3 more St. Louis home architectural styles to note

Greek Revival-style architecture is easily identifiable by its columns, right angles and simple, bold details. Antique Homes Magazine calls it “the first truly American architecture,” adding: “Much building occurred during the Greek Revival period, caused by the industrialization, the railroad and the opening of the West, so the style can be found in every part of the country.” As this style swept the U.S. in the mid-19th century, St. Louis saw its influence in grand civic buildings such as the Old St. Louis County Courthouse, Missouri’s tallest habitable building, from 1864 to 1894. Another early example is the Bissell Mansion in the College Hill neighborhood. Built nearly two centuries ago, it was designated a city landmark in 1971. Similarly, the circa-1848 Chatillon-DeMenil House in Benton Park has housed several notable figures, including Odile Delor Lux, whose grandfather founded Carondelet, and Lee Hess, who bought the property in 1945 to explore the extensive natural cave system beneath it.

The row houses of St. Louis are numerous and iconic, and they’re not necessarily as widespread in other Midwest cities as they are in our neighborhoods. Typically built using the red brick deposited here by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, row houses were constructed to house many people in a small space as the city grew between the years of 1840 and 1860. They might not garner the same fame or notoriety as Greek Revival- or Shingle-style structures do, but the humble row house is a testament to St. Louis’ hardworking roots – as well as to the city’s most historic neighborhoods, namely Soulard, Old North St. Louis, LaSalle Park, Hyde Park and others. “Construction of the houses did not stop during the Civil War, and many from this time can still be seen in the city today,” writes Nathan Jackson for NextSTL. “One particular example is a row house located near the Lemp Brewery, which was constructed in about 1864, around the same time that the brewery moved from its downtown location. In spite of the war that was dividing the country, St. Louis continued to build row houses.”

Although Shingle style might call to mind a cliffside New England abode or an affluent Hamptons beach community, we have several examples of it in St. Louis, notably within the West Cabanne Place Historic District. The broad, tree-lined street just north of Delmar is a unique enclave, distinguished by its diverse range of architectural designs within a compact area. Several of the houses here were built by architects Theodore Link and Charles K. Ramsey, the latter of whom studied engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Ramsey was an architect for the 1904 World’s Fair; he designed over 100 buildings, including the one at 6015 West Cabanne Place. “Totally sheathed with shingles stained dark brown and free of applied historical detail, the house – with its gabled roofs and flush eves, jettied front and rear attic gables, multi-paned upper window sashes and its sober design – shows clearly the importance of 17th-century New England architecture to the Shingle style,” notes the National Register of Historic Places nomination form for the area. Ramsey designed and lived in the house across the street, selling it in 1892 for $20,000 to William Harris, president of the St. Louis Basket and Box Company.

Learn about three more architectural styles spotted in the Lou – Art Deco, Fachwerk and Flounder – at laduenews.com.