of this - any deeper meant deeper digs for the foundation.
posted by notsnot at 10:27 AM on November 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
-The sloped yards in front are the spoils from digging out the basement foundations.
-The full front porch, only supported by columns in the corners, is just useful. You'll find that almost all of the porches are sitting atop coal cellars - St. Louis was heated by cheap Illinois coal to the extent that school was occasionally called off because it was still dark as night at midday - from the haze.
-The height of the front porch/first floor is also a function of this - any deeper meant deeper digs for the foundation.
posted by notsnot at 10:27 AM on November 18, 2019 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: I totally read over the "Bungalow Belt" mention - while I do think there is a particular St Louis look, I bet I have spent time in the St Louis bungalow belt but not in many others, so maybe I got the impression that it's more unique to St. Louis than it actually is.
Those Cincinnati houses and yards are very, very close, so good find. But the houses are too tall, not enough of them are made of brick, and the porches are not quite right. So you are right that there are similarities, and at the same time it seems there really can be a distinctive style based on a place and time when the house was built.
posted by Tehhund at 10:32 AM on November 18, 2019
Those Cincinnati houses and yards are very, very close, so good find. But the houses are too tall, not enough of them are made of brick, and the porches are not quite right. So you are right that there are similarities, and at the same time it seems there really can be a distinctive style based on a place and time when the house was built.
posted by Tehhund at 10:32 AM on November 18, 2019
The St Louis Bungalow is, to my eye, a more ornate take on the Chicago Bungalow:
Google Map view of the Lindenwood Park neighborhood
The peaked door entry, the stone trim, the sharply sloping roofs, and the smaller front windows all distinguish it from the more utilitarian Chicago effort.
posted by stannate at 11:22 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
Google Map view of the Lindenwood Park neighborhood
The peaked door entry, the stone trim, the sharply sloping roofs, and the smaller front windows all distinguish it from the more utilitarian Chicago effort.
posted by stannate at 11:22 AM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
The brick and stonework specific to St. Louis is due to the geology of the area. What is now the grand staircase under the Arch used to be bluffs, like those seen under Bellerive Park and farther south. Those bluffs were quarried down to nothing to produce limestone "rubble" blocks which were used to build the foundations of most of the homes. The bricks came from innumerable clay quarries in South City - the wedge-shaped park between Kingshighway and Christy was the brickworks nearest the google map links, and off the top of my head I can think of at least three others that served other areas of South City.
posted by notsnot at 11:44 AM on November 18, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by notsnot at 11:44 AM on November 18, 2019 [6 favorites]
Denver also has examples of this, mainly in the Park Hill neighborhood. And yes, Craftsman bungalow is the general style. as notsnot noted above, the precise color/texture of brick is largely dependent on the dirt/clay being used locally to make it. Denver had relatively few trees, but lots of clay - and the apocryphal story told is that after the Chicago fire, Robinson Brick and Tile successfully 'lobbied' city council to insist that all houses in Denver be brick - hence no 'great fire' like many other western cities suffered. Dunno if that's true, but it worked out!
posted by dbmcd at 1:24 PM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by dbmcd at 1:24 PM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
Definitely a bungalow. My aunt lived in something similar in Dayton, Ohio.
One thing to note is that STL is famous for the quality and quantity of its bricks, so that could be part of what’s different. Other cities’ bungalows have similar plans but different finishes. My aunt’s, for example, was stucco.
posted by kevinbelt at 2:31 PM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
One thing to note is that STL is famous for the quality and quantity of its bricks, so that could be part of what’s different. Other cities’ bungalows have similar plans but different finishes. My aunt’s, for example, was stucco.
posted by kevinbelt at 2:31 PM on November 18, 2019 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 9:17 AM on November 18, 2019 [5 favorites]