hello my name is nathan jackson and this is nathan's neighborhood history today we'll be
featuring the lasalle park neighborhood which comprises of two historical areas
both at one point known as old frenchtown the old frenchtown area consisted of
the julius soulard addition to the south and the daniel d page addition to the north
the first building that we'll be featuring is the saint vincent de paul catholic church the story
behind the church begins in the late 1830s when bishop joseph rosati wanted to dedicate a church
to the south of downtown to feed the ever-growing population of st louis to learn more about saint
vincent de paul's catholic church click on this video here this house was built in 1845 for a
guy named christian sheringhausen in the federal style christian sheringhausen owned this house for
a number of years it was rented out as apartments above and different storefront uses on the first
floor over time as you can see when you go along the side of the building it has a very very long
building and goes very far back on the street and actually has an alley house which was connected
to the back of the building back in about 1860. in about 1865 or so this building was sold to a
guy named polichec who operated a saloon out of the corner storefront between about 1865 and the
1890s later on it was bought by saint john nepamuk church it was used as an old folks home so this is
the saint john napamag church st john nepamuk church is the oldest bohemian catholic church
in the entire united states back in the 1850s soulard not only had a influx of a lot of german
residents but it also had an influx of many eastern european and central european residents
from different places such as hungary bohemia croatia and various countries in eastern southern
and central europe today bohemia is known as the czech republic they congregated in this area
and built their first wood frame church on this site in 1854 making it the first czech catholic
church in america the church actually grew quite a bit to the point that by 1870 they actually
had to build a larger church to accept the growing congregation and this church was built in 1870 by
adolphus druiding an architect from chicago who chose to build it in the gothic revival style
and you can see the gothic features on the church with its indentions on top of the buttresses the
church remained standing as it was for about 25 years and then in 1896 a devastating tornado which
damaged many many buildings in st louis actually ripped off the steeple and destroyed the entire
back of the church and so only the front wall of the church actually remains from 1870. the
back part of the church was actually rebuilt in 1897 along with the steeple behind us we have the
catholic school building which was built in different parts between about 1869 and 1884
and features Italianate style construction the church was actually downgraded from a parish
to a chapel in 2005 but it is still a functioning church twice a year they hold czech festivals here
at the church this building is the oldest grocery store building that still stands in the city of st
louis the original owner of this building was a guy named jacob fritzly who ran the grocery store
between about 1847 and 1850. he lived above the store fast forward into the 1850s and you have a
guy named tobias bloms who owned this building and tobias bloms actually owned this building
in the grocery store and he lived next door down the street at a building built in 1842 for bernard
middeldorf also at this same time tobias plums had a garden way out at brand and soda which he grew
all the fruits and vegetables and what not to sell in his grocery store this house here was built in
1856 for a wholesale grocer named matthias backer matthias backer originally built this house in the
greek revival style and you can see the features on the house that were greek revivals such as the
limestone lentils and the greek revival entryway in 1875 matthias backer decided to
update his house to the second empire style the second empire style features include the manstar
roof up top which in this case is a flared man-star roof which means that the roof itself
has a curved shape to it the house has been well preserved for many years and still retains many of
its original features such as this cast iron fence so this area here was part of daniel d
page's edition daniel d page was one of st louis's early mayors and in 1856 he subdivided this plot
of land a lot of the houses in this area were built before and around the time of the civil war
including the three row houses which i'm standing underneath these houses here are representative of
the vernacular style which was very commonly seen facing the north side of park avenue
so this building here is one of the early surviving row houses here in the city of st
louis and it was built sometime between about 1860 and 1864. the builders of this row house
were the saint louis mutual house building company which was one of the city's first
professional house builders who built many houses across the city and this is one of their earliest
known surviving examples it's a unique style of the italian group of styles it features cast iron
lentils above each of the windows as well as your typical bracketed cornice up top which is a known
feature of the italian style the row was thought to have been built by a guy named otto p koenig
who was one of the architects with the mutual house building company
and built the row most likely and also lived in it the road today is unique in that it is
one of the only examples of this particular form of the italian style still surviving in missouri
so in 1876 this corner at the end of the row had a man start added to the building
so these houses were also built by the st louis mutual house building company in 1863. two very
famous surveyors and planners in the city of st louis during the time of the civil war lived in
these two buildings we had charles p salamon and he was the st louis county surveyor he also had
a young protege named julius pittsman who was his neighbor who lived in the house directly behind us
julius pittsman is best known for his development of private streets around the city of st louis
his first private street was bent in place back in 1868 and when he planned out benton place he was
living in this residence right here he also went on to plan the vandeventer place in 1870 which
at the time was the nicest street in the city of st louis unfortunately that street has since been
demolished and replaced with the va hospital he also planned out many of the other private streets
in st louis such as portland place in westmoreland place washington terrace kingsbury place
and parkview as well as the compton heights neighborhood and the clifton heights neighborhood
he was well known for using curvilinear street designs to create a more
private feel to the streets so this building is a great example of a greek revival building
built in the heart of the city for a middle class family you can see it has the limestone lentils
the pitched roof and many of the other features typically seen with the greek revival style which
was pretty popular from about 1825 to 1865. this was built sort of toward the end of that period
as one of two twin houses in about 1861. we also have in between an 1894 house which was built much
later this house was built in 1861 for a guy named august lysa august lysa was a lumber baron and he
originally had his house down on broadway street and then decided to move up to this
area on morrison avenue back in 1861. he lived there for the rest of his life after his death
his daughters continued to live here his daughters were named henrietta and louisa and they continued
to live in this house all the way through about the 1920s fast forward to the 1970s and this house
was in pretty rough shape but a lot of the details were salvaged from other homes around the city and
put on to this house such as the cornice up top which was salvaged from a school in north st louis
so this is one of the many flounder houses that is located in st louis the flower houses get their
name from the flounder fish because they have one flat brick wall on one side of the house
and all of the features of the house are on the other side it is thought to have been brought over
by german immigrants in the 1840s and it remained popular until the 1880s one of the reasons behind
why flounder houses were constructed was in order to allow for water runoff while
the founder house was built very close to the neighboring house this house was built in 1866
in the italian it's style for a doctor named charles f house charles f how special because he
was one of the first german-born doctors to have a medical practice here in the city of st louis
and he immigrated to the area in about 1849. his house which was built in the italian style is
notable for being five bays wide and why this is important is because during the 19th century many
houses were taxed based on how much they fronted the street and so it's very clear that dr houck
had quite a lot of money as he was able to afford the taxes for a five bay wide home he lived here
for a number of years and had a medical practice and his sons also continued to live here after
his death they also ran a medical practice if you go around to the side of the building you can see
the rear wing of the building which is where they practice medicine this building also has a very
nice example of the stars which you typically see on the sides of st louis houses you can see
more on the history behind the stars over in the link up here so this is one of the remaining greek
revival style houses in the city that features the cast iron lentils as you can see with the
little peaks and it also features the transoms up top on the third floor so this home was home
to john pulis who was a part of the polis brothers cast iron manufacturing company the polis brothers
located themselves just down the street in about 1859 around that time is also when this house
was constructed for john poiss polos also had many brothers like for example william
pullis and thomas r pois who also helped with the polis brothers cast iron manufacturing company in
the early days they lived here in lasalle park before later moving to lafayette square in the
1870s and 1880s and 1890s a lot of buildings used many different cast iron details for
ornamentation including many right along the st louis river front which have now been demolished
for the st louis arch companies such as the polis brothers would design the cast iron storefronts
and facades that face the front of these buildings this is another example of the polis brothers
craftsmanship also built in 1859 in the greek revival style this example is actually a flounder
house it also features the street frontage where the building comes right up to the street and
has a walk-up entryway the building was built for a german grocer originally
so this is one of st louis's remaining vernacular style three-story buildings
and it was built in about 1865 originally this building was used as a grocery store and later
a dry goods store this house here was originally built in 1874 as a private residence one of the
earlier examples of the second empire style but in 1890 they decided to expand upon this building
and they created the cast iron storefront and the current front of the building in about 1890
the building also features a number of stained glass features as well as ornate cast iron work
back in 1867 a guy named robert j wilkinson who owned a barber shop in the area
lived in this particular flounder house which was built in about 1860
and at this time while many areas of st louis were very much segregated this area was primarily
populated by germans who were very welcoming and integrated the african-american community with
people like robert j wilkinson who lived here and over across the street in a demolished house
there was also a member of the clemorgan family who had been one of st louis's most prominent and
earliest freed black families to live in the city going all the way back to the 1700s so this house
is one of the few surviving three-story federal style homes left in the city of st louis only
about a dozen or so are left around the city this particular house was built sometime around 1860
for philip redker and philip redker was a brick maker and bricklayer here in the city of st louis
and st louis is well known for its red brick homes because st louis had very rich clay deposits and
all throughout the city homes were built out of brick especially following the 1849 fire
when after which they required that homes been built out of fireproof materials such as brick or
stone that coupled with the presence of abundant brick sources all around the city created a very
strong presence of brick homes all throughout the city of st louis so this house was built in 1878
for a cast iron manufacturer named ernst schluter he was a secretary for the christopher and simpson
cast iron manufacturing company and christopher and simpson best known for a lot of their
cast iron work that you can see in lafayette square as in 1893 they founded simpson place
meanwhile at that time uh their secretary ernest shooter was living here at this house
and as you can see the house has many cast iron features which would have been supplied by
christopher and simpson cast iron manufacturing company such as the cast iron lentils above
the windows and the many cast iron details that sit at the top of the house on the manstar roof
again my name is nathan jackson and thank you for watching this house be sure to like
comment and subscribe for more videos and up here we have the
soulard tour which covers the other side of the neighborhood also be sure to follow me on
facebook at st louis history and architecture be sure to take one of my walking tours
of which i give tours of six or seven different saint louis neighborhoods as well as
multiple tours of sioux and lasalle park thank you for watching and i hope to see you again next time
you