Period I: The Walking City

1820 - 1869

Town Houses

The most common Walking City house type in St. Louis is the town house. Unlike rural buildings of the time, town houses were built in close proximity to one another, and their front facades are generally taller than they are wide. This narrow front was appropriate for the shape of new urban lots, allowing a house of substantial size to be constructed on a lot with often no more than twenty-five feet of street frontage. Typically, a townhouse could be a combined with several others to create a row, or be entirely detached, separated from adjacent structures by narrow gangways or sideyards. The town house type was popular in St. Louis until the early 20th century. To a great extent, the development of the City's residential buildings is illustrated in the evolution of the town house form through the 19th century.

The primary factor that influenced the town house plan was the social position of its occupant. Town houses sheltered people from all classes of society: working class town houses were usually multi-family tenements or flats; lower middle class people lived in attached row houses; while more prosperous families had detached town houses. Even the very wealthy built them, although they were of expansive size and lavish decoration.

High Style Town Houses

Federal Town Houses
The earliest town houses in St. Louis are those of the Federal style. They were formal in their austere ornamentation, usually built from brick or stone, with medium or low-pitched gable roofs and small, double hung windows, sometimes with six panes in top and bottom sash (six-over-six) or in later examples, four-over-four. Windows were embellished with rectangular or pedimented lintels. Entries were often recessed and stone stoops were prevalent: porches were relegated to the side or rear. Many rows of Federal town houses once graced the St. Louis downtown. Most of these have been demolished.

The Eugene Field House, at 634 South Broadway, constructed in 1845, was once part of a row of identical Federal style town houses. The three-story brick house is three bays wide and two rooms deep, with a side passage. The windows, which are six-over-six, and the recessed entry are set beneath stone lintels. The entry has sidelights and a transom. Decorative details include a stone watertable, corbelled cornice and Baltimore chimneys. When constructed, this row of houses was one of the most fashionable in the city. The Field House has been restored as a museum.

Greek Revival Town Houses
The Greek Revival style town house was never widely popular in St. Louis: today examples of the style are very rare. Like rural counterparts, the primary component is the temple front, which was often seen in grand, detached town houses. However, even in more modest representations, the traditional Greek Revival imagery could be found. Greek Revival town houses are most likely to be seen east of Jefferson Avenue, in the Carondelet or Old North St. Louis neighborhoods.

The house at 2519 Blair, in Old North St. Louis, is a typical St. Louis Greek Revival town house. The side passage house is two stories tall, three bays wide, and three bays deep. The recessed entry, crowned by a classical pediment, is positioned at the left of the front facade. Windows are two-over-two, probably a later alteration. One window has original exterior shutters, and it is quite possible all the windows did at one time. The major feature of the house is the front gable, which serves in the role of temple front. It has a pronounced wood cornice with large returns, highlighted with dentils.

The house at 6517 Michigan is another Greek Revival design. What distinguishes this two-story frame house is not a temple front: instead, the house uses the arrangement of three bays, tall, narrow windows and doors, and gabled roof to generate the Greek Revival character of the house. The first story windows, taller than those on the second story, give a verticality to the house that is similar to the role played by pilasters in more typical Greek Revival houses. Again, the pediment of the temple front is reproduced by a front gable with heavy cornice.

Renaissance Revival Town Houses
The Renaissance Revival town house was a relatively rare house type, with few examples built in St. Louis during the period of its national popularity, around the time of the Civil War. It is derived from the architectural vocabulary of houses constructed by the powerful merchant class in Italian city-states of the 16th century. Renaissance Revival houses are always of brick or stone, often somewhat austere rectangular boxes with little exterior detailing, except for elaborate window heads and less exuberant molded cornices. Decorative quoins at corners are a hallmark of the style.

The Henry Shaw City House, 1851, an almost prototypical Italian Renaissance Revival example, was designed by George I. Barnett. It was located at the corner of 7th and Locust Streets until 1891, when, as Shaw had requested in his will, it was dismantled and moved to its current site at the Missouri Botanical Garden. The three-story brick house has a low-pitched, hipped roof and recessed entry, which is emphasized by a pedimented surround. Windows on first and second stories also have pediments; those of the third story are arched. A two-story wing with arcade is attached to the south side of the house. An addition was made to the building in 1907, which replicated the original block.

Italianate Town Houses
The Italianate style was widespread in St. Louis buildings through the 1880's. Found in detached houses as well as row houses, the range of Italianate detail was wide. Distinctive features of the style are quoins (sometimes imitated in brick), pronounced cornices with paired brackets, and tall, narrow windows set under segmental arches. The new availability of prefabricated cast iron details for cornices and window heads allowed a wealth of decorative detail to be added to the humblest building.

The house at 1227 Sullivan, in Old North St. Louis, is a particularly fine example of St. Louis Italianate. The house is two stories in height, with three bays on the front facade. Cast iron is used for the lintels that decorate each window and door opening on the front, and for the wide projecting cornice with paired brackets. Windows are tall, two-over-two sash.

The two-family house at 1302-04 Warren Street, another Italianate town house example, is six bays wide, with centered entries. Windows are tall, narrow two-over-two sash (here with their original shutters). A delicate wrought iron balcony extends across the three center bays. The house has a pronounced, bracketed cornice and two symmetrically placed dormers on the gable roof.

Eclectic Town Houses
Not all houses built during the Walking City period strictly followed one stylistic format. The Campbell House, at 1508 Locust Street, was constructed in 1851. The house is three bays wide, three stories tall, and two rooms deep. The main block of the house appears to be a Federal town house, and the windows have rectangular stone lintels, a Federal attribute; but the tall, narrow proportions of the windows and the bracketed cornice show Italianate influence. The wood surround of the main entry, conversely, is taken directly from the Greek Revival. The house is now a museum; a modern addition for offices has been constructed at the rear.

Vernacular Town Houses

Federal Vernacular Town Houses Vernacular town houses displayed the same architectural styles as high style houses of the time, except the use of stylistic detail is muted, and floor plans are altered to accommodate more than one unit in the building. Few Federal vernacular town houses are left. Those that still exist are likely to be found in Old North St. Louis, Soulard and Carondelet neighborhoods. Most were demolished by commercial and industrial expansion in the earlier part of this century.

The row of town houses in the 1600 block of North 14th Street is representative of Federal vernacular town house design. The two and a half story brick row has the typical Federal elements: the windows are four-over-four, or six-over-six, with rectangular lintels above. The low hipped roof once had small, regularly spaced dormers; some have been removed. The simple corbelled brick cornice is characteristic of these early buildings. Each house in the row is two bays wide, with a door flanked by a single window, and contains two living units. The first floor apartment is entered from the front: the second floor by way of a porch on the rear. Tenants of the upper floor could reach the rear yard through a narrow, arched passage, called a mousehole. One can be seen at the left of the photo.

Italianate Vernacular Town Houses
Italianate vernacular town houses displaying the influence of the Italianate style were numerous in St. Louis during the Walking City period. Like the Federal vernacular, these houses were multi-family, and the expression of exterior decoration was restrained.

The Scott Joplin House, at 2658-60 Delmar Boulevard, is a four-family house, constructed about 1865. The Italianate vernacular building has six bays, with two sets of paired entrances, deeply recessed under round arches. Italianate influence is seen in the wood cornice with modest brackets, and the tall, narrow two-over-two windows under round arches on the first story and under segmental arches on the second. Urban House Forms

Other Urban Vernacular Types

Charleston Houses
A Charleston house is a unique house form in which what appears to be a three-bay house is in fact only two: the third bay is a wing wall, extended to shelter a two-story side gallery. The additional bay not only provided privacy for the occupants, but added considerably to the house's street presence. Entry was from the side; in a two-family house, stairs led from the gallery to the second floor unit. This house type derives its name from the city of Charleston, South Carolina, where it seems to have developed.

The brick house at 909 Geyer, in Soulard, has a door on the east end of the front facade, with a gallery behind. The building reflects its Federal roots in the corbelled cornice, and rectangular stone lintels. The second story porch enclosure is probably a later addition.

Gable Front Houses
Gable front houses have a gable roof, running perpendicular to the front facade, displaying a decorative gable end to the street, and may be of one, one-and-a-half or two stories in height. This configuration appears with several different floor plans. It evolved out of the Greek Revival architectural style, the most prominent feature of which was a large, front-facing central pediment. Placing the narrow end of the house towards the street was especially appropriate for urban areas where the lots were long and narrow.

The two-story brick house at 7120 Michigan, constructed about 1860, has on the first story an entry placed to the left, balanced by two long, narrow windows, their sills nearly reaching the ground. On the second story, three more windows are arranged symmetrically across the facade. Like most gable front houses, this one undoubtedly had additional classical ornament from the Greek Revival style, perhaps pilasters and window lintels, which have been removed or obscured by when the front facade was painted. The porch is a later addition.

Flounder Houses
The flounder, sometimes called a half-flounder, is a house type which appears to be unique to St. Louis. The flounder is a narrow house, usually two or two and a half stories tall, and one or two bays wide. Entry was most often from the side elevation, which sometimes had a two-story gallery. Since these houses were exclusively working class homes, decoration was limited, confined to segmental arched windows and perhaps a corbelled cornice. Flounder houses were especially appropriate for dense neighborhoods, where space was at a premium. They were often constructed as alley buildings, sharing a lot with as many as two larger tenement buildings. Flounder houses can be found in the City's oldest neighborhoods, Old North St. Louis, Hyde Park and Soulard.

The brick house at 3810 Kosciusko Street, in the Broadway-Marine neighborhood, is an unusual flounder house in that the roof is not a half gable, but a half gambrel. The house is situated with the gable end parallel to the street. The entry is on the side elevation, and flanked by two windows. The half story above has two dormers, and a delicate brick cornice with dentils. The enclosure which projects above the entry porch is not original.

The two-story brick house at 1825 South 9th Street in Soulard is a more typical flounder example. Like the house on Kosciusko, the narrow half gable end faces the street. There is a two-story side gallery, and a side entrance. The house is set well back from the street, along the alley.

The Back-To-Back Houses
A common house type in urban areas of St. Louis from 1830 through 1870 is the back-to-back house. These houses are comprised of two rooms aligned one behind the other. The front entry opens into the first room, which usually leads directly into the second, although there may be a narrow side passage. These houses ordinarily have a gable roof, with the entry at one end of the front facade, balanced by one or two windows.

The house at 3802 N. 25th Street is a detached, single family house. The recessed entry is located to the right of the front facade, with two windows to the left. The house has a gable roof with centered dormer, Baltimore chimneys, Italianate detailing, bracketed cornice and segmental arched windows. An unusual feature of this house is a projecting bay on the side elevation.

909 Allen Street is a two-family house; each unit has a four-panel door and narrow transom on the front facade, flanked by a single window. The building has a gable roof, with chimneys at each end.

Back to back houses could also be constructed in rows, like the Steins Row, in the 200 block of Steins Street. The house has German coursed stone construction, with six-over-six windows and flat arches. The row consists of four individual houses, each with two rooms. Three of the four units contain a single door with a window on one side; one has a central door flanked by two windows. Originally, each house had a small dormer opening into a loft area; some have been removed.

Narrow Front Houses
The narrow front house type was more prevalent during the Walking City period than is apparent today. Usually brick, with a hipped roof, the facade facing the street was only two bays wide, although the side of the building, which contained the entry, could be of considerable length. The brick house at 3833 South Jefferson is representative of this house type. The front facade has double hung windows and a simple corbelled cornice; the side elevation has pilasters between each window bay.